Member Since: 12/16/2006
Band Members:
Lead Vocals/Frontman:
Raman Nathaniel
Guitars/Backing vocals:
Si Taylor
Here's what Si has to say about himself:
"I’ve been playing guitar for about 26 years, playing in various bands, from Punk to funk and everything in between...... I have spent many a year playing in small sweaty pubs & clubs and midnight hours spend head down over a mixing desk in the studio, but great hands on experience.... priceless!
I got a lot of playing influences from the early days of Pink Floyd, David Bowie and then the punk movement, which was a fantastic time with so many new and diverse bands all, with something to say, The Jam, Stranglers, Dead Kennedy’s, Eddy & The Hot Rods, Buzzcocks, The Clash, NY Dolls, The Undertones, just to mention a few, and some great modern day bands such as The Fratellis and The Kooks are still an influence....
My playing style, I think is a mixture of these influences from punk chordal arrangements and very improvised lead moments, to at times subtle and laidback emotive expression, but always generated by the mood of the moment.... if something buzzes me up then it come out in my playing....... I’m not into hours of practice or one who can stand musicians with ego’s bigger than their balls.... It’s all the performance, that’s what I try to achieve, energy, mood and fun...."
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Bass/Backing vocals:
Owen Wilson
Here's what Owen has to say about himself:
"I learnt to play bass in the early 80's, so was influenced by much of the music at that time whether it was synth based, such as Depeche Mode, Gary Numan, Ultravox etc or guitar based music such as AC/DC, Rainbow ,Motorhead, to name but a few!! U2 were also another major influence. I think today’s music industry is the best its been in a long time with such bands as the Kaiser Chiefs, The Automatic, Foo Fighters, Green Day...the list is endless!
I formed my first band when I was at Hazelwick School, with some lads in the same class as me. We used to put on gigs after school with other bands; it all came to an end when we left school. After that I played in a couple of The Cure influenced bands, then in winter 1987 I got a reply from an ad I put in a Reigate music shop wondering whether I would be interested in playing bass for this band called "Eleanor Rigby" who were just about to embark on a European tour...naturally I said..Err yess!!
During the 90's I have played in various original bands, in 1994 started playing covers for the first time in a band called "The Hot Dogs Comedy Rock Band" which lasted until 1996, in early 1997 I formed another rock covers band with ex Hot Dogs drummer Alan Moore by the name of "Twister" we did few gigs around the Crawley area, then due to other commitments we called it a day at the end of 1998.
Due to a change of circumstance in 2006 I was able to look into getting into another band, I found out about this band called “Kindred†who were looking for a bass player. I e-mailed this bloke by the name of Raman, he replied by saying that he was looking into getting another band together and asked: wanna play bass?....."
Drums:
Paul Guinan
Here's what Paul has to say about himself:
"Hard 70’s and 80’s rock appealed to me more than any other style of music, after the age of 11; and Spandau Ballet just didn’t flick my switch, unfortunately. Despite coming from a musical family, and other than having a few piano lessons from my older sister, I had no idea I was musical myself at all. I recorded and studied endless episodes of ‘The Friday Rock Show’ with Tommy Vance as DJ, and I think subliminally I was ‘taking it all in’
I first sat at my brother-in-law’s drum kit when I was 14 years old (1988) and didn’t have a clue in the world what to do on it. He showed me the basic 4/4 rock beat, then demonstrated a funk beat,……and I was blown away. I couldn’t get drums out of my head, and my brother-in-law very kindly GAVE me that 1960’s Premier Red Sparkle!!!!
Music lessons didn’t appeal to me in my teens (that stubborn age), so I taught myself by watching footage of John Bonham, Charlie Watts, Frank Beard and Keith Moon (amongst others) over and over again through the medium of Betamax. Bonham was my biggest hero though.
Growing up in Lancaster in the Northwest, was a great place to be a budding musician,…………there were bands EVERYWHERE up there. Having Lancaster University and St Martins College nearby resulted in seemingly endless groups of music-hungry students who needed a drummer. I did my first set of gigs when I was 16, and as my playing progressed from the Stones and Beatles covers in my first 6th Form band ‘Brick’, I met a superb lead guitarist called Andy Slatter at an audition in 1990. He opened my eyes to the more adventurous world of playing prog-rock and rock that incorporated non-conventional time signatures.
A diet of Yes, Rush, Marillion, Genesis, Floyd, Kansas, Dave Brubeck, Uriah Heep, Van Halen and Focus then filled me up from my Amstrad music centre. I knew I could never be as great as all the talented drummers on these albums, but I certainly took vital pieces and ideas from them to play in my slightly more simplified versions of those styles when I came to incorporate them in bands. Andy, myself and others jammed, jammed and then jammed some more. In fact over the years I’ve done far more jamming than I’ve done gigging. Freestyle jamming to me is crucial for development, for exploring different avenues of music/dynamics/feel etc, and for sussing out the other musicians in the band properly. I gigged and recorded in various local bands around the North Lancashire area for a few years (Brick/ Feed/ Intovision/ The Review/ Over The Edge/ Potential Superstar/ Spurge and so on) and even ended up in 3 bands at once for a while. It was probably a 50/50 split between being in covers bands and in originals bands, and playing the Morecambe Dome twice is one of my highlights.
I left Lancaster in 1996 when I met Rachel, and we relocated to the Horsham area with her new teaching job. Music took a back seat for a while, and I didn’t do another gig for well over two years. After getting a band together in 1999 for a one-off gig at the Holbrook Club in Horsham (Sun Alliance Club back then), I got a taste for music again and later ended up in an 8-piece covers band called Dali’s Angels. I gigged all around West London and Sussex with them until soon after my first son was born, at which time I gave up drumming and work to be a full-time housedad.
By accident I stumbled across an incredible young lead guitarist by the name of Matt Love in a music shop in Crawley, and he reopened my eyes to the excitement of playing Deep Purple, Sabbath, Robin Trower, Hendrix and original ideas. Again, I jammed and rehearsed with him far more than I played gigs, but it brought my playing up to scratch once more
So, after doing drum demonstrations in pre-schools and primary schools, jamming around with other musicians in the Horsham and Crawley area, attending jam-nights and doing more bits of recording, our second son was born, and I effectively had another year or two off. No more children are planned, my DIY/house renovations have almost come to a close, I need a ready-to-go, ready made, regularly gigging fun band, and WALLOP!!!!……………a band called Chinchilla Zilla needs a drummer.
The audition felt good last week and the lads are great. I couldn’t ask for more, and it’s what I’ve always needed. The previous drummer Spence, is a very, very fine and highly experienced player, both live and in the studio. I have a large pair of shoes to try to fill here!
I currently play a Yamaha kit with a DW Aluminium Collector’s Series snare, DW pedals, and Zildjian K, K Custom, and A Custom cymbals. Any percussion I have is by LP.
My musical tastes these days are hugely diverse, with Metallica, Megadeth, Dream Theater, Deep Purple, Whitesnake at one end of my collection, Jamiroquai, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder in the middle, and Dolly Parton, Neil Diamond, Paul Simon, Faithless and Air down the other end. Music is music, and I just love performing generally. Ian Paice is my all-time drum hero by the way.
Getting my playing back up to scratch for this band is a priority, and I’ll be investing in some formal lessons to further improve my technique and then start to teach drums myself on a professional basis (I’ve taught people casually in the past). I’ll probably change my drum ‘shell-pack’ for something a little different soon too.
I look forward to seeing you all during the next busy gigging calendar-year, and I’m excited to be a part of all this."
LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL!!!!
Guitars/Backing vocals:
Ed Van Hayes
Here's what Ed has to say about himself:
"I met Raman and Co. through my band, Uncovered's ex-drummer Pete Wilkinson. After playing bands side by side at Rock Copthorne I had come to the conclusion that this group of fellas were pumped up with ROCKSoul.
A few months later I get an e-mail from Raman asking me to play back up for Si whilst he has his sprog. I could not say no. Starting songs wrong, not remembering chords and being mostly appealing to the over 70s is how I rock, apparently. But that is what rock is all about or at least, what it should be about.
I picked up my first guitar at the end of 2000, I was 13. In January I started lessons at school, and eventually bought my own guitar which has been treated not very well and now only half works. Dropping lessons with the shoddy teacher from the school after he "buggered" off on a cruise (unstated what kind) I picked up lessons with local gigger Bob Falloon Jr. Being mainly jazz orientated, he managed to help me develop a lot more on my technique, but managed to hand my ROCKSoul. Learning all sorts of scale patterns and little tweaks my playing started to get more and more natural. Parting ways with my guitar guru at about seventeen, I was left to improve myself alone. G n R came to me and I had started jamming with my school friends more often, but this all fell apart when they "buggered" off to universities (unstated what kind). However, my alter-ego "Eddie Van Hayes" was hovering just over the horizon...
My main influences are Hard Rock and Metal, as can be seen in some of my performances. Weapon of choice is the typically the Fender Strat, either my new baby Laurella or Patricia my EVH inspired beast of wood covered in PVC (like all the sexiest ones are!) When not jammin' with the Zilla lads or rocking hard with Uncovered I tend to sit in my room imitating Eddie Van Halen as much as my fingers will let me, (which is not a great amount) One of my main aspirations is to start my own Van Halen tribute band, however, finding someone who wants to sing like David Lee Roth and do his foot to ear "Lee Roth Kicks" is almost impossible. This plan has been put on the back burner for now.
I am Eddie Zilla Van Halen (EZVH)…
Influences: The Kinks
The Who
The Specials
The Rolling Stones
Blur
The Kaiser Chiefs
Ian Drury & The Blockheads
The Buzzcocks
The Police
The Killers
And many...many...more...
Sounds Like:
Record Label: Unsigned
Type of Label: None