James LaBrie
Chances are that if you are a fan of progressive rock, you know who James LaBrie is. For more than a decade, he has lend his voice to one of the most influential progressive rock bands of all time: Dream Theater.
Their sound has redefined the genre, and many bands aspire to the level of perfection Dream Theater has defined as a standard. But James has done other work besides Dream Theater. He has released two solo albums under the name "Mullmuzzler" with Mike Keneally on guitar and Mike Mangini on drums. He sang on Trent Gardner's Explorers Club, featuring Billy Sheehan, Terry Bozzio and a long list of other top level players. He sang the lead role in Trent Gardner's Leonardo, a work about the life of Leonardo da Vinci.
James sang on Broadway and has participated in numerous projects, including several tribute albums. Everyone involved in Frameshift is truly honored to have James LaBrie involved in the making of this album.
Henning Pauly
Date of birth: 25 July 1975
Henning, who grew up in Germany until he was 22, studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. He majored in Contemporary Writing and Production and Music Synthesis. He graduated summa cum laude in May 2000. He moved to Los Angeles where he works for an advertising company. Together with his boss, he formed jinglegroup, a music production house specialising in music for advertising. Henning has written, arranged and produced music in a wide variety of styles from ambient, jazz, big band, orchestral, solo piano, pop, rock, metal, progressive rock, a capella, minimal, musical and film scores. He is the man behind the band Chain, which is also signed to Progrock Records.
Influences
Guitar
Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Steve Morse, Abi von Reininghaus, Chris Oliva, Mike Stern
Piano
Keith Jarrett, Claude Debussy, Jim Steinman, Jon Oliva
Bass
Neil Stubenhaus, Stu Hamm, Billy Sheehan
Keys
Stephan Kernbach, Kevin Moore, Ryo Okomotu, Rick Wakeman, Neil Morse
Orchestration
John Williams, Jim Steinman, Rick Wakeman, Edward Shearmur, Graeme Revell
His job for Frameshift
Guitars, Bass, Synthesizer, Piano, B3, Warr Guitar, Banjo, hand percussion, loop programming, orchestration, engineer and mixer
Henning has played in bands too numerous to list here, but he has not seen a stage in quite some time and concentrates on studio work. He is currently producing several other progressive rock projects, including the prog-opera Babysteps, featuring Jody Ashworth from the Trans Siberian Orchestra and a follow up to Chain's Reconstruct entitled chain.exe, planned for release early 2004.
Henning is a Steinberg endorser and uses Steinberg software exclusively.
Henning uses two Mackie UAD-1 cards to run most of his plug-ins, and he would like to thank Mackie for their support.
Nik Guadagnoli
Date of birth: 9 October 1976
Nik Guadagnoli was born to be a musician. It couldn't have happened any other way -- while in the womb, Nik's father played guitar and sang to him. While a child, he was exposed to every genre of music from funk to progressive rock to classical.
Guadagnoli plays bass, as well as guitar and Chapman Stick. In his spare time, he can be found on either side of a camera lens or trying to solve the problems of the world through judicious use of coffee, food and offbeat humor. He refuses to censor himself in conversation. Nik Guadagnoli has worked his way through the Southern California music scene with acts such as 4 Feet Deep, Spiketooth Harrow, and Mirazh.
Nik was involved in the making of Frameshift from the very beginning and plays bass on several tracks as well as additional guitars on River out of Eden and The Gene Machine. He plays a beautiful guitar solo on Message from the Mountain, and also wrote Origins and Miracles on Chapman Stick.
Guadagnoli is also a skilled arranger and contributed arranging ideas to several of the songs.
Influences
Cry of Love, Dream Theater, Peter Gabriel, Kansas, King Crimson, Tony Levin, Meshuggah, Radiohead, Rush, Sting, Tool, Toy Matinee, Tony Verderosa, Trip Wamsley, Victor Wooten, and Yes, just to name a few
Eddie Marvin
Date of birth: 30 December 1973
Eddie Marvin (a.k.a. Eduard Pauly) is Henning's older brother. Eddie graduated summa cum laude from Berklee College of Music in May 2003 with a degree in drum performance. He graduated just in time to fly out to Los Angeles and record the very demanding drum parts for Frameshift. Eddie lives in Germany, near Frankfurt, and is involved in several bands which makes it hard to get him for sessions. He made an exception for his brother -- who knew that Eddie was the man for the job. Henning would not accept anyone else. Eddie plays "Blue Dot" drums, made by a small German company that delivers outstanding craftsmanship.
Eddie will be back in the studio with Henning to record Babysteps and chain.exe as well as other projects for Progrock Records.
Influences
Dennis Chambers, Nick DiVirgilio, Mike Portnoy, John Cuniberti, Terry Bozzio, Klaus Tropp and Thorsten Hannig
Matt Cash
Matt is the lyricist for Frameshift. He and Henning have worked together on Chain's Reconstruct, which deals with a similar topic and has received raving reviews. Henning got back together with Matt to work on the lyrical content for Frameshift.
Matt is also an accomplished vocalist and lends his unique voice to Chain. His own material is an amazing collection of pop oriented rock and his melodies will haunt you forever. This pop sensibility is what was needed to Frameshift to not let it drift too far into the obscure and abstract.
Matt will be back in the studio with Chain to record chain.exe (which will not be about evolution).
Influences
Matchbox 20, Third Eye Blind, Spock's Beard, etc.
Shawn Gordon, Jerry George and Steve Katsikas
Shawn Gordon, president of Progrock Records, is an accomplished keyboard player who shows his talent in the keyboard solo on Nice Guys Finish First. He was also instrumental in bringing James and Henning together and making the project become a reality.
Jerry George was another person who was instrumental in bringing the project to life. Jerry runs Shawn's internet radio station, ProgRock.com, which brings progressive rock to listeners worldwide 24 hours a day.
Steve Katsikas performed a screaming saxophone solo on Bats, one of the heaviest tracks on the album.
