"We're gonna start a band and you're going to sing for us."
"Ok."
As all the best creative projects are born, a drunken conversation sparked the inception of Philadelphia's Striga. Drew Elliott and Yanni Papadopoulos had been plotting to play together, when they brought the idea to get a project going up to Jodi Cachia.
Unbeknownst to the pair, Jodi had been keeping an eye out for just this kind of project. As the actress for King Diamond, her love of performing had grown and she was anxious to bring her vocals to center stage. As a fan of Yanni's phenomenal guitar playing and his band, the long running West Philly rock heroes, Stinking Lizaveta, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.
Drew brought forth to the table bass riffs that combined heaviness of doom, grimness of early metal and groove of hard rock and, by bringing in Yanni's psychedelic riffing and whaling soloing, laid down the foundation for Striga's style. All that was needed was one final ingredient...
Alexei joined Striga on drums in February 2004, and the quartet was complete. The band started rehearsing and writing their first batch of songs, and in September performed their first show. In the next 7 months Striga played a dozen of gigs in Philadelphia and now, armed with their first recording, a five song self released demo, they are hitting the ground running...
