MINTO is a five piece rock band shouting out harmonies with toe tapping pace. The story so far is not a simple one. There have been a lot of changes to the band over the years, so lets start from the beginning. Kalvin, Evret, and Ryan began jamming while they were attending Vancouver Film School in 2002. Their first live performance was a Belle and Sebastian cover song, which they totally ruined. After that, the boys decided to start writing their own material and late one night wrote Her Eyes, a song they still play today. They also called themselves "the Smokes". After a full year of jamming, the Smokes finally nailed down a semi-solid line up of friends and began gigging around Vancouver to some success.
In 2006, the Smokes released “Fields and Factory Floors”, which was voted one of the best local albums of the year by Nerve Magazine. In 2007, long time friend and Smokes bass player Graham Myrfield decided to leave the band to focus more on his own band, The Stumblers Inn. In 2008, wonder woman Suzy Easton joined the band on bass guitar and in 2009, long time friend and ex-bandmate Jimi Cuell jumped back behind the drums. After a long debate, while recording at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the band changed their name to MINTO. They decided to change their name due to factors including that there are a million bands called the Smokes and that MINTO is one of the first songs the band wrote together.
So, out of the ashes of the S …
MINTO is a five piece rock band shouting out harmonies with toe tapping pace. The story so far is not a simple one. There have been a lot of changes to the band over the years, so lets start from the beginning. Kalvin, Evret, and Ryan began jamming while they were attending Vancouver Film School in 2002. Their first live performance was a Belle and Sebastian cover song, which they totally ruined. After that, the boys decided to start writing their own material and late one night wrote Her Eyes, a song they still play today. They also called themselves "the Smokes". After a full year of jamming, the Smokes finally nailed down a semi-solid line up of friends and began gigging around Vancouver to some success.
In 2006, the Smokes released “Fields and Factory Floors”, which was voted one of the best local albums of the year by Nerve Magazine. In 2007, long time friend and Smokes bass player Graham Myrfield decided to leave the band to focus more on his own band, The Stumblers Inn. In 2008, wonder woman Suzy Easton joined the band on bass guitar and in 2009, long time friend and ex-bandmate Jimi Cuell jumped back behind the drums. After a long debate, while recording at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio studio in Chicago, the band changed their name to MINTO. They decided to change their name due to factors including that there are a million bands called the Smokes and that MINTO is one of the first songs the band wrote together.
So, out of the ashes of the Smokes, came MINTO, a band with the same song writing mentality of the Smokes, but more Rock and Roll then Alt. Country. Concentrating on writing songs from the heart, then performing them from the heart, MINTO just loves to play for you. Their new album, which was recorded with Albini this February, is titled “Lay it On Me”, and is set to be released this summer but cbc radio 3 and the internet world has been in for a treat. Some songs have been pre-released (streaming only) online and you can find them here at our band profile as well as on Myspace.
