Islana McLaughlin Bell - Vocals
Islana has been singing ever since she could make sound although she was better at death metal screams when she was a baby, or so her parents say!
From a singing perspective,Islana has been invovled in the music scene from the age of 15 and has experience with a very large number of musical styles from light modern pop through to hard rock from the 70's. Islana has even had some original material recorded and used in a large scale Jersey musical.
Her musical Influences range from Guns N' Roses through to Tina Turner although her real roots lie in 80's and 90's rock. Having siad that, Islana listens to a very wide range for music including AC/DC, Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Muse, Nickleback, Tom Jones, Bob Marley, Pat Benetar, Sheryl Crow, Pink and many others.
Her Vocal style can be described as rock chick with a gentle smooth panache of melodic pop with a touch of choral thrown in for good measure.
Sacha Serinet - Guitar
Guitars have always been a part of Sach's life from learning play in between GCSE's and then taking music GCSE on the guitar through to his current exploits in Kushtee.
His influences, as with most rock guitarists, lie with the greats, Hendrix, Clapton, Peter Green, Slash, Stevie Ray Vaughan and more recently Joe Bonamassa. Sacha would describe himself foremost as a Rock Blues Guitarist utilising simple blues and rock riffs within the varied set list of Kushtee. He's well versed in playing to the public, starting off at the age of 16 performing his own compositions on acoustic guitar live on Jersey Radio. He also spent a few years teaching guitar. He's been playing with Islana on and off for the last 12 years culminating in the forming of Kushtee in 2010 as a realisation of wanting to play the music which he loves.
Sacha finds that the varied setlist which Kushtee utilse has enable him to expand his repertoire from just Rock and Blues into pop, a bit of R n' B and even indie. Kushtee allows him a freedom of expression although being the sole guitarist there is a fair amount of pressure to encapsulate a larger than life sound without a rhythm guitarist to fall back on. Luckily Kevin and Alex are as a tight a rhythm section as you could want so he doesn't have to worry too much.
Alex Pirouet - Bass
Alex’s early musical influences rest mainly with the music he heard his parents listen too. Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly, Pavaroti and swing / big band were all artists his Mother was into. The Jam, Blondie, Madness, Beach Boys, Squeeze, The Beatles, The Monkees were his Fathers contribution.
As many of his friends know, Alex isn’t actually a bassist, he is first and foremost a guitarist and very luckily for Kushtee stepped in at the early part of 2013 to fill their old bassist's shoes.
His earliest influence in relation to playing guitar has to be from Back to the Future and hearing Eddie Van Halen on Marty McFly's walkman, plus seeing Marty (Huey Lewis and The News) playing Johnny B Goode which got him hooked on wanting to wield an axe! Early influences for songs were the Animals with House of the Rising Sun and then Paranoid by Black Sabbath. He learnt both songs on his Mother’s spanish acoustic guitar which she originally sold to his uncle when she was a teenager to help her buy a “proper” guitar and which Alex got back from said uncle when he was 15. Sweet!
Alex is not without a love of classical and orchestral music. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky as well as composers such as Dvorjak with Peer Gynt Suite, Sergei Petricov's Peter and the Wolf feature heavily in his music library as well as others.
Having said all the above, his main squeeze in relation to genre would have to be rock, hard rock, classic metal, jazz, swing, big band, disco, motown, 1920's style rag time and stride piano pieces, quite an eclectic taste!
Kevin Charles - Drums
Kevin started playing drums at the age of 14 and did his first professional summer season in Jersey at 17. After playing drums for numerous bands in Jersey for 13 years he decided to broaden his horizons and moved to the UK in 1993 to study music at Chichester College and eventually settled in Brighton. Kevin very rapidly became in great demand throughout the South East of England as one of the most versatile and popular drummers in the area, working with rock & pop bands, big bands, function bands, playing for shows and backing cabaret.
In 2007 Kevin returned to Jersey but still travelled to the UK regularly for gigs. In 2011 he decided to concentrate on playing solely in Jersey and as well as playing in Kushtee he also plays for the shows at The Merton Hotel and also plays with The Jersey Bounce function band & the Jersey Big Band.
