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Tantric

Friday 6pm - 7:30pm

Tantric is an American rock band from Louisville, Kentucky. The group was founded in 1998 by Todd Whitener, Jesse Vest and Mat Taul after they left Days of the New, and joined forces with vocalist Hugo Ferreira.

After leaving Days of the New in November 1998 guitarist Todd Whitener, bassist Jesse Vest, and drummer Matt Taul reached out to Massachusetts native Hugo Ferreira (formerly of the band Merge) in early 1999 to see if he would be interested in starting a new project together. The former Days of the New members had previously met Ferreira during a tour and admired his distinct baritone voice. By March that year, the four had their first practice together upon Ferreira's move to Nashville. The band started under the name C-14 but soon changed their name to Tantric. With the help of friends in Louisville radio, the band quickly gained local exposure.


During an interview Ferreira commented on the band's formation, saying: "We were managed by the same company at one point when I was in a band called Merge and they were in Days of the New. We knew each other and actually toured together a little bit. I was ready for a change, and they got fired from the Days of the New gig and were looking for a new gig, too. I came down and sang with them, and it was real natural. Everybody got along really well, so we were like, 'Hey, we should probably call this something.' We called it C-14, which was the original name of the band. After that we decided to come up with a better name.

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