Backward Password Institute (BPI)

In August of 2000, I received an email from my prog jamming buddy Scott Thomas F asking me if I was available for a band project he was involved in.  I remembered him telling me about it a few months prior, and had been interested then, so I met with him soon after to review some of the material.   Sitting in his basement listening to rough demos, I signed on after the first song.  In my opinion, the best way to describe BPI was "Progressive Acoustic."  It was "Dave Matthews Band" meets "Rush," and it's exactly what I needed to do after my work with Stennar.  Where Stennar's music was rigid, BPI grooved.  While Stennar was electronic, BPI was eclectic.  With myself and Scott's friend Drew on drums, the new "BPI rhythm section" was born, and work on arraigning the songs for a full band progressed in September and October of 2000.  Drew and I recorded our tracks for the CD "Enter" at Countdown Studios in NYC on October 29, 2000 and completed the "bed" tracks (bass, drums and percussion) in one day.  Two live shows were also performed at Acme Underground between October and December.  Even though my full-time work with BPI ended at the beginning of 2001, I had hoped to be able to work with them in the future.  However, to the best of my knowledge, BPI disbanded in the Spring of 2001.  My best wishes go out to all the members, who I shared a wonderful experience with.

Rodney Holloway - Lead vocals/acoustic guitar
Riggz - Acoustic guitar/vocals
Scott "Scott Thomas F) Ferreira - Electric and 'virtual acoustic' guitars
Jimmy Holder - lyrics/band support

Drew Pantuliano - Drums and percussion
Ian Perge - Six-string bass

Stennar

In June of '99 I got a call from Fellow "Thy Spirit Deceived" member and Dream Theater fan Adam Parness.  He told me that he was serving a musical director/guitarist for up-and-coming dance/rock artist Stennar.  His bassist had dropped out, and could I fill in for practices leading to some Industry Showcases?  I said "Sure, why not?" (TSD was in a "lull").  Adam gave me a tape a few days later, and I was quite surprised at the quality of the music and production.  After the first practice with Stennar, Adam, and Evan "Lilparns" Parness (on drums), I was hooked!  Unlike most solo artists, Stennar gave his band members full freedom to change our parts as we saw fit, giving the songs a newfound "fire" in the live setting.  After a marathon 12 hour "Live in the Studio" (basically all the keyboard/loops/samples to one track of a DAT tape, the band playing live to the second track, which means there was no ability to overdub and tons of pressure to not screw up!) recording session on December 12th of 1999 at "Nightflight Studios", a major gig at the "New York Music and Internet Expo" in March of 2000 and master recording sessions from May to August of 2000 the "Stennar band" went their separate ways with Stennar's return to his hometown of Los Angeles.  It's too bad nothing was ever professionally released: we were tight.

Stennar - Lead vocals
Adam Parness - Musical Director/guitars
Evan Parness - Drums and percussion
Ian Perge - Six-string bass

Thy Spirit Deceived

A gothic/doom metal band started many years ago by my good friend Rich Farbman.  After following the band as a loyal fan/roadie/equipment supplier for about two years, Rich asked me to join in the spring of 1999.  Dragging my heavy six-string with me, we set out that summer to edit and rework songs.  A part-time band, as all of us went to school at the time, plans to record didn't quite work out (but never count us all-the-way out... Metal cannot be stopped! ;)  Visit Rich's extremely outdated website here.

Rich Farbman - Vocals/keyboards/additional guitars
Adam Parness - Guitars/additional keyboards
Evan Parness - Drums and percussion
Ian Perge - Six-string bass
Scott Quinn - Keyboards

Concordia Covers/Vinyl

A cover band I played in with Scott "The World's Whitest White Boy" Quinn, Steve "Call me Spooky" Romano and John-Paul "Really, I'm not Lindsay Buckingham" Grochowski for the annual "Band Bash" at their school, Concordordia College in Westchester county, New York.  It was fun to simply bash out a wide variety of covers ranging from Dave Matthews Band to Nine Inch Nails to Jethro Tull, while also giving us an excuse to drink ourselves stupid at one in the afternoon.

Antem

My first "real" band, started with Matt Young, Dwayne Marcheret and Steve Lee in the summer of 1993, right out of high school.  After recording one song entitled "Innovation" in a real honest-to-goodness studio (As "Lost Horizon") in the fall of 1993, Matt and Dwayne chose to focus on school.  With Steve Spigonardo and Anthony Palmeri joining up, we went into full-time band mode as "Antem," recording twice (11 songs total), and playing many Long Island, NY clubs including The Roxy, the Galaxy, and New York Ave. before calling it quits in January of 1996.  I've got some wonderful memories from those days, including writing and copywriting my first song, playing in dives for no money, and eating at the "White Castle" and "Taco Bell" in Commack twice a week for two years straight!

Steve Lee - Drums/backing vocals
Dwayne Marcheret - Guitars/backing vocals (1993 - 1994)
Anthony Palmeri - Lead vocals/guitars (1994 - 1996)
Ian Perge - Four and 'virtual' five-string bass/backing vocals
Steve Spignardo - Guitars/backing vocals (1994 - 1996)
Matt Young - Lead vocals (1993 - 1994)