The word Mestari has two distinct meanings in two different languages. In Gaelic, “mestari” means “we will persevere” and in the Finnish language, it means “master”, "expert" or “champion.” Both meanings describe this collection of musicians who are both dedicated and talented. The members’ diverse influences and playing styles meld to become a brand of driving rock music as original as their name. The story of Mestari began in 2005. After his last band disbanded, vocalist and songwriter Casey Herd began writing material for a massive, three-disc autobiographical concept album. Over the next 2 years he wrote and recorded with friend and audio engineer Jeff Flores, but there were several more pieces needed to make the project functional. In 2007 Herd began collaborating with drummer and long time friend Cody Morris. Previously, Cody had been in a band called Shallow Promise, and was at the time looking to start a new project. They continued to work together and began auditioning guitarists. After 3 months of looking for the right guitarist, they finally found what they were looking for in Billy Roberts. Billy had played with a handful of bands and start up projects that never quite got off the ground. The musical chemistry between these three was evident right away. New song ideas surfaced every time they got together. After getting a short set list worth of songs in working order, they began rehearsing with Jeff Flores filling in for the time being on bass. Mestari had their first show at a battle of the bands at The Curtain Club in Dallas on August 17th. Since it was the first time they had played together in front of audience, it was a real surprise to finish second. Mestari seemed to have something special in their sometimes driving, sometimes moody, always interesting music. In late August 2008 Mestari was in need of a bass player to fill-in for a set, so Nick Grande was brought in. Nick has played with a dozen furies and has shared the stage with the likes of the burden brothers, Nick was introduced to Mestari 2 days before an audition to open for the all American rejects, learning 6 songs in a matter of hours, needless to say he was impressive and was added to the permanent line-up shortly there after. Mestari then decided to bring on another guitarist to strengthen the line-up, the decision was an easy one, Josh Jarrell was added and made an immediate impact. Jarrell was the former guitarist in Bexley, after Bexley disbanded he was involved in the early writing processes of Mestari, while forming another original project called the prospect before us. Jarrell was added to bring his unique songwriting ability and strong stage presence to Mestari. Currently Mestari has picked up pre-production for their first Full Length album, and is due to release their first single in October 2008.