Tarraska

Tarraska are a new hard rock band from the south coast of England. The core of the band gigged acoustically from 2014 and steadily wrote and played their original material. This included hundreds of performances at a multitude of venues and a major festival appearance. As they started recording in 2019, the tracks demanded a heavier sound and TARRASKA was born.
Their original electro/acoustic duo was formed in May 2014 by lifelong friends Ben Parker (29, Lead Guitar) and Jack Lande (26, Vocals and Guitar).
They had a serendipitous start, coming about as a bit of an accident. Ben was the guitarist in a jazz combo with a gig booked at a prestigious venue in Sandbanks, Dorset. When the female singer pulled out at short notice, he asked his friend of 18 years, Jack to step in and learn 30 jazz standards in 2 weeks! Jack was more than happy to help his mate out and they quickly re-designed the whole set to suit Jack's voice and their acoustic duo was born.
From 2014 they played sets of mostly crowd-pleasing covers, spanning a range of genres. Their popularity got them invited to play at better venues and to make live appearances on local radio, requiring them to write and perform original songs. They began the writing process in 2016 and immediately realised that their influences (and therefore their own music) directly mirrored their shared musical history and tastes of hard, heavy, classic and modern rock. One song was even finished in the back of the car as they parked for a local radio show!
In 2016 they started gigging their originals separately from their covers circuit. As an acoustic/electric duo they played at a number of local music ‘institutions’ like Chaplins (Boscombe), Lighthouse (Poole), Railway Inn (Winchester), The Festival Sessions (Southsea) all resulting in festival appearances including 2019’s Victorious Festival (which won U.K.’s Major Festival of the Year award) on the same bill as Fun Lovin’ Criminals and others.
By the end of 2019 they had played more than 300 gigs in all manner of venues - pubs, clubs, restaurants, festivals and at private events.
Tarraska’s musical style is a blend of classic and modern hard rock, focusing on heavy riffs with accessible melodies and lyrics. Ben’s lead guitar and solos have been described as ‘sublime’ and Jack’s rhythm guitar as displaying a ‘deep musicality and pinpoint timing’. Jack is also an enigmatic frontman with a voice that people actually stop to listen to.
Their influences are wide-ranging and include Alter Bridge, Slash, Metallica, Iron Maiden, Foo Fighters, Van Halen, Tremonti, FFDP, Guns N Roses and a multitude of others. Tarraska’s vision as a band is to blend their disparate musical influences in their debut album (preceded by a number of singles) and bring their music to the amazing rock audiences and community, hopefully leading to tours in Europe and beyond.
Tarraska’s 2019 plan was to independently release a series of singles, followed by a debut album, but COVID lockdown hampered that process. ‘Trailblazer’, their debut single was recorded pre-lockdown and then mixed, mastered and released during the initial pandemic. The recording of the subsequent tracks had to be put on hold until August 2020.
Tarraska eventually got back in the studio and released their second single, ‘Renegade’ on December 12th 2020.
The second U.K. national lockdown again put their ongoing recording process on hold until 2021 when Tarraska were able to re-enter the studio with a new drummer, Allan Varnfield. December 2021 saw the release of the third Tarraska single, ‘Prose’. The fourth single 'Getting Out Alive' was released in early June 2022 and has achieved over 1000 radio plays to date, including a three week run on the Jonny Doom show on Kerrang! Radio.

The full debut album 'Tarraska' was released on 17th of June 2022, winning 'Album Of The Month' for June 2022 on the influential Great Music Stories website and radio station and going on to win 'Album Of The Year' for 2022 on the Rock Queen Reviews website.

2022 saw Tarraska take to the stage as a 4 piece band with Allan Varnfield on drums and Oliver Lande on bass. Gigs and appearances will be announced in short order through their website and social media channels.