Background

Three members have known each other since middle school: Mike Counts, Nick Ramirez and Vince Oleson met at Royal Palm. We skated together (Vince rollerbladed), became really tight friends, and the summer after 8th grade we started getting into music. Nick got his first drum kit: a Tama Rockstar and Vince got a Squire guitar and a little Peavy amp and they started practicing. Mike moved away and was therein, despite our feelings, excluded from the earliest stages of the band. While away Mike was up in the North valley learning how to play guitar, so remarkably the band developed together in talent. The band still remained in constant contact with Mike, and Vince even got together a number of times with him, regardless of the distance, to practice and write songs. By this time Vince, Nick and former bass player Drew had adopted the band name "Envy" and we played a couple of backyard concerts and our high school talent show under the name. The band has never broken up (since 1999), but did not get really serious until the summer of 2002 when we decided upon a new band name: "Vistalance". With the addition of new, creative bassist Erin Elliott, a positive message and a lot of humor, we have been trying to make an impression ever since.