Fintan Murphy – Lead & Harmony Vocals, Percussion, Acoustic Guitar

Fintan has been around music all of his life. From about grade three, he participated in school choirs, and musical performances all through grade school in Edmonton. Fintan has been involved in church choirs and folk groups at various stages of his life and right now plays guitar and sings in a small family based group at Sunday Mass.

In grade school, Fintan was a member of the Columbian Boys Choir (five years). He went to summer music camps in Camrose Alberta with his brothers and friends from the choir. The Edmonton Opera Association recruited members for the Children’s Chorus from the Columbian Choirs and Fintan was selected to perform in several operas at the Jubilee Auditorium. In 1979, Fintan joined a co-ed group of young Edmonton choir members to sing with ABBA on their Voulez-Vous tour (song-I Have a Dream). Over the years, Fintan has developed an appreciation for many forms of music, song and the arts in general. He is a fan of many artists and bands. He has an interest in modern and traditional Celtic music, mostly due to his heritage (Irish) and the fact that he enjoys Pubs.

Today Fintan is a proud Acoustiholic and enjoys singing in harmony and experimenting with vocalization while indulging in a refreshing beverage. He has been practicing his guitar playing skills and has begun to play several songs with Vinny and RIK as the Acoustiholics move toward a more diverse sound utilizing other acoustic instrumentation – A unique trait of the band in an age of canned or electronically produced music…

Vince (Vinny) Anderson – Lead & Harmony Vocals, 12-String Guitar, Harmonica, Accordian

Vince has a diverse musical background. Starting at age 4, Vince was immersed in the Yamaha music method (stunningly revolutionary in 1967) and went on to classical piano training through the Royal Conservatory of Music until age 16, achieving Grade 9 RCAT, with music history and harmony theory included.

And then it all fell apart.

Starting with extremely lucrative (for a 15-year-old) gigs, doing lounge stuff, Bar Mitzvahs and other functions, Vinny started to enjoy playing music for dough. Meanwhile Vinny’s musical experience broadened to include flute, drums and the first taste of synthesized music (this was the mid-70’s after all). This all came together in 1979 with a cool gig, as underaged musical director for the Wellington Park Variety Show.

The 80’s were really weird to Vinny. A couple of gigs with garage bands after high school added to his musical experience. During this time, a four-year joyride through the University of Alberta resulted in a hearty laugh, a taste for cheap draft but, alas, no degree. However, the enforced financial straits encouraged him to adopt a new instrument – the guitar. Six years of shiftwork at his first real job (AGT) gave Vinny lots of solitary time to polish his new craft. During this time Vinny met RIK through mutual acquaintances, and eventually met Fintan through work.

During the early 90’s a wave of frantic corporate downsizing propelled Vinny into the IT industry with great fanfare, eventually landing him this really sweet gig with a major computer services company (rhymes with “I See Them”) despite his complete lack of education or qualifications. At the same time, the Acoustiholics were born (see "In the Beginning" on the Home page) and Vinny got to exercise his talents with guitar, voice and bar tab to the max. A treasured memory of this era was a two-week jaunt through the UK and Ireland with Fintan, sampling the wines, meeting the countryside and roaming through the people.

Besides poking fun at Fintan in particular and the Irish in general, Vinny’s current role with the band is to drive Fintan around to gigs and try to keep some semblance of musical structure going. For instance, every Acoustiholics song begins with Vinny’s familiar “and a one-ticka-two-ticka-one two three four”. Vinny hopes to expand the band’s scope into more and better instrumentation, digital recording and shameless e-business ventures in the very near future.

Richard (RIK) Dmytryshyn – Lead & Harmony Vocals, Acoustic-Electric Guitar

Music has been a large part of RIK's life for as long as he can remember. From experimenting with the family Orcana organ (no cracks about playing with my organ please!) to various instruments through the course of school (recorder, ukulele , french horn, trombone, etc.) It was RIK's oldest brother (Dennis) that first got him interested in playing guitar, RIK soon took his aptitude for music much further.

RIK got his first guitar from Dennis on his tenth birthday (an old Sears electric), when he was older RIK saved enough money from his part time job to buy a used electric from a local music store. RIK's love for guitars led to him acquiring an diverse collection of electric and acoustic guitars including a Flying V (copy, not a Gibson), Explorer (again a copy), Ibanez ST50, Stratocaster (a real Fender), Kramer/Ferrington 12-string Acoustic-Electric (this one recently bit the dust). Any way you get the picture, RIK was solidly into guitars.

RIK played in several garage bands starting with Rob 'n' the Hoods; a band that managed two paying gigs before breaking up. This lead to several bands that never quite amounted to much. RIK and Vinny first met through a mutual acquaintance who had been giving RIK guitar lessons. This lead to the two future Acoustiholics jamming together in an electric atmosphere.

During this time RIK was a dedicated electric guitar player who only dabbled in acoustic music. Through the course of this RIK bought a sound system to use during practice, it was during this period that RIK and Vinny reunited in RIK's project "Demeanor". They played a couple gigs in the basement of the studio that RIK was renting to rehearse in. They soon parted ways as the band drifted apart.

Fast forward to a couple years later, Fintan and Vinny were playing gigs at the Pub in McCauley Plaza (see "In the Beginning" on the index page). RIK started his tenure as "Bucky the sound guy" but after performing one song at a Halloween gig, he was asked to join the band as a full member.

RIK has always seen himself as the harder edged part of the band with roots solidly planted in good old rock 'n' roll and will occasionally (to the disdain of Fintan and Vinny) break into the beginnings of a Guns and Roses or Scorpions song.