Mina and The Taken

Brought together by fate and their love for great rock music, the members of “The Taken” represent over 25 years of performing and recording experience. “The Taken” is comprised of lead vocalist, Mina, guitarist Michael Nott, formerly of Deja Vudoo, Dan Rider, formerly of Drop of Grey, and Tony Pichler, formerly of Deja Vudoo.

Mina has been writing and recording music with Jason Rubal of Seventh Wave Studio, Harrisburg, PA for over six years and has performed at venues in the MD/WV/PA area. Some these venues include, The Sunoco Center in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, The Java Club in Wiley Ford, West Virginia, Dante’s in Frostburg, Maryland and many others. Mina has been featured on multiple Compilation CD’s for Lollipop Magazine and RNR Radio, and has maintained top chart ratings on many internet music sites such as Soundclick.com, Audioexposure.com, and Theirmusic.com. Her music is available on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and Napster.

Michael Nott is a self taught guitarist who has been performing for over 25 years. Michael has opened for several national acts throughout his successful career and was awarded “Best New Band” at the Harrisburg Online Music Awards with his former band, Deja Vudoo. Deja Vudoo was awarded CD of the year in 2008 for Scratching the Surface. Michael is an accomplished musician that brings great experience and musicianship to this new project, “The Taken”.

Dan Rider, co-founder and bassist of the popular Central PA band, Drop of Grey, has been playing bass since he was 15 years old. He has opened up for several national acts including, 12 Stones, Day of Fire, and Family Force 5. Drop of Grey was nominated and won Best New Rock Band at the 1st Annual Doctor’s Office Awards (now known as the 717 Awards) and has been nominated for several other awards in the Central PA area. Dan’s talent as a bassist reflects in the success in his past projects, and continues to reflect in his new band, “The Taken”.

Tony Pichler is a skilled drummer trained by highly talented instructors, Kim Plainfield and Sandy Gennaro of the Drummers Collective, in New York City. Tony has had the pleasure of teaching up to 25 students per week and created his own instructional book entitled, “Creative Drumming”. Tony has played in a variety of local bands and is a former member of the award winning band, Deja Vudoo. His technical execution and keen sense of rhythm makes him the driving force behind the collective that is “The Taken”.

We have been together since February 2009. We recorded our 3 song self-titled CD @ Seventh Wave Studios w/Jason Rubal in August 2009. One of the songs, "Toxic Beautiful", was played 5 consecutive weeks in November 2009 and 2 weeks in February 2010 on Maria's Under the Radar Show on 105.7 the X in the Harrisburg, PA area.

We have been main support for the following national acts: Ryan Star from Rockstar Supernova, Future Leaders of the World (2 times), and the Black Veil Brides. We have also done shows with regional acts Bob and Hierosonic and were part of the 105.7 the X's Winter X Games @ Ski Roundtop in February 2010.

In June 2010, we recorded our new single, "Parallel" @ Seventh Wave Studios w/Jason Rubal and it has been played on Maria's show on 105.7 the X for 11 consecutive weeks from 7/18 through 9/26/2010, This song also received airplay on 99.1 and 104.9's Homegrown Rocker show hosted by Jim Price in the Altoona/Johnstown PA area on 8/1/10 and most recently on 10/3/10.

In addition, "Parallel" was played on 101.5 Bob Rocks' Homegrown Stash show on 8/1/10 and on 9/5 and 9/12/10 on 97.3 The River's, Open Mic Night. "Parallel" is also the featured MP3 on the HbgOnline website. We released our self-titled 4 song CD, which includes "Parallel", on 8/13/2010. We also released a 10 song acoustic CD featuring all of our originals on 9/5/2010.