Ashford Road

Ashford Road is a Uralican hard trance act, originally from Perm' but now residing in Kirov. The name comes from the road in the Minnesota town (Woodbury, a suburb of St. Paul) on which member Andy Haapakoski grew up.

Current Membership

 * Andy Haapakoski (b. 27 July 1985, Woodbury)
 * Simo Karpinen (b. 14 November 1970, Valkeakoski)
 * Layne Hakkinen (b. 8 May 1985, Green Bay)

History
The group started with two Great Lakes Finns, Andy Haapakoski from Woodbury, Minnesota, and Layne Hakkinen from Green Bay, Wisconsin, meeting at TranceAddicts Club in Kirov and finding out they had both moved to Perm' from their respective hometowns at various points in mid-2008. They began meeting up with their laptops in tow to discuss new musical endeavours they had embarked on on their computers, and found out that they both had a love of hard trance.

They began mixing tracks together immediately, using Cubase as their host program. After a few months of "fiddling around," they had eight mixes that they sent to TranceAddicts Records in Kirov. There was a producer there named Simo Karpinen who loved their sound, so he decided to take them on. The eight tracks were later mastered in the in-house studio at TranceAddicts Club and released as the eponymous first album of the band.

Karpinen joined the group after this, working further mixes. After a year or so of doing sets at TAC, they recorded a second album, Sure Thing, and included a set of remixes as a bonus.

Full Albums

 * October 2008 - Ashford Road
 * November 2009 - Sure Thing

Singles

 * October 2008 - Explosion (from Ashford Road)
 * December 2008 - Joy For All (from Ashford Road)
 * February 2009 - Monstrosity (from Ashford Road)
 * May 2009 - Daredevil (from Ashford Road)
 * July 2009 - No Place (from Ashford Road)
 * November 2009 - Sure Thing (from Sure Thing)

Trivia

 * Both Andy and Layne are decent hockey players.
 * Andy is an admitted "huge metalhead" and listens to Pelastus on a regular basis.
 * Layne had to turn down a contract with Velocitas Vaahruše to stay in the band.
 * Karpinen has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and is partially responsible for maintaining the wiring at TranceAddicts Club.