As many of you probably already know, SexArt was the band in which Jonathan
Davis sang previous to Korn. Up until this point, however, very little
information
was known about them. Now, thanks to Michelle, the manager for Juice,
at least there has been a little light shed on the subject. I emailed her
for the real story
about SexArt, and here's what I gleaned from her:
SexArt consisted of Jonathan Davis on vocals, DeRoo (David DeRoo) on
bass, Chaka (Ray Solis) and Ryan Schuck on guitar, and Denis Shinn on drums.
Smily
(Brian Armer) joined SexArt shortly after Davis' departure to LA. At
the time, Smily was singing in a band called Brother From Another Mother.
All of SexArt
loved his style, and he was their first pick to replace Jonathan.
After Jonathan left, the band continued on for several months before
going their separate ways. Smily formed Glass Cut Eternity, and DeRoo and
Chaka ended up in
Huntington Beach with Denis and Ryan in a band called Super model.
Their singer at the time was Richard, the former singer of LAPD who Jonathan
had replaced in
that band.
Currently, the ex-members of SexArt are doing various things. Jonathan
of course is in Korn, Ryan is now in Orgy, Denis is a music producer in
Southern California,
and Chaka, DeRoo, and Smily are now in Juice.
There are various SexArt tapes floating around Bakersfield to this day,
including one which Michelle had heard when she was there earlier this
month. It was just a
tape of a SexArt rehearsal, though. DeRoo and Chaka don't have any
tapes because no one really thought to save them -- they were all so young
when SexArt was
together. She has said that the copies are so scarce not because the
tapes might fall into the wrong hands, but rather that SexArt is a dead
band. All the members
have gone on to do bigger and better things, and people should be more
concerned about that than what they did jamming as teenagers.
There is no SexArt "demo tape" that I'm aware of. She had heard a practice
tape during her visit to Bakersfield. It was a low quality tape made on
a cheap boom
box in a practice room about 7 or 8 years ago. However, SexArt did
write "Blind". If you take a look at the Korn video, you'll see Denis and
Ryan credited for it.
The only reason that DeRoo and Chaka weren't credited is that in the
version Korn released they rewrote the bass and guitar parts, eliminating
what DeRoo and
Chaka had contributed to the SexArt version. The lyrics and other parts
are very much the same, though.
