Alaska ( circa 1981 )
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6,516 views
EARLY 1980s PROGRESSIVE ROCK BAND.
Started out as mostly covers playing Genesis, Yes, Rush, Kansas, Moody Blues, Pink Floyd. Moved into writing and
completed 6 original songs before disbanding in 1982.Band/artist history
After ORION broke up, I (Joel Pirard) joined Alaska, for a brief time Jeff Kalmar (also from ORION) was in the band but soon left. Soon Don Pitz joined as singer, and also Dan Paladino on guitar and vocals. Tom Scopac on bass and vocals, and Marty Thall, on drums were the only original members when we all joined. We played prog covers, and wrote a few originals. RUN IN THE RAIN and SILVERBIRD from ORION were carryovers from me, ( as far as I know there are no recordings of us playing Silverbird in existence.) SEVEN SOURCES (the song) was written in the last days of ORION, and was performed with them but only a few times, and there are no recordings of that band doing it, This is the band that really fleshed it out. We played this a lot in our short group existence. I recorded it for the Seven sources cd PARIAH. I wrote SOMETHING IS CALLING ME in this band for these guys, and AVALON USA did it as well, also I recorded it for the Seven Sources cd THE SHADOW PLAY, again with Don singing it. The song SECRET RENDEZVOUS was written by Tom Marty and me, later (years later) recorded by me and Don and unreleased (officially) so far. ( It is on Soundclick under Seven Sources ) DREAMDAY was largely written by Tom and Marty with a few ideas added by Dan, and I, and lyrics by Don.
We sadly broke up over some internal stuff, and after all we were in our 20's and looking to do other things. Dan went on to Berkley School of Music, and is a teacher and professional guitarist. Marty was big with IBM and a few other computer firms, Tom is located in Westchester, (I think does real estate development) Don and I are in THE JDA PROJECT ( also here on Soundclick)Have you performed in front of an audience?YES quite a few times
Your musical influences
YES, GENESIS, RUSH, KANSAS, ELP, also past band material for other groups.
668 plays
6,517 views
6,517 views
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