HARMONY PARK
HARMONY PARK is one of the best bands around in the Underground scene. They mix up AOR, Progressive Rock/Metal and Melodic Rock into one exciting super melodic sound with a rough edge. Muscially they can be compared to SHADOW GALLERY, only a little more polished on the vocals side, while the guitar riffs are a bit heavier. You can hear a lot of musical influences in the band's unique sound. Anyway, the band is currently looking for a label to release a CD. In the meantime, read the interview I had with bandleader Joe Czentnar...
Please introduce your band to us...
The
musicians who recorded this cd are as follows: Lead Vocals and
back-ups are Pat Curry and Jami Avedisian. The guitar players are
Joseph Czentnar and Dominic Margitan and they also sang some lead
vocals and back-ups. On bass was Eric Lindstrom, keyboards was
Jeff Overholt and drums was Louis Margitan. The line-up has
changed somewhat at this point but the quality of musician has
not.
When did
you form Harmony Park?
Harmony
Park formed from the ashes of Twist of Fate in 2000 after some
management changes forced a name change. To add some diversity to
the new name, the band also added a female singer and an new
musical direction. Twist of Fate formed in 1992 and transformed
themselves into a forceful entity in the Detroit rock
and roll market over the years.
Did any of you play in any bands before Harmony Park?
Not worth
mentioning. Suffice it to say the band grew up together and the
musical maturity reflects that.
Can you tell us about your recordings so far?
Our recording history started in 1995-6 at a local Detroit studio
called The Power Lab, led by engineers Rob Dotto and Jim
Mischewicz, who are also known for their recordings of funk
legend George Clinton. Through our own funding, songs like
Crying, Born to Die, and Rising Sun were recorded here in an
effort to produce a ‘shoppable’ demo. Through limited
management we shopped the demo to a variety of independent labels
where we got several offers for every thing from “hey we
want to buy this song” to “hey, come on out so we can
record your music.”
After we reviewed our options we decided to accept an offer from
Cellar Records, a small independent label located in a tiny
Chicago suburb called Dixon, Illinois. Despite the size and
remote location of the facility, the owner/engineer, Todd Joos,
proved to be an experienced and vital industry contact. This is
where we recorded the 2-1/2 albums of songs out of which we chose
the 11 tracks for our debut album. New Skies, which was recorded
under the Twist of Fate name, was released in 1998. We obtained
limited international distribution but due to the lack of
promotion the target audience was never made aware of it
existence—even with the impressive media acceptance and a
Grammy nomination by music industry legend, Bob Ludwig. Although
New Skies never found success, our determination remains strong
and we still have faith that these songs, in addition to the
other unreleased material, will find their way to fans of
progressive/melodic rock.
Once our contract ended with Cellar Records, we decided that we
would have more artistic freedom if we built our own studio. So
that’s what we did. With new material underway and the
addition of a female singer, we headed in a new but powerful
musical direction without losing touch with our prog rock roots.
We christened our studio by recording songs like Don’t
Follow Me, No Question Why and Rescue Me. These songs, and many
others, are ready to be heard!
Are you
planning a cd release?
You can expect to hear some new material from Harmony Park soon.
Which
bands have influenced you?
Pretty
much any of the cool melodic rock bands from the ‘70’s
and ‘80’s, such as Boston, Zeppelin, Kansas, Journey,
Steely Dan, Pink Floyd, Styx, Van Halen, and early Dream Theater
to name a few. We could go on and on……
Are there
any interesting stories to tell about the songs?
Each song has it’s own story to be told; however, the lyrics
are written in a way so they can be generic and appeal to
everyone in individual ways.
Have you
been trying to get in touch with labels yet?
We are currently putting together a promo pack to begin shopping
the material, and thanks to the help of magazines such as
Strutter’zine, we are finding the addresses and websites we
need in order to start getting the music heard, and that’s
one of the most important steps.
Are you
popular in your area?
Under Twist of Fate we had an awesome following. Under the new
name we are still working on polishing the material and live show
in order to get out in the circuit.
What are
the plans for the next coming months?
Get our promo pack and live show together and start “pounding
the pavement”.
Do we have
anything to add to our readers?
Check out our website www.harmony-park.com and sign the guestbook (let us
know if you’re looking for a copy of the cd)!
