// Band History, Roster & Archives
Arizona Industrial Music // The Strand // Est. 1992 // Phoenix, AZ
The Strand is an Arizona based industrial group. Dave Strand formed the band in 1999, though his roots in industrial music stretch back to 1992 on an Amiga computer in Vernon Hills, Illinois. The band's style spans industrial, EBM, electro-industrial, and aggrotech. Current members: Dave Strand, Jessica Savage, Seth Ludeman, Ben Thompson, Scott Levy, Steve Laskarides, and Bob-E.
Founding member David Levy started creating music on his Amiga 1200 computer in the early 1990’s in Vernon Hills, Illinois — a suburb of Chicago — under the original project name DFMA. Using OctaMed 8-bit sequencing software with a DR660 drum machine and a Mackie 1202 mixer, his songwriting was heavily influenced by the industrial music coming from the Wax Trax record label in Chicago. Shortly after, he began collaborating with friend Arman Bastani under the band name Ascension Descension. They would write several industrial songs highlighting paranormal phenomenon with topics such as UFOs, alien abduction, spontaneous combustion, ghosts, and the Loch Ness Monster. As early as 1992, Dave began producing music as The Strand instead of DFMA, basing the new name off of a philosophy on perspective he had regarding a “Koosh” ball (see the Kooshian Philosophy). In 1999 Dave moved to Arizona and took the stage name, Dave Strand. Shortly after, The Strand was officially created. The Strand’s first members were Dave Strand, Randall Hampton, Kimberly Brown, Steve Laskarides, Neal Parker, Scott Levy, and Jeremy Reich.