Artists

“As the bandleader of the critically acclaimed rock septet Thank You Scientist, Tom’s unique voice as an instrumentalist and arranger/producer has caught the ear of many adventurous listeners. His unique usage of fretless guitar, as well as non-traditional rock instruments such as shamisen and sitar has garnered him considerable attention. Thank You Scientist’s most recent release, Stranger Heads Prevail (produced by Monda), debuted at #14 on the Billboard rock charts and broke the Billboard Top 200 upon its release, an unprecedented achievement for a band so left of center.

The band has toured and performed with a wide array of artists, including Coheed and Cambria, Devin Townsend, Fishbone, The Aristocrats, Periphery, Yes, Adrian Belew, and many others. Tom is an in demand sideman in the greater New York City area, performing in a myriad number of stylistically divergent musical contexts including but not limited to jazz, world music, hip hop, r&b/gospel, free improvisation, pop and country. As a sideman Tom has performed with Bumblefoot (Guns N’Roses), Ike Willis (Frank Zappa), and many others. While not on tour, he maintains a weekly residency in Asbury Park, where his trio performs deconstructed jazz, pop and funk classics with reckless abandon.

Tom is also an active educator and clinician, with a student roster featuring a number of accomplished professional musicians. Tom holds a degree in Music Education/Jazz Guitar from Montclair State University. He is a contributing author for Premier Guitar Magazine, and in addition has been featured in publications such as Young Guitar and Guitar World.

“Assaad Lakkis a.k.a. Bull Funk Zoo

Imagine a big bad bull rocking out, wildly stomping the blues into rubble. Hendrix having a drink with Tom Waits and Rage Against The Machine decided to tear it up! The birth of Bull Funk Zoo has made a strong impact in the Dubai music scene, playing shows in virtually every venue and festival across the country. Touring internationally, Bull Fuck Zoo opened for Sting in March 2013 playing his original album material to an incredible audience of 10,000 people. Also supporting internationally renowned Timbaland, Sade, Habib Koite, Stanley Jordan, Courtney Pine and gaining sponsorship from Red Bull and Wampler.

Currently touring the region and working on album number 3, Assaad know as ‘Bull Funk Zoo’‚ is considered one of the hardest working musicians/producers in the UAE, achieving best act nomination at the Time Out and Hype awards.¬’Bull Funk Zoo’ released the new album ‘Dangerous Radio’ (in September 2016) which Assaad composed, performed, engineered and produce in its entirety, along with accompanying music videos. The album has been receiving excellent reviews in the UK/European publications with 4 stars out of 5.

Bull Funk Zoo’s debut, self titled album, got the highest rating of 4 stars for an unsigned band in Rolling Stone Middle East and was a best seller in Virgin Megastores in the UAE. The album entered into the IMA Awards USA, with the song ‘Oblivion’ reaching the semi finals.

Chad Laniewski is a guitarist, TV and Film composer and producer. Chad has been a musician since the age of eight and has played with various bands throughout the years. With his passion for instrumental music Chad decided it was time to focus on his instrumental guitar music. In 2011 – 2012 Chad joined Grammy award winning guitarist / composer Steve Vai\’s label Digital Nations – Favored Nations Entertainment. After the freshman release of the album ”ELEVATED” Digital Nations Entertainment was shut down. A year later in 2013 with the sophomore release of the EP ”CATTLE HERD SHUFFLE” released through Media Music Composers, a company that Chad implemented. It was an experimental album with new sounds and musical ideas. During the making of ”CATTLE HERD SHUFFLE” music for TV and Film had become of an interest. Shortly after the album, composing music for TV, Film and media had become a passion. Instrumental guitar music is still a passion alongside of his musical compositions for TV and Film. Chad works as an independent composer for TV, Film, Advertising, and all media. He is also a contract composer for Erik Turner and Jerry Dixon from the band ”WARRANT” and their company Down Boys Music / Records. Chad\’s music has been placed with TV shows on Animal Planet, A & E, Discovery Channel, Independent films, podcasts and more.

Skinny Webb is a multi-instrumentalist specializing in guitar and mandolin. He has collaborated and performed with Los Lobos, Jim Dandy (Black Oak Arkansas), Hank Redd (Stevie Wonder), Rick Derringer, George Hamilton, Nashville recording artist Grace Maher and many others. Skinny started playing guitar at the age of 5 and soon began performing for audiences at country and bluegrass festivals in the style of Chet Atkins and David Grisman. At 14 he discovered rock music and began studying the guitar craftsmanship of artists like Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Rush, and AC/DC. After High School he went on to study classical guitar and obtain a music degree. The next step was the road where he has played with numerous original and cover bands over the years. Skinny plays an eclectic and varied style of music running the spectrum from hard rock instrumentals, bluegrass flatpicking, country chicken picking, and jazz fusion. He has played on and produced over 50 album albums for other artists and has released several solo albums. He also stays very busy doing session work and as a hired performer for numerous artists.

Rufus is a session musician based in the UK, he writes, performs and publishes his own material – he is currently touring the world with Sting.

Ryan Swing was born on Chicago’s South Side and started playing guitar at the age of fourteen. Born with a deep passion for a broad variety of musical styles, Swing studied with Grammy award winner and jazz giant Frank J. Rumoro at the Chicago Acadamy of Jazz Guitar. Since that time he has made a name for himself as a teacher, performer, session guitarist, and true stylistic chameleon. With hundreds of live performances under his belt, he has been actively touring the East Coast with several nationally recognized artists since 2014. Ryan is currently lead guitarist for “The Voice” country star Audra McLaughlin.

As co-founding member, principal songwriter, electrifying lead guitarist and co-producer of Aerosmith‚ America’s Greatest Rock & Roll Band‚ Joe Perry has achieved permanent iconic stature in the pantheon of rock. He has helped to drive his band, over the course of four decades, to sales of more than 150 million albums, critical acclaim, four Grammy Awards induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Aaron Mclain is a multi talented musician, singer, songwriter, producer and composer who studied at Dick Groove School of Music in Los Angeles. He is an L.A. native who has worked with some of the hottest names in the business – Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez, Tears for Fears singer Oleta Adams, Patti LaBelle, Terrance Trent Darby, Boys Don\’t Cry, Beto Cuevas, music director for Rebbie Jackson and currently lead guitarist for the hit pop group Air Supply, among others. Mclain has performed with artist on many TV shows including, Marc Anthony Live at Madison Garden HBO Special, The Tonight Show, Saturday Night Live, Today Show 07\’, Latin Billboard Awards 2006, Victoria Secret Fashion Awards 2003, Winter Olympics 2002, Marc Anthony CBS Special 2002, Grammy Awards 2002, Miss Universe 2002, Billboard Awards 2002, Blockbuster Awards 2000, Gloria Estefan Special, Mad TV, Rosie O\’Donell, The View, Craig Kilborn, and many more.

Just recently Aaron received a Latin Grammy for his guitar work on the 2013 Beto Cuevas Album \”Transformacion\”, which won in the \”Best Pop/Rock Album\” category. As a composer, Aaron scored the music for the film \”Convincing Clooney\”, has written spots for Fox Sports, an Oakley Sunglasses Ad, the opening theme for Beta TV, and just recently recorded an Urban Guitar & Bass Loop Set for Native Instruments, as well as many Loops Sets for P5 Audio.

Following another stint in an Irish show band based in Dublin, Legg moved back to London and continued to gig in bands that played clubs and pubs and toured around and outside Britain. When one bandleader asked him to play acoustic guitar chords up against a microphone, he became fascinated with the notion of blending the tonality of an acoustic with the amplified power of the electric guitar.

Thus began an electro-acoustic quest that continues today to find the holy guitar grail that melds tone, technique and technology to allow him to create, perform and record the music his imagination envisions, eventually incorporating synthesizers and computerized MIDI programming to augment and enrich his one-man musicality. “I wanted something that had the harmonic content roughly like an acoustic, and that had the flexibility in terms of stringing and volume levels, whatever you wanted to do, of an electric,” he explains.

Starting to gig as a solo artist in the mid 1970s, Legg won a Guitar magazine solo acoustic competition in both the composition and performance categories, and began writing articles for that magazine and other guitar publications (and later Guitar Player in America), plus authored his first of a number of books, The All Round Gigster. He released his first of five albums in Britain in 1976. Soon after he began working for Rose Morris & Company’s musical instrument and equipment store on London’s legendary Denmark Street music business strip doing guitar repairs, quality control and manufacturer contact. That led to collaborations and consultations with numerous guitar makers and amplifier and pickup manufacturers and technicians over the years as well as guitar clinics and product demonstrations at musical instrument and equipment shows in Britain, Europe and later America and Japan. His compositions began being used by English radio and TV programs, and London’s Ballet Rambert also choreographed one of his songs as a dance piece.

With his 1990 American recording debut on Guitars & Other Cathedrals, Legg found even greater success across the pond as a regularly touring solo act, headlining and sharing bills with fellow guitarists Richard Thompson, David Lindley, Eric Johnson (whose 2005 album Bloom Legg plays on) and Joe Satriani (on both his own shows and as part of his G3 Tour package with Johnson and Steve Vai, whose Favored Nations record label released two Legg albums). Guitar Player named his records Guitar for Mortals and Mrs. Crowe’s Blue Waltz as Best Acoustic Album (1992 & ’93) and Wine, Women & Waltz as Best Overall Guitar Album (1994) in its annual readers’ polls. He has three instructional videos on the U.S. market (Beyond Acoustic Guitar, Fingerpicking & Open Tunings and How To Cheat At Guitar) as well as two books (Customizing Your Electric Guitar and a collection of his compositions in tablature and standard notation, Pickin’ and Squintin’). In addition to his commentaries for “All Things Considered,” the popular public radio news show regularly uses a number of his varied guitar interpretations of its theme music.

Throughout his career, he has earned the highest praise from the media. \”Legg is, above all, a guitarist of great power, invention and versatility,” observes the St. Petersburg Times. “Through fast-fingered picking, spontaneously layering parts and occasional ringing harmonics, he sounds like an orchestra.” Guitar Player heralds how he “combines a sublime melodic sense with a mighty right-hand groove, creating pretty music with rhythmically aggressive undercurrents,” while Acoustic Guitar notes that “the guitar is the most versatile instrument in the world, and nobody demonstrates this better than Adrian Legg.” But the Atlanta Journal-Constitution likely summed up his impact on listeners best when it exclaimed, \”Mr. Legg\’s compositions, with their narrative melodies and nakedly emotive tones, offer an antidote to the guitar-hero syndrome.”

Al Vosper hails from the beautiful city of Exeter. He has had an extremely wide range of musical influences from Big Bands, Cream, Pink Floyd, Hendrix, Rolling Stones & The Beatles. In 1978 he started his professional career with the band ‘First Class’ who had a no1 hit with ‘Beach Baby’.

In 1983, Al answered an advert in the Melody Maker and joined a club band led by Phil Aldridge. He left a year later to start a world tour with the French singer Julian Clerc as a backing singer, He toured Australia, America & Europe with Freddy & The Dreamers and in 1990 joined the band London Beat (‘I’ve Been Thinking About You’). This led him to many subsequent tours & shows with Paul Young.

In August 1996, Al took a call from Phil asking him to join an Eagles show he was forming called the Beagles. Al suggested he call it “The Illegal Eagles”. Phil wisely agreed and the show was born then and there. 3 months later, Al decided to leave and pursue his career as a free-lance musician. He playing credits include Lulu, Paul Young, David Essex, David Cassidy, Joe Cocker, Beverly Knight, Paul Carrick, Sarah Brightman, Bananarama, En Vogue, Alfie Boe, Nick Mason from Pink Floyd & Mike Rutherford (with whom he recorded a version of Hotel California!) and Il Divo.