HISTORY OF TWELVE INCHES

Twelve Inches, formely known as Psycho Bitch, was born four years ago. During one hell of a party (which is what we like to do) Someone brought up the possibility of starting a new band. Marko, Juha and Pete were present during this conversation. After some more discussion we decided to give Vesa a call. (it was 2.20 AM..) And our band was born.

Together with Vesa A couple of years back, we had a band called Incomplete. In the beginning of the 90’s Juha and I played together in a band called G.P.M (Great Pimp Mountains) Also in the mid 90’s Pete and Juha played together in a punk oriented band called Teboil.


After a couple of weeks we got all of our things together for a practice session. And we started to think what kind of music do we want to play? We played mostly cover songs from KISS, AC/DC, Loudnes, and Skid Row in the beginning. It’s a good thing that only a handful of “outsiders” were able to hear those versions ….

After a couple of months we had our own songs. “Hangover Heroes” and “Teenage Queen” were some of the titles. We played our first gig in Ravintola Satumaa back in 1998. After that gig we played out several dates with bands like: Tehosekoitin and Nightwish. Back then our set list included mostly cover songs and 3-5 of our own.

In 1999 we took part in a band competition in Salo. We lost the number one place but came in second. After a brief discussion with competition judges, we decided that it’s time to change our name from Psychco Bitch to something else.

Then we came up with the name Twelve Inches. Some another suggestions were: Quick Wrist and Seven Up.

In the spring of 2000 we headed for the first time to the studio and recorded our debyt CD. Because of costs we choose a studio called Underground which was located in Espoo. After one LONG weekend we were ready with 6 completed songs.
“Teenage Vaseline” EP came out and it received some good reviews from the press:

SOUNDI MAGAZINE/TWELVE INCHES "Teenage Vaseline" mcd '00
"Kaverit soittavaa melodista hardrockia, jossa on pieni ripaus glamiä. Saatteessa mainituista bändeistä ennemminkin tulee mieleen Kiss kuin AC/DC. Sävellyksissä on vahvat melodiat ja niiden ympärille on löydetty sopiva kuorrutus. Biisit hyvin tasavahvoja. Tiukemmat jyrät, kuten vaikkapa Teenage Queen toki kulkevat räyhäkämmin, mutta muukin materiaali toimii. Soitto pelaa ja asenne on kohdallaan. Joten kyllä näillekin voi demosedän merkin jakaa."

Another review:

AORTTA MAGAZINE/"TWELVE INCHES: "Teenage Vaseline" mcd '00 (6.9.00)

Twelve Inches'in (ennen Psycho Bitch) nelihenkinen kokoonpano ponnistaa pääkaupunkiseudulta viiden biisin omakustanneminillään. Vakuuttavaa rockia asenteella ja haetulla imgolla. Vai mitäpä sanotte levyn nimestä "Teenage Vaseline", kansista, joita koristaa (teenage-) vaseliinipurkki, vihjailevasta bändinimestä ja sanoituksista, jotka kiertelevät aiheita "Hangover Heroes":sta ja "Teenage Queen":sta ja kehottavat "Oh baby please get on your knees"? Kaikkiaan sanoituksissa on jotain samaa kuin Bloodhound Gangilla, mikä ei kyllä välttämättä ole haettua. Biisit liikuskelevat jossain AC/DC:n maisemissa, vaikka muitakin vertailukohtia löytyy. Itselläni tuli mieleen ainakin Aerosmith ja sainpa hahmoteltua "Hangover Heroes":n alusta jotain kytköksiä Sentencediinkin ja kaiken kaikkiaankin kitaroissa esiintyy paikoin metalmaista raskasta otetta. Juha Ruohonen, mies mikrofonin ääressä, joitaa hommansa hyvin pystyen venyttämään ääntänsä ja kuulostaen hyvältä. Samoin taustalaulut natsaavat hyvin. Metallisteille (niihin kai suurin osa lukioistani lukeutuu) tätä ei suoralta kädeltä voine suositella, mutta rock'n'rolla roiskinnan ystäville kyllä. Yhteyttä saa otettua vaikkapa e-maililla: twelveinches12@hotmail.com ...
AH"

In year 2001 we had our biggest tour so far. We toured around the South of Finland with other bands. Some of them were: Junction, SO, The Raaste, Seven Down and Viides Vaihde. In the same year we also started our working ship with EMP (Earlypace Music Production) and were still doing new stuff under their advise.

Then the following year (2002) We played our first gigs in Helsinki which for us was a big thing. There were only 1-2 cover songs left on the set list.

And now it's 2003. As I’m writing this we have just finishing our new CD which should come out soon...

In 2004 we released our second album "12" and with that album came more touring accross the country.

Well finally it's March 2006 this page has something new to report. Here's brief summary of what we've done lately. We have been touring a lot, and there is more coming in the near future. We also announced our first ever lineup change when Vesa decided to quit the band in February. We now have "a new" drummer Tuukka who played with us before in the spring of 2005. The new lineup is now finished recording. The Third Twelve Inches -album "Rock'n Roll Show" will be released 18'th of November.

On fall of 2006 we started working with U.S producer Rickey Lee Saum but after some re-thinking we decided to let him go and start to work with Sampsa Astala (Kita from Lordi) instead. New album called "SixPack" will be in stores in the end of October 2008... The story continues..


Text by Marko and Lisa from Barneveld