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FRIDAY'S CHILD BIO
Since its original formation in 1996, Friday's Child has continued to defy any boundary or category in the music business.
Tom Walker, front man for the band, put Friday's Child on the map through a continuous tour of clubs, colleges and in-store performances at Borders Books and Music Stores all over the country.
Listed under its own genre, Power Acoustic, Friday's Child's iconoclastic presence in the market has made the band a benchmark in the Indie music world. Ignoring the conventional music business, Friday's Child focused the majority of its resources on creating a large Internet audience and constant touring. The band innovated the most coordinated national café music store tour of the Borders chain ever conceived by an Indie band. It lasted 7 years and made the band one of the best-selling Indie bands in the country.
Through these efforts, Friday's Child headlined major music venues and festivals around the country and shared stages with major label acts, all while selling its music and merchandise through its own label, Honeybee Music.
Friday's Child was voted Best Rock Band by millions of surveyed Internet radio listeners worldwide, with three songs tied for number 1 in the Rock category for two years running. Tom's savvy guerilla marketing techniques led Friday's Child to be featured in the best-selling book, "The Real Deal: How to Get Signed to a Record Label," by Daylle Deanna Schwartz. Friday's Child was also one of the first Indie bands to focus most of their marketing efforts to on-line audiences. The band has hosted panels Internet Music Marketing, promoted events, and showcased on at major music festivals such as CMJ, Atlantis, and The Folk Alliance.
In 2003, a battle with CNS Lyme Disease caused a permanent form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and left Tom Walker partially paralyzed from the neck down for half of that year. In the same year, Rick Ippolito left Friday's Child, and the original incarnation of Friday's Child disbanded.
At the end of that year, Tom partnered up with Jim Wilgus, owner of The Den Recording Studio, where Friday's Child had recorded three albums. A fine writer, producer and musician, Jim Wilgus encouraged Tom to go back into the recording studio, numb hands and all. The two musicians spent many hours going back to the core of Tom's songwriting. Jim pushed Tom to make a solo album, on which Jim played drums and was responsible for co-arranging. Jim brought in bassist, Rich Haddad, to round out the core of the new trio for the recording. He was joined by Karl Kessler on violin and viola. That recording became "In a Word." Initially released in 2004 as a solo album, Jim's producing and drumming combined with Rich Haddad's grounded bass playing and stellar vocal harmonies formed the seeds of a new sound.
Meanwhile, Tom, through lots of medicine and rigorous martial arts training, miraculously recovered much of his mobility. Though damage to his C4 spinal cord left his hands permanently and partially numb, Tom went back to his classical and jazz training and rehabilitated his hands to the point where the playing that earned him multiple instrument endorsements, including Taylor Guitars, was restored.
Bound and determined to get back on the horse, Tom re-formed Friday's Child with his new production partner/bassist, Rich Haddad. Rich re-mixed "In a Word," and together they re-released the title in 2005 officially as a Friday's Child title. Initially, the album came out through Bayside Records, Tower's label. However, Tower's ultimate demise reverted that title back to Honeybee Music.
Rich brought in drummer, Rob Grosso, to take Jim Wilgus' spot for live shows, and Tom's childhood guitar mentor, Don "The Professor' Regan also joined the band. The new Friday's Child lineup took the stage at the 2005 Florida Music Festival. The return of the Friday's Child trademark garnered a full-page article on the front of The Orlando Sentinel's Music section.
At the end of 2005, Friday's Child partnered with Brian Jude of Dragon Rider Productions to recorded a concert DVD called "Live at Luna Stage." The first edited clips of the show were very powerful and reached a large, devoted on-line audience in a very compelling way. At the same time, the band noticed that they were outselling their own CD's with their digital downloads.
A new door opened. Friday's Child re-focused its efforts to capturing any and all live performances on audio and video as a new form of syndication called Indie-cation ™. Gathering a marketing collective of Indie artists, The Digital Café Tour was born. Shooting from May to December in 2006, DCT aggregated 60 hours of concert and "Broaden Your Band" instructional documentary footage. DCT launched in 2006 with a bang at New York City's The Cutting Room. Visit www.digitalcafetour.com to view sample clips from DCT's series.
In June of 2007, Friday's Child said farewell to drummer, Rob Grosso, after his three-year tenure in the band. Rob's solid groove propelled all of Friday's Child's DCT video concerts and the latest album, "Democracy." He will be missed.
Kevin Jahoda, formerly the drummer and mind behind popular New York Indie rock band, Surrey Lane, joined Friday's Child in November of 2006 on percussion. After the departure of Rob Grosso, Kevin assumed the throne... the drum throne... for Friday's Child.
Currently, the band has devoted all of its efforts to promoting DigitalCafeTour.com, of which Tom is President and Richie, Director of Audio Production, with Kevin lending a hand in various capacities. It is Friday's Child's belief that DCT's Live 2.0 movement is the future of Independent music.
The band has slimmed back down to a trio, lately. Tom, Rich, and Kevin are currently working on two albums' worth of new material toward a new recording.