Music Style Pop/Rock

Musical Influences Yngwie Malmsteen, Richie Kotzen, Joe Satriani, Depeche Mode, Alanis Morissette, Megadeth (+ others).

Artist History Brian Alexander first picked up his sister's bass at around age 11 and began to play around with it. When his parents saw that he was actually showing some serious interest in the instrument, they decided to enrol him in bass lessons. After a few months of bass lessons, Brian began to show an interest in his sister's electric guitar. With this new interest, the lessons changed to acoustic guitar. After about a year of acoustic guitar lessons and several recitals, Brian's ear began to develop, and it was being attracted to the sounds of early 80's rock bands suck at Ratt, Quiet Riot, Helix, and Ozzy Ozbourne thanks to the show Video Hits on CBC television. "I remember rushing home from school so that I could watch Video Hits." The switch from acoustic guitar didn't take long and neither did the switch in lessons, which came with a new teacher. Brian studied under Greg Loewen (Gregory, Paul Gregory, Turf City) for several years. Greg taught Brian many things which included music theory, song writing and arranging, harmonizing and introduced Brian to the guitar playing style of Joe Satriani. After about a year of lessons with Greg, Brian and some friends formed their first band Pheonix. "We were mainly playing around in my parent's house for fun. The vocalist was very much into classic rock so we did many cover tunes from The Cars, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Cream, AC/DC, stuff like that. We even had our first studio experience when we went into Fiasco Bros. Studio in New Westminster and recorded the song Sunshine of Your Love. They gave us a really good deal. They felt sorry for us I'm sure. We were too young and we weren't very good!" After playing many times in the parent's living room and at a few friends' parties, Pheonix entered a high school Battle of the Bands. After a second place scoring, they got their first official gig at The Paramount in New Westminster (which at the time was an Alternative night club). "We were in way over our heads at that time. We knew about eight cover tunes. Not even enough for one set. We went into this Alternative club with our classic rock set list. They hated us. Although, a few people did get up and dance when we played a song from The Cult. The best part about that gig is that we paid some guy to paint us a backdrop. I didn't notice until many years later that there is a construction company in town that had the same name as our band, and, well, Let's just say that our backdrop looked very similar (OK... It was exact!) to the companies logo. What a guy! Anyway, when I started hearing 'You guys suck!' from the crowd repeatedly, I knew it was time for a change." That change came in the form of a new vocalist, and a new direction for the cover songs they were playing. "I'm not saying that the vocalist we had wasn't good. He was very good for the style of music we were playing at that time, but music had changed a little at this point and the new vocalist we had was very much into the Glam Rock scene which is what people wanted to hear. So now we were playing songs from bands such as Motley Crue, Poison, Warrant, and other bands of that era." During this time with this new band (Brian can only recall it being called Gunslinger or Guttersnipe or something along those lines) Brian withdrew from guitar lessons for a while to concentrate on leaning cover songs and learning the technique of Joe Satriani. "This band, whatever it was called, didn't go anywhere or do anything at all." After a few months of the new line up, the bass player left the band and was replaced by the singer's best friend. Because this band wasn't really doing anything or going anywhere, they eventually went their separate ways. Brian stuck with the drummer, and began a search for a new band. Right around this time, Brian decided to return to guitar lessons to learn some more and once again went under the wing of Greg Loewen. Brian received his first electric guitar (he had been using his sister's up until this time) and a 4-Track recorder. "This was when things started to change. I was a little older now, so I was getting more serious about music. When I got the 4-track, I realized that I didn't want to record other people's songs. They were fun to play and all, but I was ready to write original material." This is exactly what Brian did. With just himself and his drummer friend, Brian began to lay down the tracks for songs that would surface many years down the road. "I had no choice but to play everything (except the drums) and sing. It was a great learning experience and I was able to take advantage of my song writing, arranging and harmonizing training." During this time, Brian was introduced to the amazing guitar abilities of Yngwie Malmsteen by Greg Loewen. "When I first heard Yngwie, my jaw absolutely hit the floor! I couldn't believe that anybody could play guitar like that." Greg started to teach Brian in this very advanced style of guitar playing. "I never come even close to mastering it, but at one point I was practicing my guitar for about 5 hours a day." This was the biggest leap in Brian's guitar playing career. He quickly excelled past most players his age. With this new ability and some new original songs under his belt, Brian and his drummer friend began the quest for new band members. After much searching, and a few side ventures playing with a few different talents around the Vancouver area, a new band was formed. "Teaser came to life at this point, and now that we were 19, and above I guess you could say that we were very serious" Teaser continued to write their own songs. Brian and the drummer from Teaser (who was still the original drummer from Pheonix) enrolled in a Recording Arts Masters Program. Brian learned techniques in midi and multi-track recording. "I learned some other things too, but those were the main things that I was interested in." Teaser was able to take advantage of this as one of the projects was to record a live band, and they recorded one of their original tunes titled Dirty Little Secrets. Teaser had much more success than any of the previous bands. They played in several clubs in and around the Vancouver area. "Most of them are gone now, maybe even all of them, I'm not sure, but we played at California Dreaming, Frank's Place. I think Earthquake Annie's as well." After some time writing, rehearsing and gigging, it was time for Teaser to make a demo. Through some of the contacts that were made in the clubs, the band was put in contact with George Criston (Kick Axe, Paradise, Criston/Harvey) and began recording their demo tape. "This was a critical step in my development as a music artist. George is not only an amazing vocalist, but his producing, arranging, and engineering skills are second to none. It took us over a year to record that 4 song demo tape, as we changed vocalists after about a month or two of recording and had to re-write all the vocals in every song. The new band was called Cry for Dawn. I learned much more in that one year of working with George than I had learned in all my previous years of training. I'm sure the name Cry for Dawn still sends shivers down his spine he worked with us for so long! We also spelt his name wrong on our demo after all that (Doh!). But, it was priceless to be able to work with such a talented guy. I haven't talked to him in a long time, but last I heard he was still working in the music industry. I wish him nothing but the best." Cry for Dawn would go on to play live for over a year in the Vancouver area, and did one small out of town two night tour with the band Deadline. The band had representation at Music West and had some interest from a few record companies, but nothing would come of it. So what now? "Everything up until now has been a great experience. I have had a chance to work with many talented artists in the Vancouver area; either playing in bands with them, playing or singing on their recordings, co-writing with them or recording/producing/mixing them. I am excited to still be interested in music. Some people loose interest and just quit. Not me. It's in my blood, and I can't stop. So, being a solo artist now, I hope you enjoyed reading my history in music and hope even more that you enjoy listening to my music!"

Group Members Brian Alexander

Instruments All

Albums In progress

Location Vancouver, BC - Canada

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