User:Kerkkonen/sandbox

15 Minutes Before The Dive (often abbreviated as "15MBTD") is a pop-punk/rock band from Helsinki, Finland. The band consists of the lead vocalist Thomas Kirjonen, guitarists Janne Koski and Henri Salonen, bassist Tuomas Miettinen and drummer Mikko Huovila.

The band is often associated with pandas. According to them, the pandas were an inside joke that became a thing once they put pandas on the cover of their EP Fleece Is The New Black, and now they're ”stuck with them”.

Early years
The band was first started in the autumn of 2007 by the guitarists Henri and Janne whose former bands had been touring together earlier. They were soon joined by the rest of the members, who have played in bands such as Bleak, Radar and Collarbone.

Their first songs (?? WHAT SONGS HMM?!?!) were recorded at their rehearsal place in December 2007 and released in early 2008 on myspace where they received a lot of attention in a short amount of time.

The recording of their first EP Fleece Is The New Black started at Scandal Recording studio in the summer of 2008, and the EP was published as a digital download on the band's website in July. It included the songs "I'm Achilles (You're My Heel)", "Big Fish", and "Picture You".

Now
In the winter of 2011 [10?] the band signed a record deal with EMI Finland, and their first official single ”Heartbeat” was released as a digital download on iTunes and Spotify in May 2011. The filming of their first music video ”Running Man” took place in September 2011 and the song and video were released shortly after. The song (mixed by Joe Barresi ) quickly took the first place on Finnish radio channel Ylex's Most Wanted list and stayed in the top 10 for weeks.

Right now the band is recording their yet to be named debut album that is due to be released on May 2nd, 2012.

The band has also started a project in collaboration with a Finnish music-centered magazine, Suosikki. It's called "Cover of the month" and the first cover ”Titanium" (by David Guetta) was released in December.