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Sally  Shot at 2007-07-17 Sally-Ann D'Amato is a native of Yonkers, NY which is also home to one of her greatest musical inspirations, Ella Fitzgerald, a childhood friend of her grandmother's. Sally grew up listening to her grandmother's stories of Ella's voice wafting in through the open windows on hot summer nights. It was this music that later inspired Sally at a young age to find her own voice. Up until the age of 12, Sally's loyal fan base consisted of a team of stuffed animals propped on her bed. It wasn't until a vacation to Disney world that her family discovered her talent when she auditioned for the show, "Disney TV Tryouts", was picked, and was given the chance to sing in front of a live studio audience. Sally, a person of many layers, sweet and innocent on the outside, but wacky and a little feisty on the inside, has been studying voice for 9 years in New York, Boston, and London. Some of her musical influences include No Doubt, Aerosmith, U2, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, Dido, and her childhood favorite The Monkees. She's worked as an actor, singer, and dancer in theatre, film and television; and has written and produced several plays, including the musical satire, "The American Way." Sally can often be found mesmerizing hard to please New York audiences at concerts and venues all over the city. As an actor she is a member of Actor's Equity Association and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA). She has performed leading roles in many musical theatre productions, as well as several independent films. She also played a recurring waitress in Hayley & Matteo's "S.O.S." on "All My Children." You can check out more of Sally on her website at www.sallyannmusic.com. Paul  Shot at 2007-07-17 Vocalist Paul Lennihan is a Bronx boy through and through. We asked Paul about his ideas for the music of the group: "Music??? I'm doing this strictly for the sex and drugs." Nevertheless, Paul is not entirely a boorish moron. His musical tastes are diverse to the point of schizophrenic disorganization. He was raised on a steady diet of classical masters, and feels Rachmaninoff created the penultimate musical composition in the world with his Symphony No. 2 (The ultimate musical creation being Journey's "Don't Stop Believing", natch). As far as his own career, he's actually a trained pianist, once playing such greats as Chopin's 'Etude' (But after his college "experience" he's since been reduced to playing a wicked rendition of "Chopsticks"). As for his guitar, it's been a work in progress...he can frequently be heard "gracefully" pounding the strings in his other band Five Cent Solution. Vocally he was self-trained, in his shower, and has mastered the art of shower reverb. Mike Guitarist Mike Sicherman grew up in Franklin Square, Long Island where he was exposed to the full force of 80's music and fashion. He now lives in Larchmont with his wife, several guitars and amps, and his 1 year old daughter Melody who is going to play the drums when she grows up. Mike has been playing guitar since the age of 15, when he realized it was so much cooler than that queer violin his parents made him play :) Having no social life whatsoever, he was left to practice for hours to learn from the musical giants at the time such as Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Rush, Led Zeppelin and Metallica. Mike then spent the next couple of years learning new styles, and trying to look cool playing in front of the mirror, until one day he figured he should try to join a band. After spending almost 2 years looking for something permanent he found Mina's Fantasy, and has been a part of the band since. His current guitar heroes are John Petrucci, Alex Lifeson, Eddie Van Halen, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Joe Satriani. Mike plays various guitars from Peavey, Fender, and Ibanez with Dean Markley strings through a Mesa Boogie F50 using a Boss GT-8 and a host of pedals from Boss and Morley for effects and then out to a Mesa Boogie speaker cabinet. Kurt Guitarist Kurt was born and raised in the borough of the Bronx of New York City. While he always had a strong inclination towards music and art it wasn’t until is later years in high school that he became strongly interested in rock music, which was rather ironic since the first album he ever bought was AC/DC’s “For those about to rock”, when he was only 5 years old. This was also about the time he started to pursue the guitar. When he attended David Bowie’s 50th birthday party in Jan. 1997 it further sparked his interest in guitar, and became one of the most important moments in his musical career. “The way in which Reeves Gabrels used the guitar in Bowie’s music at the show was just incredible. He made sounds come out of the guitar that I never even thought of and used them in such a way to make beautiful music. It was that moment which made me want to pursue the guitar to farther depths. Not to become an 80’s shredder type or anything like that, although I highly respect those players who have that ability, but rather to use the guitar to make more interesting and textured sounds, melodies, and develop my own individual style.” This style Kurt speaks of has many influences ranging from the aforementioned classic rock of AC/DC to the modern techno rock of Garbage. “Some of the more progressive people that have influenced my guitar playing and thought are the veritable genius Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, Reeves Gabrels, Thomas Blug, and of course some landmark guitarists such as Angus Young, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, and Eddie Van Halen.” Kurt has a great love and respect for music and the guitar in particular. He appreciates virtually all forms of music and likes to incorporate different elements of each into his music. Kurt uses tons of equipment, which the band jokingly likes to call “mission control”. A few years ago, on a quest for ultimate tone, Kurt founded KWCABS guitar speaker cabinets. “I couldn’t find the tone that I was searching for, I had a woodworking background and decided to make my own to my own specs, the results were so inspiring that I decided this would be my career and KWCABS was born.” He uses various guitars from Parker, Ibanez, Fender, Taylor, and others. He uses two main rigs depending on venue size. His main rig consists of duel channel path one into a Roland VG-8EX and another into a long chain consisting primarily of the ultimate preamp the Engl E580 into a Roland GP-100 and Marshall JMP-1 both into a VHT power amp meeting BBE sonic maximization and an ISP Decimator noise reduction along the way and out to a variety of KWCABS 2x12 cabinets, a Lexicon floor controller is used to control them. The secondary rig for smaller venues is a Hughes & Kettner Zentera combo amp. Kurt also uses various other products from Boss, Marshall, Dunlop, Ernie Ball and Morley. Eugene Bassist Eugene Mulone has called the Bronx home all of his life. Having a desire to play music at an early age, Eugene had his parents get him a keyboard for Christmas one year, which he gained some proficiency at on his own. Wanting to develop his musical abilities, he began taking piano lessons, but grew tired of the endless piano drills and quit after less than ten lessons. Noticing the attention given to guitarists and how cool it looked to be on stage, he began learning electric guitar on his own during his junior year of high school playing riffs or whole songs by bands such as Nirvana, Greenday, Guns & Roses, Smashing Pumkins, and Metallica. A year later, Eugene became curious with the bass, and bought an Ibanez TR 50 bass and a Peavy Minx 110 amp, which he both still owns. Now playing bass for Mina's Fantasy, as well as for his other band, Five Cent Solution, Eugene now primarily uses a Schecter Stiletto Elite-4 bass and a Digitech bass driver pedal. Anthony Drummer Anthony is a native of New Rochelle, NY and although he has a tremendous thirst for today’s music, he grew up on a heavy dose of 80’s and 90’s rock. His influences are wide ranging and include the likes of Motley Crue, Guns N’ Roses, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, Metallica, Poison, Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, Green Day, Aerosmith, and many of the “One album Wonders” of those eras. He has been playing drums for over 14 years and plays a Pearl Export kit finished in polished chrome, with DW pedals and Sabian and Zildjian cymbals. | Tributes | Almost Famous | King Norris | OVERDRIVE | The Outlets | The Schmooze | DJ Charizma | Speciality Acts, Duo's, DJ's, background music | Man Mithout a Band | Goldilocks | U2 Nation | Nuts in a Blender | MINI KISS | Radio cats | Mina's Fantasy | Orange Crush | Thumper | Rubix Kube | Twisted | Green Machine | Overdrive Poster 2007 | | Return Home | Bookings & Contacts | News | GreenLite Entertainment | Bands | New York Times Review | Musicians Connect | |
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