John Dunnery and Wayne Wilkinson were friends from an early age and went through school together where they formed their first band (Out of Reach). After months of rehearsing and driving everyone around them mad, we finally played our first gig at Monroe’s bar in Workington supporting a thrash metal band. They played 3 songs and most of our schoolmates got thrown out by the police for underage drinking!
Kooch was originally founded in 1990 by the Iranian guitarist, singer-songwriter Cyrus Khajavi. Having spent the preceding 10 years or so working as a rock guitarist (6 years of which were spent recording and touring with the English rock band Quasar), he decided to bring his experience from the rock world and his love of Iranian poetry and folk music together. Having written the album Baran he invited Farzad Khavand, a classical violinist, who was also interested in the musical possibilities outside his usual field to join him for the recording.
There is more than one artist with this name: 1) Indie band Sophia includes The Flower Shop Recordings mainman and former The God Machine singer/guitarist Robin Proper-Sheppard. After the sudden and tragic death of schoolfriend and God Machine bassist Jimmy Fernandez, Proper-Sheppard began searching for a new musical outlet. Together with friends and fellow musicians from other Flower Shop bands Elevate, Ligament and Oil Seed Rape, Proper-Sheppard began working on the music that would become known as Sophia.