We have to admit to a high degree of geekitude on this one. Our music is more cerebral than the usual "girls, booze and bikes" sort of rock, so we were looking for something that reflected that. Initially we looked in psychology and neuroscience texts, but couldn't agree on anything. Turning to a well-known search engine, a 'Strang Quartet' - a mathematical device used for simulation braincells - popped out. The musical allusion was there, as well as a pun on 'strange'. And finally it was a bit like Douglas Adams' "4th book in the trilogy" quip - being a quartet with only two core band members.

For the better. And worse. People download what they like now, but that kind of shuts out the tracks that you dislike at first but grow on you - which is the beauty of the album format. On the other hand, it's so much easier to gain access to a potential fanbase without creepy A&R men deciding your fate. And on my third hand, now we're in a vast sea of other people doing similarly, and it's hard to stand out!

What, for megabucks and groupies? Yeah, I'd give it a go (smirks).

Martin and Julian met in the 1990s in Cambridge. At the time Julian was messing about with electronic music on a rather weedy computer setup, but Martin was impressed and they started making sounds together. After buying more second-hand keyboards and MIDI setup than he could afford, it all started coming together... until work dragged Julian away from Cambridge.

In 2003, he returned - now with a "proper" PC recording setup, and it's all flowed from that really. We've had an enjoyable and creative year or two, long may it continue.

Andy Mazur joined us for 5 songs in 2006 playing bass & backing vocals.

Amos Willbond joined us in September 2009 to play guitar and a bit of backing vox. He's got some wikkid metal chopz, innit?

In a phrase: progressive rock. Pink Floyd - bigtime! Hawkwind (trivia: Julian had guitar lessons from Huw-Lloyd Langton once!) Marillion; Tangerine Dream; Deep Purple; Porcupine Tree; Tool; Pain of Salvation; Ozric Tentacles; Jean-Michel Jarre; Patti Smith; Lou Reed; Cassandra Wilson; Jimi Hendrix (of course!); Stevie Ray Vaughan; Jimmy Page.

Jules: Blackford Hill in Edinburgh. Many memories...

Hardware:
3.2GHz i7 Pentium PC, 6Gb DDR3 RAM, 1066MHz FSB mobo, 3x80Gb SATA HDD, CD/DVD R/W
M-Audio Delta-44 PCI sound module with breakout box.
Focusrite Liquid Mix 16 audio DSP.
External 500Gb USB HDD for backup.
Line 6 Pod XT Live for DI guitars
Line 6 Bass Pod Live XT
Fender Stratocaster guitar
Yamaha Pacifica guitar
Gibson Les Paul guitar
Roland V-Drums
Mapex M-birch Fusion acoustic kit / Samson mics
Shure SM58 mic
Behringer vocal processor
M-Audio studiophile monitor speakers
Adrenalinn II
Digitech whammy pedal
Ibanez Blazer Bass

Software:
Windows Vista 64 SP2
Cubase 5.x
Wavelab lite
Spectrasonics Trillian
Spectrasonics Triogy
Spectrasonics Atmosphere
Spectrasonics Omnisphere
oZone 4 mastering tools
TC-Helicon Voice processor
Steinberg Mastering plug-ins
BFD2 Drum Module
Adobe Audition 1.3 audio editor
All the half-decent free VST plugins I can find