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Metamorphosis is was the result of five months of hard work and late nights. Composer/performer Dan Shimmyo says, "I called the CD Metamorphosis for a lot of reasons. The main reason is that the CD is a symbol that I've finally transformed my dreams into reality." The style of music on Metamorphosis ranges from Progressive Hard Rock to Heavy Metal. Dan's influences include bands such as Rush, Dream Theater, Deep Purple, Van Halen, Yes and Mr. Big. His strongest influences as a guitarist are Paul Gilbert, Richie Blackmore and Alex Lifeson. Powerful progressive rock ranging in style from classical to cutting edge. Alternative Rock Dan Shimmyo has been playing the guitar since 1985. His influences include guitarists like Paul Gilbert, John Petrucci, Eric Johnson, Alex Lifeson, and Richie Blackmore. His compositions range in style from classical to progressive rock. Dan is a one-man band -- not only did he play the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, he was the producer, recording engineer and graphic artist on his first CD release entitled Metamorphosis. Currently Dan is busy running his own record label and is working on new releases. SHIMMYO is the creation of guitarist Dan Shimmyo. It is, in fact, a band of one. "I feel that I've created something separate from myself which is responsible for the music on the album. I like to think of it as a band because I have a different style on each instrument that I play. When I write a song from a bass player's point of view, the song turns out differently from when I write from the guitarist's point of view. Writing music is never boring for me because I just choose a different instrument and I get new ideas." Not only does Dan play the guitar, bass, keyboards and drums, he is the producer, recording engineer and graphic artist for his first CD release entitled Metamorphosis. Dan's musical career started with piano lessons when he was about five years old. He never liked it much but took lessons for about 10 years. What he didn't realize then was that having never learned how to sight-read the music he had developed a very good ear for music. "I would just memorize every song I had to play and I would pretend to be reading it." In 1985 Dan left home to go to boarding school. He brought a new guitar with him which his parents' bought for him. Dan found himself practicing a lot but studying very little. By his junior year he had formed a band called Rude Awakening. : "While I was in that band I learned to play the drums even though I was the guitarist. We played in this tiny little building called the Piano House. I used to go there at night and practice on my friend's drum set. We used to play covers from Led Zeppelin, The Cult, Black Sabbath and Van Halen. We were your typical high school band." After high school Dan enrolled at the University of Rochester where he earned a degree in Applied Mathematics. While at the university, Dan played in a few bands but none of them stayed together very long. "I used to jam with some friends from Erie, PA. It was me, my roommate who was from Erie, and two of his friends. The two friends would come up the week of the concert and that's when we'd come up with the song list and start practicing. I ended up singing most of the songs and playing the guitar. I forgot a lot of the words but it was still a lot of fun." Dan played bass in another band for a few months." I was in a band that was playing some originals so I got to write my own bass lines. It was a real challenge. I loved being the bass player. I sometimes think it's cooler to be the bass player than the guitarist. I think people take you more seriously when you're the bass player. I've always listened to bands that have great bass players. I grew up listening to Rush and Iron Maiden. Geddy Lee and Steve Harris are two of my strongest influences." In the summer of 1991 during his Junior year at the University of Rochester, Dan purchased his first 4-track recorder. It was that summer that he composed Prayer for Louis which was inspired by the book Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice. Dan acquired recording skills over the years as he upgraded to an 8-track recorder. In the summer of 1992 he recorded Boomerang to be submitted in a song contest. In August of 1993 he recorded an early version of Rude Awakening, a song named after and inspired by his first band. In 1994, now a college grad, Dan found himself working several computer jobs until he decided to produce his own CD in 1995. In May 1995 he purchased software for his Apple Power Macintosh 6100/60 AV that would allow him to record CD quality music right on his computer. It was with that software (Deck II from OSC) that he produced the entire CD." Deck II is by far the best program I've ever run on my computer. It's incredible! The quality of recording one can achieve with that program is limitless." While the older songs were being recorded or remixed, Dan wrote a couple of new songs. Reflections was written as part of a movie soundtrack for a short film made by some friends of his." It's a short horror film. Around that time I needed inspiration for new song. The movie was the perfect thing to inspire some new music." Twist of Fate was the last song to go on the CD." It took a very short time to write and record. I was feeling some strong emotions at the time and that made it very easy to express myself with music. I think I captured a lot of that raw emotion in that song. It's the closest thing to live music that you'll find on the CD." The two Bach pieces, Invention #8 and Invention #13 were favorites of Dan's for many years. "I had thought about doing Invention #8 for about four years after a friend of mine suggested it. At the time I figured it was too difficult. When I started work on the CD I thought about putting something amazing on the CD. So, I decided to do the impossible and record a guitar version of Invention #8. I really didn't think I could do it but I managed somehow. After finishing Invention #8 I was motivated to do Invention #13. Now I think I can do anything." "I sometimes spend time composing my guitar solos before going into the studio but I prefer to improvise. My improvised solos tend to be a lot more exciting and emotional than planned ones. To this day I have never taken any guitar lessons. I credit most of my technical training to an instructional video by Paul Gilbert of Mr. Big. I used to want to play exactly like him. I practiced so much that I got tendonitis or something. I don't know for sure but I stopped playing for about a week. These days I just want to play music that excites me and I don't worry so much about my technique anymore. I think I'm pretty close to developing my own style but I try not to limit myself to one style of playing." Currently Dan is busy running his own record label and is working on his next release which is a collaborative effort with a keyboard player/composer named RAM ." We've recorded a 16+ minute instrumental piece that really rocks. It's a very melodic and energetic piece." They're calling themselves Heavy Reign. The CD is scheduled to be released in late 1996 and will be entitled BC/AD. Track List: 1. Rude Awakening 2. Boomerang 3. Invention #8 4. Prayer for Louis 5. Reflections 6. Invention #13 7. Twist of Fate Other Genres: |