Vinyl Groove

Eclectic Dance, R&B & Rock

Who’s in Vinyl Groove

Tony—Drums, Vocals

Tony started playing drums at age thirteen after experimenting with the trumpet, clarinet and guitar.  He had a year in formal lessons but developed his playing style through listening to records and playing with other musicians. At sixteen he was in his first serious band, Presence, playing hard rock covers in bars on Long Island in the late 1970’s. I went to college upstate in Binghamton New York, where he first formed a classic rock covers band called No Exit.  By his junior year his musical influences had broadened considerably and he became a founding member of an original funk/fusion/rock bank called What the Funk.  WTF developed a loyal following and played in clubs, at college dances and won a college battle of the bands competition.

 

Back in New York City at graduate school, Tony started to establish new musical roots.  He joined an original progressive rock group called Play’n Jane which had moderate success playing in clubs like The Bitter End and other village establishments.  After some disagreement with the group’s musical direction, he left to form a power pop guitar oriented group called The Joy Buzzers, which played in hard rock/ punk/ grunge clubs on the lower east side.

 

During the early 1990’s family and career obligations conspired to minimize time for his musical aspirations, but by 1997 he had moved to LA and was able to re-ignite his love for music.  He brought an Roland electronic drum kit and started working with Bill Epps. a talented  songwriter  and multi-instrumentalist on composing and recording pop and R&B inspired material.

 

Tony returned to Connecticut in 2000 and joined Ethan Carey and his friends playing classic 60’s rock covers in bars in the Fairfield county area.  Vinyl Groove is my first fully directed covers band.  Formed with bassist Tim in 2005, we select a varied mix of songs from the 60’s through today that inspire folks to feel the “groove” and shake their booty.

 

Tony plays Yamaha acoustic and Roland electronic drums and a combination of Zildjian and Sabian cymbals. His strongest drumming influences are John Bonham, Stewart Copeland and Bill Bruford.