Senseless Missionary

What is Divine 9?
Divine 9 is a hard hitting, live techno act. As a band, Divine 9 are breaking new ground in the alternative and rave music scene across Australia with an all-out stage show and inspiring Synth riffs laced with razor edged guitar performances. The 'hard sound' has prevailed with sheer presence as crowds are whipped into a frenzy with floor fillers like 'Among The Sun' and 'Superuser'.


Influences: The Prodigy, Infected Mushroom, KMFDM, Front Line Assembly

Band Members:

Writer/Programming: Saito Nagasaki
Vocals: Shane Ross
Lead Guitar: Steve Balaban
Bass: Ganapatya
[Live] Drums: Tim Fikas


Shane Ross:
Shane is the front man of Divine 9 and provides a dynamic stage presence and fierce vocal attack. His powerful voice is capable of covering a wide range from the quietest whisper to earth-shaking banshee screams. Shane is a veteran of the Perth music scene and has been fronting his own band, "Airbag" for the last 7 years. His musical endevours began at a young age, in the Highland Pipe band as a drummer. After several years working behind the bar at various Perth venues, watching mediocre bands giving substandard performances, he decided he could do better, and quit his bar job in order to persue a career in music. As well as vocals, Shane also plays guitar, keyboards and drums. When not devastating audiences live on stage, Shane spends much time in his home studio cooking up tasty tunes in the electronic genres. He has been influenced by The Prodigy, who borrowed one of his kilts for a recent show of their "Big Day Out" tour, as well as The Cure and even DJ's such as Goldie and Fat Boy Slim.

Steve Balaban:
Born in Newcastle-Under-Lyme in England, Steve has played the guitar since the age of nine. He has played music professionally since the age of 14.His he has traveled the world playing countries as diverse as Europe, The United States and the Middle East. As well as live performance, Steve's recording experience includes session work for the Climax Blues Band and Cutting Crew. He arrived in Perth in 2004 after over 5000 gigs overseas.
Steve's influences include Radiohead, Jeff Buckley, Dave Gilmour and Joe Satriani. He has a wide taste in music and is always after something new. Lately he has been experimenting with electronics and computers and is currently recording album of his own material.

Ganapatya:
Glenn (Ganapatya) is the most experienced member of the Divine 9 team and plays bass. His musical journey commenced at a young age, when he began taking piano lessons after a school music teacher indicated that he had musical abilities and suggested he learn an instrument. He studied classical piano from the age of 8 to 14, when he decided to learn a more portable instrument (guitar) so that he could jam with his cousin.
He soon became absorbed in the music of Jimi Hendrix, Guns and Roses, Deep Purple and other suck rock luminaries, and soon switched to bass guitar, as his high school garage band needed a bass player. After stints in a few local bands, playing small suburban gigs, Glenn joined Perth band "Off The Planet", and solidified his live playing experience over the course of the band's 5 year existence. In this time they recorded an EP "A New Dimension" and supported acts such as Arrested Development, The Pet Shop Boys and D-Ream.
Glenn currently works in music professionally with Perth band "Airbag" as well as performing and writing music with Divine 9. He may often be observed tinkering in his home studio whilst drinking copius quantities of Absinthe. He listens to and is influenced by a wide range of music, from Patsy Cline to Marilyn Manson. Divine 9 provides an outlet for his creativity. Saito Nagasaki is also a source of inspiration and amusement to him and plays a key role in Glenn's plans for world domination.

Saito Nagasaki:
The mask on the decks, Saito is the man behind the Divine 9 initiative and created the live project in collaboration with musician Chad Zarkk Ostrowski, the former frontman. Coming from an entertainment industry background through trials of promoting and venue management, he has gleaned musical influence from the likes of rave legends Brisk, Billy “Daniel” Bunter, Kevin Energy, Sharky, MC Assassin, Greg Packer and various alternative artists such as The Prodigy, Covenant, VNV nation and even Manic Street Preachers in the course of his work. Saito has aspired to combine the dynamism of cutting edge electronica with the depth of darker edged songwriting in order to rediscover a new direction in music.
The dark aesthetic remains a chilling device in articulating Divine 9’s sound.

"They describe their music as breakbeat and gospel-punk, with an industrial trance theme to it. Their album, Scion, consists of precisely this; a mish-mash of styles that turns out suprisingly well. There is a rather heavy emphasis on keyboards that is a little reminiscent of Prodigy or Orbital, but not exactly that either. To call them indie is not precisely accurate, but they are an independant group without a major record company that manages them." - Review in Think Magazine issue 17 (Winner, Reader's Choice Award), Singapore.