Mad Symphony’s melodic hard-rocking sounds travelled all the way to Australia for the band’s record deal.
Melbourne-based MR Records has signed the sextet, three members of which are Surrey-area musicians Kevin Wright (vocals), Ted Tosoff (rhythm guitar) and Amrit Prasad (bass), along with Maple Ridge players Dave Groves (lead guitar) and Mike Russell (keyboards), and Vancouver’s Wes Hallam (drums).
“Mad Symphony writes songs with a message of hope and resiliency that hearkens back to the glory days of rock and roll,” the record label raved in a February announcement, which noted the band’s goal of creating “memorable and powerful music that resonates with the listener both in style and substance.”
Mad Symphony formed a few years ago as a project involving six well-travelled musicians.
In 2018, Groves and Hallam joined with multi-instrumentalist/producer/engineer Ted Tosoff, of Blue Voodoo fame, to begin writing for a new, as-yet-unnamed band. Wright was recruited for vocals, followed by Russell and Prasad. Rehearsals and gigs kept Mad Symphony busy before COVID pretty much killed live music in the spring of 2020.
(Story continues below video for the song “Sell Me Out”)
Time off from local stages has allowed the band to focus on songwriting and recording a debut EP, pre-orders for which are now live for May 13 shipping, via melodicrockrecords.com. Song titles include “Do It All Over Again,” “The Next Door,” “Sell Me Out,” “Nothin’” and “Bittersweet Bye Bye,” with “Truth in the Shadows” named first single.
In February, “Sell Me Out” was announced as a semi-finalist in the International Songwriting Competition (ISC).
The self-titled debut “represents the hard-rocking soundtrack to the lives of all six band members,” according to Groves. “Spanning many influences, from the glory days of rock to the present, the sounds of metal, progressive, classic, and symphonic rock music are seamlessly combined with commentary on modern society and culture. Timeless songs for a post-pandemic world.”
The Mad Symphony logo is featured on a range of “merch” (merchandise) on the website redbubble.com, including T-shirts, hoodies, stickers, phone cases, coffee mugs, face masks and more.
On the lighter side, the band’s “Reality Check (self-isolation video)” on YouTube starts with a “Brady Bunch”-style band introduction, followed by the performance of the song by members in different rooms/spaces.
Also worth watching on Mad Symphony’s channel is a devilish video of the band’s “signing” to MR Records.
tom.zillich@surreynowleader.com
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