Brainstorm

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Members:

Renārs Kaupers

Jānis Jubalts

Kaspars Roga

Māris Mihelsons

Brainstorm (Latvian: Prāta Vētra) is a successful Latvian pop/rock band. The band became popular internationally in 2000, when they finished third Eurovision Song Contest with the song "My Star".

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The band was formed in the summer of 1989 in Jelgava, Latvian SSR by four former classmates - Renārs Kaupers, Jānis Jubalts, Gundars Mauševics and Kaspars Roga. Soon after, their underclassman Māris Mihelsons also joined the band. The title of the band was taken from what one old foreign lady said about their music, who characterized it as a "brainstorm".

In September 1992 Brainstorm released their first single "Jo tu nāc" (Because You Come) and finished 9th in the most popular Latvian music contest, the "Michrophones" questionnaire. After this came their first album, Vairāk nekā skaļi (More than Loud) 1993. The most popular song from that album is "Ziema" (Winter), which has also a video.

1994 was the quietest period in the band's history, although this year they released maxi-single Vietu nav (No Vacancies!) with only 500 copies.

In 1995 one of the band's earlier songs "Lidmašīnas" (Airplanes) became one of the most commercially successful single in Latvia and song of the year on Radio Super FM. The band also performed in Germany and the United Kingdom.

After experimenting with alternative music, Brainstorm returned to mainstream music and released their next album Veronika, which was very contemporary and popular with the teenage audience. The most popular songs from the album were "Dārznieks" (Gardener), "Apelsīns" (Orange) and "Lidmašīnas" (Airplanes), and the popularity of the band's concerts increased.

At the end of the year Latvian radio stations started to play the song "Tavas mājas manā azotē" (Under My Wing is Your Home), which was in the 1st place of the Latvian Airplay top for 9 weeks and became the biggest hit of 1996.

The next step to success was signing a contract with Microphone Records, one of the biggest record companies of Latvia and releasing the next album, Viss ir tieši tā kā tu vēlies (Everything's the Way You Want It) in 1997. The album attained gold status and made Brainstorm the most popular band in Latvia. The most popular songs of the album were "Viss ir tieši tā kā tu vēlies", "Mans draugs" (My Friend), "Neatgriešanās" (No Return) and "Tavas mājas manā azotē". Almost all the songs of this album became the band's unofficial hits because of the band's concerts and vocalist's Renārs Kaupers ability to entertain any audience.

Because of the vast popularity of Brainstorm members, they received offers to manage TV and radio shows and to take part in the musical performance of the theater Dailes - The Good Soldier Švejk, which became the most visited theater show in Latvia. Brainstorm's first international single was recorded in the year of 1998 in Germany with Volker Hinkel, the producer of Fool's Garden. This single is "Under My Wing", the English verse of "Tavas mājas manā azotē". The single was aired in the Baltic States and also other countries. Soon after this, the band was awarded Grand Prix of the Karlshamn music fest in Sweden.

In 1999 Brainstorm released their fourth album Starp divām saulēm and first international album Among The Suns, which is the English version of "Starp divām saulēm". The album was recorded in Sweden and Denmark. All five singles of the album - "Puse no sirds" (Half of a heart), "Starp divām saulēm" (Among the suns), "Lec" (English version - "Try"), "Prom uz siltajām salām" (Eng. version - "Ain't it funny") and "Tu izvēlējies palikt" (Eng. version - "Welcome to my country") reached the top of the Latvian radio charts shortly after release.

On 13th of May 2000 in Sweden, in only 3 minutes Prāta Vētra or Brainstorm became an internationally noticed band when they participed in the 45th Eurovision song contest. Their song "My Star" got the 3rd place among more than 20 contestants. "My Star" got in almost every country's radio airplays, Among The Suns can be bought in many countries.

In August of 2000, after more than 10-years of performing, The best of the Brainstorm '89-'99 was released that included band's most popular, interesting and unreleased songs.

2001 was the year of Online album release or, in the Latvian version, - Kaķēns, kurš atteicās no jūrasskolas; "Maybe" from this album is Brainstorm's one of the most popular international compositions. The video of the song was shot in Prague and it got into ethers of many countries of Europe. The second single "Waterfall" also achieved success, the video for which was shot in Finland. In Latvia, the most popular song of this album was "Spogulīt, spogulīt" (Mirror, mirror), which contains the lines of the fairytale about Snow White by Brothers Grimm.

The next album Dienās, kad lidlauks pārāk tāls or A Day Before Tomorrow was released in 2003. The lead singles of this album - "Colder" and "A day before tomorrow" ("Plaukstas lieluma pavasaris") - were produced by a famous German producer Alex Silva. The Main body of work was Produced by Steve Lyon , UK producer ( Depeche Mode, The Cure , Reamonn, Amplifier).The album was recorded in Germany and Denmark.

In 2003 Brainstorm warmed-up The Rolling Stones in their concert in Prague. Brainstorm presented a saxophone to Mick Jagger for his birthday.

In 2004, one of the band founders died on the night between 22nd and 23rd of May in a tragic car accident on the highway between Riga and Jelgava - bassist Gundars Mauševics or as his friends called him - Mumiņš.

Despite this tragic loss, the other band members continued working.

In 2004 Brainstorm and a well-known Russian band Bi-2 recorded the song "Skol'zkie Ulitsy" (Slippery Streets), which was included on their album "Inomarki", released on 2nd of March, 2004 and which reached number 1 on radio charts in Latvia, Ukraine and Russia. In 2005 Brainstorm released their album Četri krasti. The most popular songs of this album were "Četri krasti", "Rudens" and "Pilots Tims".

On 21st of August 2005, during their tour around Latvia, in the concert in Mežaparks, Brainstorm had a record audience number - 40,000 fans. It was also biggest audience in Latvia to attend a concert ever. All the concerts of this tour were sold in record time. At the beginning of 2006 Brainstorm released an English verse of Četri krasti - Four Shores. The lead single "Thunder Without Rain" became popular in most of Europe and had a big airplay on MTV Europe and VH1 Europe.

They received the MTV Europe Music award for Best Baltic Act in 2006.

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Video "My star"

[Layla90]

They have nice songs, I like this band (Y)

I think their most popular songs are "Maybe" and "Thunder without rain".

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Maybe

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Thunder without rain

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Vikhodnie

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Please avoid hotlinking. Hotlinking causes bandwidth to be taken away from the linked site, which then increases their server bill. You may upload images from a host site such as imageshack, imagevenue, photobucket, tinypic...instead. ~ Post Edited by Joe > Average

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by Vadim Galaganov