Man The Destroyer: Press

It was hot and a bit stuffy inside the Historic El Macombo, but the air was filled with riddled energy. As part of the charged up crowd we sat through several short film screenings view art from upcoming artists and listened to a wide variety of bands, all in anticipation of hearing Man the Destroyer. And we were no disappointed. Their hard hitting, edgy performance was reminiscent of heavy metal bands of the 80's. Lead singer and rhythm guitarist P.J. Bahramian belted out songs with conviction and raspy undertones. Formed in California at the famous Musicians Institutes (MI) on Hollywood Blvd., and now relocated to Toronto, this band is a blend of hard rock and heavy metal, " we are inspired by various bands such as Metallica, Guns and Roses, Motley Crew and Red Hot Chile peppers" says P.J.

While relatively new to Toronto fans, Man the Destroyer has played in many well known rock clubs in Hollywood California, including the Knitting Factory, The Joint, and the famous Whiskey. The band has been performing together for three years; Don Pena plays lead guitar as well as backup vocals, and he is also one of the group's song writers. Matt MacLean plays the bass and Mick Casmi plays the drums, both are new members to the band.

Man The Destroyer' frontman PJ Bahramian, has this to say on balancing education and his dream to create his perfect reality. "No matter what, my studies are always going to help my band. Music is my life, it is my livelihood, but it won't get me nowhere unless I have a business background." said Bahramian 27, the lead vocalist and rhythm gutarist for the hard rock band, Man the Destroyer. In 2003, while completing his bachelors in business management here at York University, Bahramian packed up his things and made the move to Hollywood where he enrolled in the Musicians Intitute. There, he studied vocals and guitar and met Don Pena, who would later become lead guitarist for the band. The boys played shows at various venues and created quite a fan base. a disicion, however, was made to move the band to Toronto to avoid what Bahramian calls
"the million band march."
Back in Toronto the boys met two other very important members: Matt Maclean, a bassist from Windsor, ands Mick Casmi, a drummer from Australia. The mixture of powerfull vocals backed by exuberant beats makes up this band's distinct heavy metal sound. Man the Destroyer works to create an authentic sound in attempt to form a connection with the audience and convey a personal message.

Where did your band name come from? "Man The Destroyer" is an honest opinion as to what we see ourselves as, and by "ourselves" I mean Mankind. Mankind is nothing but a destroyer in this day and age.

Tell us your story: "Man The Destroyer" was formed in Hollywood California by PJ Bahramian and Don Pena who met in a music school in Hollywood known as "Musicians Institute". PJ was studying vocal technique, performance and Music Theory, and Music Business, and Don Pena was studying Guitar, performance and Music Theory. During their first year at the school, PJ Bahramian was watching a guitar performance workshop while on his break and he noticed a guitar player who was as wild as PJ him self and liked the passion that he displayed. Later PJ approached Don and handed him a demo CD that he had put together with some song Idea's. They immediately started touching up the songs and within a month had put together a full band and "Man The Destroyer" was born. Together they played most of LA's hottest rock clubs such as the legendary Whiskey's, The Cat Club, The Key Club, The Knitting Factory, etc. After finishing their studies at MI, they planed to move the band to Toronto Ontario, hometown of the singer where they had been presented with a promotional deal with the Falcon Group. So in 2006 they made the move to Toronto but unfortunately lost their rhythm section due to the move. It was here where they met Mick Casmi a solid and hard hitting drummer from Australia who made the move to Canada to further his career as a drummer and Matt Maclean, a very talented bassist with the stage performance to go with it.

What are your songs about? We tend to tell stories with our songs. We don't pass judgment but rather observe what is going on and point it out. We believe that if we do our best to point out issues by being as honest as we can be about how we see them happen, the audience will be able to make the judgment them selves. The first step to stopping a problem that exists is realizing that it exists in the first place. We have faith in our fellow man and believe ignorance in just a stage.

Who does the song writing? PJ Bahramian and Don Pena Wright the bulk of the songs, and receive help with the arrangements from the other two members.


Who are your musical influences? This question is perhaps the one that will point out what truly makes our music unique. We all have very different musical influences that seem to share a common ground. For example PJ grew up listening to Guns N Roses, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Megadeth, Alice N chains, Don grew up listening to Death Metal but still was a big fan of Metallica, GNR, Megadeth, Mick was a big 80's "showmen" type of rock such as Kiss, Motley Crew, Skid Row etc., and Matt Maclean was a big fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus etc.

How do you describe your music to people? Honest, raw, with lots and lots of energy.

What image do you think you or your music conveys? The street smart kind of "gritty" image

What are your immediate career goals? Release a music video by the end of summer.

What are your long-term career goals? To have a long and healthy music career as a rock band with the same members. And when I say long I mean for decades. We are not here to be a one hit wonder but rather a life long music success that will allow our fans to grow with us.

Who helps you out? At the moment we have our friends who are of great help to us. For example our website was designed by Lisa Casmi a very good friend of ours (happens to be the wife of our drummer also), Sam Iranpoor who is our photographer (grew up with PJ), and off-course the big man upstairs.

What kind of deal are you looking for? That is a tricky question to answer, LOL. It seems we have to play hard to get with major labels. In the back of our minds we know that it would be a huge push for us to get signed but we understand the Industry and know that sometime you are better of doing it your self if you are capable.

Do you have a demo or press kit, or any promotional materials? We just released our debut EP named "Day of Grey". You can order it online by simply writing to manthedestroyer@hotmail.com for 5$ and must have a paypal account. You can also check out manthedestroyer.com for more merchandise and how to order them.

What live performance experience have you had? Any industry showcases? We where lucky enough to have gone through a music school such as MI where everyday is a live performance experience, it was part of the studies. It was to built endurance, and confidence and technique, and if you where lacking, believe me they would let you know. If you thought the judges at American Idol are tuff, just do a performance workshop at MI. We literally had to perform every day and along with that we where playing real venue outside in the clubs I mentioned every week. Mick and Matt had also had there share of live performance exp, and together here as a full unit we have been very active in Toronto for the past year. So it is safe to say that we are tuned up for a world tour.

Describe your live show: Lots of energy and synergy. We love connecting with the audience and making them move. We give it our all every time and the our major rule within the band is never hold back. Play every show as if it where the Air Canada Center

What's your discography? We produce our own material right now, but we had a lot of help from Soundwave Recording Studios with the mix and mastering.

How did you sell your CD's/Tapes? We like to keep it as simple as possible. If you have a Pay Pall account, all you have to do is first write us an e-mail with you mailing address (where to ship it to), and we will send you a message back saying that we are aware of your order, then you simply send us 5$ (which will go towards further projects) through paypal, and as soon as we get it we will put it in the mail for you. The second option is to check out or website at www.manthedestroyer.com and find out where we are playing live. We will always be selling our cd at shows.

Have you had any previous print or broadcast media exposure or reviews? We have had reviews done by Expose Magazine, Excalibur College Newspaper, and where featured artist on VPZ Radio last month.

Who handles your daily business activities? PJ Bahramian happens to be a graduate of York University Business/Marketing Program and is secretly pursuing his masters. That is our secret weapon. He is very business savvy. He handles all their Bookings, Bookkeeping, promotions, advertising etc. Until we can find a manager we can really trust, PJ Bahramian is the one handling these things.

Any last words: Never give up, never give in

on Oct 16 2007, Man the Destroyer was awarded best Rock EP by Toronto Exclusive Magazines. They also won best CD Art, and were nominated for Best Rock Song "The Blame", Best Rock Group, Best Rock Male Group, Artist of the year.