About FIRSTBOURNE

Band Bio

FirstBourne is a four piece arena rock/power metal band from Boston, MA, USA formed in 2016. The band is Mike Kerr on guitar, Ven Thangaraj on bass, Ian Raposa on vocals and Joe Bertola on drums. Specializing in captivating hooks and masterful musicianship, the band aims to revive the glory days of guitar oriented rock with a mix of current musical tastes and trends.

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Ian Raposa

Vocalist

Ian is a rock singer based out of Boston Massachusetts. He's been playing in the scene for the past 15 years, playing with his bands Twist of Fate, Vegas Automatic, and Without Warning. Ian has opened for acts such as Trapt, Crossfade, Queensryche, Symphonyx, Angra, and Puddle of Mudd.

He has won Best Rock Metal Act at the Worcester Music Awards in 2016, and Best Rock Performance at the International Portuguese Music Awards in 2017 for the Without Warning song, "Here I Stand". Also in 2017, Ian and his band Without Warning released their debut record Burning Skies. Ian has played at various music festivals including the Vans Warped Tour, New England Hardcore Metal Fest, and Rock and Shock. Ian joined FirstBourne in August 2018.

Mike Kerr

Guitarist

Mike Kerr is a Brazilian born instrumental rock guitarist and composer residing in Massachusetts, USA. Influenced by heyday of guitar oriented rock of the 80s, Mike pushes the envelope as solo artist with his profound technical wizardry of the guitar molded to catchy and easily digestible songs. Mike Kerr is full of challenging spirit, fiery determination, inexhaustible energy and endless respect to all he works with.

Mike recently has returned from a workshop tour in Brazil, the biggest music Trade NAMM show in California (USA), and has done workshops in Sweden. In addition, Mike's career recently has been highlighted with nominations and an award by International Portuguese Music Awards (IPMA). In 2016, the title track of Mike's new CD, "The Truth of the Lion", was awarded in the category of Rock Performance and nominated for The Song of the Year. "45 Days of Summer" was nominated in the Instrumental category. In 2017 Mike's songs were once again nominated by IPMA: "My Choices" - Best Rock Performance, "The Love of Playing" - Instrumental Performance.

A recognized CD, The Truth of he Lion, is a collection of carefully crafted songs that connect directly to the listener using a soft touch and soothing orchestral accompaniment. Listening to The Truth of the Lion, one quickly understands that it is all about the love of playing reflecting a growth of musical maturity and perfectionism. The Truth of the Lion is a melodic version of his 1st CD, The Fire which showcased Mike's technical prowess with a set of fast-paced high-energy songs. With his emotionally charged music and performances, coupled with an easily approachable persona, Mike creates close bonds with his fan base, which spreads not only across United States, but also to Brazil, China, Sweden, Germany, Hungary, Mazandaran, Portugal and Canada.

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Ven Thangaraj

Bassist

Born in India, Ven plays bass in FirstBourne, Mike Kerr Group and guitar in DragChain, a 80s metal project and Hostilian, a progressive metal band based in Hyderabad, India. Influenced by Iron Maiden and hair metal on MTV, Ven started to play guitar on a pawn shop special while in college. After college, music factored very little until Ven joined forces with Mike Kerr in the Mike Kerr Group in 2013. The MKG is an instrumental hard rock band performing regularly around the Boston area. With the addition of Adrienne Cowen in 2015, FirstBourne came into existence. In parallel, monthly business travel to India exposed the lively and growing metal scene in India sparking the formation of Hostilian with an EP set for release in Fall 2016.

Ven has engineering degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana. Ven is the CEO of several companies including Radiant Sage, Radiant Data Care, Reserve Dine; Artist Relations/Business Dev for Vivid Amps and serves as an advisor for www.clearight.com, and Radiant Real Estate.

Ven resides in the Boston area. Ven enjoys playing ice hockey, reading biographies, listening to audio books, sleeping very little and living the Motorbreath" life.

Ven plays Strandberg Guitars, Wing Instrument bass guitars, SantoAngelo cables, Joyo Pedals, BIAS FX Amp/Cab modeling by Positive Grid all running through Vivid amps and cabs.

Joe Bertola

Drummer

Born in Brazil, Joe Bertola started playing drums when he was 14 years old. After a year, he was playing events and night clubs in his home town of Florian¨®polis, SC.

Three years later, in 2002, he joined the metal band called Still Life and recorded his first album. Still Life achieved moderate success opening for bands like Sepultura, Angra, Dr Sin and Edguy. In 2004, he was invited to play with Anderson Sartori, a guitar player and musical producer from North Carolina. Joe moved to USA and recorded an album with Anderson with a subsequent 8 month tour. They were voted the best metal band in North Carolina.

Joe moved to Boston to study drum performance at Berkeley College Of Music. To support himself, he played in several bands and artists on the Brazilian scene and worked as a carpenter's apprentice. In 2012, he joined the Mike Kerr Group project. Mike Kerr Group played all over the Boston area and toured on west coast in 2014. A few months after the tour, he decided to leave the band to dedicate his time to his new construction business and focus on entrepreneurial success. In 2016, Joe rejoined the Mike Kerr Group and became a member of First- Bourne.

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