The Reign was formed In 1985 By Joe Caravella & Lenny Kibanoff, Over The years This band has endured Line up changes, name Changes (Always reverting back to The Reign after the brief changes) (Joe says "You may have even seen us live in one of our other incarnations" "Ground" "Just Jake" Late Model Jesus"), Death of Band members, Jail, Drug addiction, Alcoholism, Rehab, Egotism, Revolving door members, stints in the Army it is Like an Episode of Behind The Music. But the thing that endures as is with any band with quality songcraft is The Music!!! The Music is always the final story & in reality, it's the only story you need listen to. The Band is currently Releasing it's Long Awaited Debut CD "The Long Wait". There had been a few abandoned attempts at such a task in 1989-91 (Record company folded), 1993 Band Mismanagement By former band Manager, 1998 when The studio erased the master tapes with the sessions of another band (Lyric Studios), 2000 Line up split Tapes destroyed by Drummer who worked at The studio , 2001 Band turned album into 4 song EP but couldn't find label willing to release EP & Then The Bass Player Passed away The band did issue the EP later in 2016 after fans have had a chance to get The Debut album "The Long Wait" Joe states that "it's not like we haven't tried to give our Long time fan base something tangible. we just have this "Spinal tap" Black Cloud that seems to hover around & when ever we get some steam in our engines a tornado sweeps it away & blows our train off track, we have had 2 Bass Players Die, 2 Record company's play games with us, a recording studio with an inept & drunken Engineer who couldn't Tell The difference between a fresh stack of 2 inch master tapes & a stack of 2 inch tapes with our sessions on it, & Then we have had The Revolving door Band mates & a drummer with a broken neck (Lenny), another drummer who was filling in for Lenny (John) had major surgeries on his spine as well. Plus I had 5 Major surgeries between 2005 & 2010 so it has been daunting & Then there's The feuding between former band mates & co-writers it's a horror show but..... The Music is enduring & The fans Love the music & that's what keeps me going... The Band started recording it's debut on June 26Th 2006 the Line up at The Time was Joe Caravella On Guitar & Vocals , Lenny Kibanoff On Drums , Rob Mayer On Guitar, Konstantine On Bass, soon after Laying down basic Tracks to the first half Of The album Rob & Kon Jumped ship. Joe didn't Flinch he proceeded to find a new studio, took The Master hard drive with the 8 songs & found a new studio Persico studios in Ozone Park, run By Frank Persico. Joe States "Frank is a genius he instinctively Knows what I am looking to do artistically & has The ears to help me get my musical vision committed to The Tracks he also has lent his amazing Lead Guitar playing skills to a number of The tracks .He is The F**king Bomb!!! he kills it every time best damn solos I ever had on my songs & I have had some damn good lead guitar players in The band over the years" Once in Persico Studios Joe brought back Marc Fox to The Band Marc was a Long-standing member of The Band from 1994-2003 then left when Rob & Kon Joined up but with the departure of Both of Those members Joe brought Marc in to help finish the tracks Not so Lonely, Nothing Comes around (Co-written by Joe & Marc) & Let me be The One Joe erased all of Konstantine's Bass Lines and re-cut all of The bass Parts Himself lending his More McCartney-esque styled Playing to the feel of The songs. Joe can Play 13 different musical instrument (not including percussion things Like maracas, tambourine etc... Joe can play those too Just doesn't count each he prefers to Lump them in with drums & percussion so you can say Joe Plays 25 different instruments), so with 8 tracks done for a album slated to have 16 songs on it Joe proceeded to let his folksy side come out & recorded 3 acoustic numbers (Sans drums) for The album bringing The album to 11 tracks but the album needed more Songs But Lenny had a major Motorcycle accident & was unable to finishing tracking for The album so In steps John Orestano on drums Joe States " John is a beast he can lay a tasty in the pocket Groove like nobody's business he gives you such a solid foundation you could build a musical skyscraper over his beats he made tracking the last 5 cuts of the album a easy breeze" Again Joe States "I was hoping he could stay on for Live gigs while Lenny made His long road to recovery. I'm Shocked Lenny miraculously didn't lose his ability to walk or use his arms , it actually is a miracle he is alive at all, spilling his bike at close to 70mph & flying over the Handlebars 250 feet into a culvert he should be worm food... but he's not & for That I am grateful he has been my drummer, & My adopted brother so to speak for more Than a quarter century! I Love ya Lenny!! get yourself up & rocking brother your drum seat is waiting for you Bro!!!!" But soon after The session for drum parts ended John required surgery himself for a spinal defect that he had since birth but was not aware of until he started getting numbness in his arms, Again Joe states "I really wanted John to Play live with me we have done a number of shows together back in 2000-2001 when Lenny took a LOA to attend to some personal issues that took him away from NYC & to sunny Fla , So John & I & the rest of The band opened for many rock icons In that year & 2 months it was an awesome time to have & made Lenny's absence much easier to overcome, but now alas John & Lenny were both recovering from their spine issues & are unavailable for Live gigs" in late 2014 Joe recruited a New Drummer for The Band Rob Postrel,also Frank Persico who has Been a member in the studio for recording with the Reign since 2007 finally is a full member now appearing with The Reign at certain Live performances as he also maintains a solo carear & works hard Running the recording studio where the Reign records thier albums. In dec 2015 The Reign Added Bass player/ Vocalist Ben Laffin Rose to the fold & Then In Aug Of 2017 The Reign Parted ways with Thier drummer at the time Rob Postrel hes was replaced in the line up with former drummer John Orestano , & This current Line up will be recording 2 albums fairly Quickly, as The Reign prepare to release thier EP of Cover songs "Faithfully Yours" As well as The long awaited follow up 2nd album "Storm" which should be released in the early part of 2019 (The Faithfully Yours EP & storm albums will ge the last & Only 2 releases to feature Rob Postrel On Drums but with those 2 releases & The 2 albums in pre production with John on drums it's a safe bet fans will be hearing alot from The Reign over the next few years
Music is Life simply put I have been doing it for almost as long as I can remember. I started Music Lessons at 7 years od I ws gigging in a band by the time I was 12 by the time I was in my early 20's i was touring with national acts
I am Pretty much living my dream I am a full-time Musician, due to the state of The Industry currently not nearly as lucrative as it used to be but I am still doing the thing I Love and dedicated 3/4 of my life to
Preserving Our wildlife and Animals, Then I would try and save our Music Pioneers legacy's it is sad that today's Kids have been force fed pretty generic non-innovative music and they actually think its amazing
Just about anythign By Teh Beatles
wow the list is Long a Varied but if I had to choose a short list of say 25 Bands/Artists that make life beautiful 1- The Beatles 2 -Badfinger 3 -The Bee Gees (Pre disco 1964-1974) 4 - Elvis Costello 5 -The Raspberries 6 - Stone Temple Pilots 7 -The Zombies 8 -The Kinks 9 -XTC 10 - The Myracle Brah/Andy Bopp 11 -The Cure 12 - Big Star 13 -David Bowie 14 - The Who 15 - The Hollies 16 - Pink Floyd 17 - Tom Petty 18 - Marshall Crenshaw 19 - R.E.M (the IRS Years Not after signing to WB) 20 - Enuff Z'Nuff 21 - Led Zeppelin 22 -The Rascals 23 -Redd Kross 24 - Otis Redding 25 - The Monkees
Love seriously falling in & falling Out nothing like a woman to make a man lose his Freakign Mind
Love is The answer & The question LOL
Like Life really matters , to know taht a song or a lyric or even a guitar solo can make one person forget about allthe shit in life that bringsthem down & they smile and laugh & sing and to Know It is My Music that is taking them out of their daily whatevers that brng them down & forget about that shit for the few hours they are at a gig really makes life worthwhile
ohh my god I could probably writea book I would almost have to answer this in 20 subsections but Lets just focus on one serious Major reality...Venues that provide performence space for bands & artists OK it is not just teh abnds responcibility to bring yoru crowds we bring our own but a venue must have ts own following and it should make its regulars aware that Live music is provided and they need to stop tring to wiggle out of paying a band fair wage for their talents clubs in NYC for example tend to pay bands 3 4 or 5 pice bands between 200 & 500 dollars a night ok your payign a band to play for 1 or 2 or 3 hours mostly 3 hours I am finding to be the norm nowadays , & your payign a band to play 45 50 songs in that 3 hours the freakign effort it takes to learn practice and perfect that music the equitment the dragging of Heavey Gear amps PA systems drums kits etc.... would you actually wanna play a 3 hour show plus teh hour it takes to load teh gear in teh car, unload the gear into teh venue set upmthe Gear (min 11 hours tiem if not Longer) then do teh same after playing for 3 hours etc then get handed 300 bucks to be split 4 ways thats horrible clubs need to pay the bands a min of $1,000 A NIGHT WOULD YOU Pay a specialist say a Lawyer or say Brain surgeon 300 bucks to remove a brain tumor??? remeber it takes almost as long to gain the skill set to be a profession Musician as it does to become a damn surgeon so why would you try & pay a musican such low ball numbers?? would you pay yoru Plummer 100 bucks to fix your drainage syetms? would you pay an electrician 100 bucks to install all the lighting in your venue then why would you pay the 4 guys who are expected to bring a crowd to entertain that crowd plus your regulars such a shitty wage remeber you get what you pay for as well the better musicians wont work for slave wages so yoru onna get lower caliber Musicians to play & that will cause your venue to lose patrons think about that for a few
it has value but it is very time consuming I think the Karma points earned should be increased
lack of respect & Lack of fair earning wages
of course I aways tend to suport other local bands when I myself am not Gigging I always go see a band I have heard good things about and it is always a good thing to keep up with the compitition as well
Personality & some catchy songs definately doesn't hurt
Myracle Brah Bleu The Honeydogs