I.N.D. -

I.N.D. was an American soul-funk band that released the 1981 album Into New Dimensions on Erect Records.

Members: Cornell Monroe (lead vocals, trumpet), George Lloyd (saxophone, flute), Lee Holloway Sr. (guitar), Michael Mills (bass), Christopher Mills (bass), Darron Farmer (synthesizer), Elmer Caldwell (drums, percussion), Eugene Gillis (trumpet), Quincy Ford (saxophone, flute)

Background

I.N.D. formed in 1977 in Gary, Indiana, when guitarist Lee Holloway reorganized musicians from the recently dissolved Krash Band as Into New Dimensions.

Holloway was born in Gary in 1953 and entered music through a grade-school choir. He learned trumpet in school and taught himself guitar in his early teens. By his senior year at Emerson High School in 1969, Holloway played guitar and trumpet in Peace, a self-contained vocal-and-horn band.

Peace won talent shows at Gary Memorial Auditorium in 1970 and 1971. The group also backed the Roses at Lonnie’s Skyway Lounge under manager Joe Hutchinson, father of the Emotions. Holloway later joined Burnell Powell and the Intruders, whose three-piece rhythm section and three-piece horn section worked the Bonanza, Green Bunny, Burning Spear, and other Gary clubs. Holloway also worked Chicago engagements as a house-band guitarist at McVickers Theater.

Holloway joined the ten-piece Krash Band in Gary in 1975, alongside lead singer Evelyn Holder and a five-piece horn section. The horns included trumpeters Cornell Monroe and Eugene Gillis and saxophonists Quincy Ford and George Lloyd, all of whom later joined I.N.D. Saxophonist Robert “Bobby” Couisnard introduced Krash Band to Herb Temple at Johnson Publishing. Temple took the group to Paul Serrano’s Chicago studio, where Krash Band recorded the 1976 Liberated single “Pickled Bees Knees”/“So I Can Make This Change (In My Life).” The band played local and college dates. Krash Band also opened for the Bar-Kays.

Holloway retained the Krash horn section in I.N.D. and added his Emerson schoolmate Michael Mills on lead vocals and rhythm guitar. The album-era group also included bassist Christopher Mills, drummer Elmer Caldwell, and keyboardist Darron Farmer. Couisnard connected I.N.D. with Memphis trumpeter-producer Gene “Bowlegs” Miller, who booked Royal Studios for “I’m Not Ready” and “You Just Be You,” issued on Momisey Records. Michael Mills sang lead on “I’m Not Ready,” with Cornell Monroe on the falsetto chorus. I.N.D. later learned of Erect Records in nearby Merrillville. In 1981, the group signed with the Joe Sotiros–Jim Porter label and entered Pumpkin Studios in Oak Lawn, Illinois, for Into New Dimensions.

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