Raised in Herkimer, NY., Joey grew up very laid back. More of a follower than a leader in his young age. Until the day he discovered the guitar. He started things off with a "one string" acoustic guitar but that didn't slow him down at all. Playing everything from radio hits to Christmas tunes, music was in his blood. At age 13 he saturated his brain with the intense riffing of what was soon to be his favorite band...Metallica. Keeping up with his heroes, he couldn't put the guitar down. At this point, his guitar never took second place. Metallica soon ran out of songs for him to learn and so the writing process began to take off.
The ideas began to pour out. Always creating new melodies, Joey started his first band. Since Herkimer did not have the right demographics for an original band, they played cover songs primarily. Joey's first original "Plead", dedicated to his passion to play, was the bands only original. Sick of playing all covers, Joey split with drummer Eric Ervin to continue writing originals. He formed his second band "Melee" and recorded a 4 song EP. Although the songs were well written and quite advanced, the recording was not up to standards to shop to major labels. They gave the demo away in Time Square outside of Virgin Records in New York City. Receiving positive praise from the EP, it was time to pursue a bigger crowd than Herkimer.
"The Move"
Craving a bigger audience, Joey was headed to the west coast (LA) and asked Eric to go with him. After negotiating, the two ended up in Scottsdale, AZ. where they moved in with a friend who lived there. They found the other members of the band through flyers, adds and friends. Thomas Shepherd, landed the bass gig, and Paul Couts came in as lead guitar. Punishing the metal scene in Phoenix, Melee was the only "throwback" 80's sounding thrash/metal band, ending their sets with one cover song...either "Hit the Lights" or "Hangar 18" to pay tribute to their idols. After changing the name to "Militia", a salute to Metallica's "Metal Militia", the band recorded their first EP "Fire at Will". Unfortunately the same was true for the second EP. Very advanced songs and a sub-par recording. Militia began toying with the idea of a new singer. Joey did not like the idea but humored his band mates and started the search. After multiple auditions, Joey could not stomach it anymore. Unhappy with just playing guitar for the band he founded, Militia disbanded.
"Flying Solo"
Torn up by Militia's break up, Joey started building his own studio. He began to record songs by himself which out performed his prior recordings in all fields. He then took a handful of voice lessons from Robert Mason (former singer of the Lynch Mob and Cry of Love). Although lessons were brief, they opened his eyes to a number of flaws in his vocal approach. By January of 2006, Joey had 3 solid recordings which he began to promote with intentions was to lure in the talent he needed. Once again, the songs generated positive praise immediately and became widely accepted in the metal community. Recording all the while, he auditioned a handful of musicians with little success.
"The Alliance"
Finally in early July of 2008, Sectas's drummer Brian Regalado, stumbled upon Joey's website. Although Brian and Joey were acquainted from playing shows together during the Militia days, Brian had not heard the material until this point. Enthralled with the performance on the tracks, Joey had Brian's full attention. However, tied and loyal to his band, Brian let another year go by before the two of them connected.
Eventually, the first practice came to be in early 2009. By this time, Joey's three song demo became the 8 song album "Stand in my Way". After blowing the walls down in Brian's studio apartment, they moved into a practice studio. A couple months went by before Brian invited guitar shredder David Gillies to a practice. Up to the challenge, David took to the material quickly and began learning the songs fast. Shredding every bit as fast as Joey, if not faster, David then adopted the role of "lead guitar". Joey was pleased to see the songs living up to their purpose. Unfortunately, after months of playing together, David left the band to persue another project. After going through two more musicians in the same manor, a change was on the horizon.
"The Move Part II : Berklee College of Music (Boston)"
Untied to Arizona, the opportunity for change became available. A 6 year desire with attending the world famous Berklee College of Music in Boston was now the plan of action. The idea of being in a community of serious musicians and attending the school of his idols (Dream Theater), was in progress. Also, the time and distance from family was wearing him down. After a tedious application, months of prepwork and an audition, performing an original and Metallica's "Battery", Joey was accepted to attend Berklee. In spite of the excitement, a difficult transition laid ahead as he had to leave his sister Andrea behind in Arizon as well as his dedicated and loyal drummer, Brian.
By writing music, Joey continues to pursue his passion in life as he gears up for the next chapter, attending Berklee. However, he leaves himself open to the possibility of taking another avenue of music should it come along.
