Jaakko Nikko - Bass / Roo Chapus - Guitars / Juke Eräkangas - Drums

Started guitar at: 15
Food: Sushi, Pizza, Thaï, Saucisson
Drink: Coffee, Fruitjuices, Lonkero, Beer
Extra info: Guitarist without a cause
Good quote:"I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have."
- Thomas Jefferson
Other Bands: Would be nice if time
Thumb up: Caps, piercings, swiming, sauna, finnish life, Youtube, the 80's, MPV, Käpylä, hairless cats...
Thumb down: Alarm clocks, school, giant spiders, last minute cancellations...

Guitars:
Mayones Legend HSS
Mayones Legend Dirty Jeans
Gibson Melody Maker

Amps:
Killer Ant Bitmo
Rivera Rock Crusher
Rivera Clubster 50

Effects:
BBE Crusher
BBE Mind Bender
BBE Free Fuzz
Boss DD3
Boss NS2
Korg DT10
Rivera Dble Shaman

Acoustic / folk guitars:
Epiphone PR-350S
Fender Telecoustic

Bass:
Ibanez RoadGear Series - RD-600 HS

Strings:
ELIXIR Nanoweb 010-052

GuitarPicks:
Custom Brossard

Musical influences:
So many...

BIO:
Roo is a French musician/ producer based
in Helsinki, Finland. He started electric guitar in the early 90's at age 15 under Satriani’s musical influence. Former student of Laurent Brondel, he graduated from Music Academy International (former C.M.C.N-France) at 20. He worked after as a guitar instructor and joined differents bands and projects from acoustic duets to progressive metal... He toured around France and recorded a self produced MCD with Metal-Funk band X'Indies. Moved to center France to work in a music school as fulltime instructor (l'AtelierMusical) while performing with different local bands and projects. Back to Paris area, Roo had soon a break with music until he moved to Finland.
Then he started from zero in the samples and loops world of Electronic music. Encouraging start with one track reviewed by home-music’s reference magazine Computer Music and released as well on the cover DVD. Roo get back into guitar playing in 2004 composing and performing in different projects.
In 2006, he was hired by Stay Heavy Records band's Codeon as a session guitarist and toured the finnish metal venues around the country. In december 2006 Roo launched his official website www.rooguitar.com and while publishing columns,lessons (at GuitarMasterClass.net, Shred Academy, Guitar Tricks, Youtube etc...) and instrumental demos on the internet.
In 2007, he released with Shred Academy an instructional DVD "Creative Shred", followed soon by two CD methods and developing a guitar trainer CD-rom program: "66 licks" co-featuring well known neo-classical shredder Joe Stump. The amount of published works and contacts increased which led to endorsement deals in 2008 with SantaCruzLightWave, BrossardPicks and Elixir strings. As band's works were getting quiet, Roo decided to eventually nail down his solo album.
He hired Toni Paananen (Rock-Reversion-Malpractice-Spinefarm records) on the drums and produced a Heavy-groovy instrumental album: "Guitar Without a Cause", mastered at legendary Finnvox Studio (Nightwish-ChildrenOfBodom)...
Performing now as a genuine solo artist, Roo found the support of new endorsers, Mayones Guitars and Stan Hinesley Pickups. 2009 was spent working on his record label project: Mad Guitar Records to support the production of a modern rock compilation: "Melodic Soloists" featuring 17 instrumental artists... Roo lately took part of the albums "Around The World" (Guitarsnake) & "Guitar Addiction, a Tribute To Modern Guitar" (GEM) and is now performing clinics and gigs with the band while working on the upcoming studio album.
Roo has performed live in France, Finland and Estonia.

So, what is Roo?

" My solo project, instrumental guitar songs in Metal/Blues /Funk style with some Fusion and Country's influences. Since most of my musical experience was to play in other guys projects some music in a lot of different styles, I kept this "standby idea" of recording instrumental songs though I never believed having enough good material and skills to do something I'd be proud of. Nevertheless, I jammed a lot and get frustrated to find sometimes good chops and not using them. In 2004 and after a musical break, my interest for guitar music came back. I eventually decided to write down and record my favorite licks. It wasn't easy to change my jams into full songs that would make sense to me. I didn't want to play two cool licks and then fill the rest with a dull and empty melody. About one year later, I saw live finnish shredder Elias Viljanen. I felt at this very moment that "I have to go for it now..."
I try to mix hybrids styles and techniques like chicken-picking and tapping. Lead guitars with both clean and heavy tones. I like Moderato/Allegro tempos, so my melodies go quite fast. I like also weird scales/intervals so it can results some kind of humor. Before recording GWAC, I made several attempts to form a band around my project but I couldn't find competent or committed musicians. I eventually decided to secure a session drummer (Toni Paananen) and handle the bass myself which asked me bit of practice but released me from a lot of pressure. After the release of GWAC, I decided to go for a new chalenge, which was the release of "Melodic Soloists". Despite I gave up a bit on my guitar playing, that project was rewarding and opened new doors. Obviously I started to miss playing with real musicians so 2010 was the right time to try again to form RooBand..."