Probably the biggest influence of any new band throughout the last 15 years was this "little odd band" (should be huge IMHO) from Santa Cruz County: MAMMATUS. And even tho when I say this I mean just basically their first and second album which in some way showed me that music can be kind of weird and still rocking and exciting, and doesn't have to follow any kind of stereotypical pattern at all - even though at times with SBE I think we exaggerated when we were adding part after part after part in just one song, but yeah; big influence this.
I even tried to convince Mammatus to play a show with Samsara in SF on our first US-tour in 2009, but this didn't work out. Their rare stage appearances may be a crucial part of why they aren't more known. Nevertheless, they're a very unique band in many regards. Their drummer with his synthesizer project WAPITI later also influenced me to do my Surya-stuff. Lots of creativity here, and I'm only guessing but Mammatus seem to be influenced from Japanese 70s music like Osamu Kitajima, and Isao Tomita in particular - which are other faves of mine too.
