Chris Cusack [Guitar + Vocals]
Colin Morrison [Guitar + Vocals]
Rich Carlin [Drumkit + Vocals]

Colin Morrison, Chris Cusack and Richard Carlin came together in January of 2000 to form the musical ensemble that was eventually…and, at the time, flippantly… named Dead or American. The basic format of drums, two guitars and bass was completed by founder member Greg Heuer, who left the band in 2003 to fulfil parental duties and can currently be heard in his new group The Siege of Khe Sanh.

All members to date have hailed from the musical vacuum that is Central Scotland, including the likes of Tom Farrington, Richard Bruce and Peter McCulloch who all did their part providing the low-end over the course.

The band spent their first half-dozen years writing, recording and frequently forgetting songs, whilst hauling their musical utensils in a rickety white Mercedes van - initially back and forth across Scotland and later the fuller length of the United Kindom and Ireland - usually for little or no return. The strong music scenes in Glasgow and Dundee also provided DorA the opportunity to support and befriend luminaries of the UK underground such as Jetplane Landing, Reuben and Cat on Form a little closer to home.

Having self-released a few EPs, including 2003’s “Subdivide”, to reasonable acclaim and decent amounts of airplay, DorA undertook the recording of their debut album in 2005 with the help of Ross Rankin and Chris Reilly of Glasgow victory-rock trio Titus Gein. Despite numerous technical mishaps, a full re-recording and near terminal computer disaster, the album, titled “Ends” (see album artwork above), finally saw the light of day in November 2006 having been mastered in New York City by Alan Douches (Chemical Brothers, Run DMC, The Dillinger Escape Plan etc). It was released on Predestination Records in conjunction with Dundee’s Pet Piranha label. Predestination Records was founded by the three core-members of DorA (Chris, Rich and Colin) as well as Scottish photographer David Newitt and producer/handyman/roadie/moral compass Peter Flett. The label continues to release the work of Dead or American, as well as that of Hey Enemy, Bad Dancer and a myriad of other excellent groups from across Europe, encountered during their musical travels.

In November of 2006, DorA released a video for flagship song “Flame Out”, taken from “Ends”, which they filmed and produced in conjunction with Scottish film-makers Matt McAllister and Adam Stafford of Black Lamp Productions, the latter also being a member of Falkirk-based experimentalists Y’all is Fantasy Island. The kind help of numerous extras, technicians and camera operators was also integral to the video’s success.

Having closed the chapter of their first six years together with the release of “Ends”, the band immediately began writing an arsenal of entirely new material in 2006. In October of the same year, DorA travelled to Salem, Massachusetts, USA, to record their second album with Kurt Ballou, guitarist in Converge and producer of many superb contemporary rock and metal albums by the likes of Cave In and Isis.

Their second album, “Thaumaturgy”, is due to be released in 2007.