About Me
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COLLUSION was started in the summer of 2006, when Xander Snyder decided to record some songs he had written. For talent he needn’t look further than two of his best and closest friends from his childhood (Melanya Torosyan, lead vocals, and Layla Hababeh, keyboards) to begin the band. After gaining Mike Chitarians, bass, who was a friend of Melanya’s, COLLUSION rehearsed rigorously throughout the summer of 2006, entering the recording studio near the end of July. On drums was Alex Duddy, another friend of Melanya’s, who agreed to help the group out due to the lack of a permanent drummer. After a few weeks of recording and mixing at Stereo Train Studios in Burbank, COLLUSION finished their EP, “Two,†which is currently available at www.cdbaby.com/collusion, as well as iTunes. Even as school started back up for all the members of the band, the end of 2006 was a productive time for COLLUSION, as they collaborated across the country in writing two new songs that were recorded during winter break. These two songs, Failure and Impossible, are available on COLLUSION’s website, www.myspace.com/metalcollusion. Failure, one of their fastest and most aggressive songs yet, jumped over 150 spots on the metal charts at www.garageband.com in the first two days it was posted, and on the third day it received the “Best Female Singer†of the week award in the entire metal genre in addition to receiving a very rare 5-start rating. In addition to these two new songs, COLLUSION found a new permanent drummer, Emin Abdalian (not pictured above), who complimented the band’s tastes and attitudes perfectly. COLLUSION’s songs have been receiving airplay all over the country and the world. Members Xander Snyder - Lead Guitarist Xander Snyder was born on June 21, 1987 in Santa Monica, California and moved to Glendale when he was nine. He started playing classical piano at age six, and continued until he was ten, when he decided that he just wasn’t enjoying himself enough to keep going. He went on a musical hiatus for two years until he picked up an electric guitar on Thanksgiving Day in 1999 after a family dinner, turned up the distortion on the Marshall combo, and decided that this was the instrument for him. After taking a few lessons being exposed to greats such as Metallica, Megadeth, and Dream Theater, he decided that he needed a break to explore music on his own and try to find his musical self. In this period, he briefly took up classical piano lessons again with the world famous Dr. Beverly Serra-Brooks. In the next two years of Xander’s guitar studies, he continued playing in the high school jazz band, studying theory and improvisation independently and taking lessons with jazz guitarist and Berklee graduate Buddy Nuanez. Halfway through his senior year he decided that while he enjoyed the rigor of regimented guitar studies, jazz wasn’t for him, and he took up the classical guitar. While he was taking classical guitar lessons from Dr. Pablo Cohen at Ithaca College, Xander was also studying music theory at Cornell and taking composition lessons from Spencer Topel, a Julliard graduate and doctoral student in composition at Cornell. After much thought Xander decided to table his classical training and try to perfect his skills in his first love: metal. Second semester he dropped his composition, classical guitar, and theory practices to pick up his electric guitar and start playing rigorously and writing new music that turned into Collusion’s first EP release, Two, which was recorded in the summer of 2006. Some of his biggest influences include Dream Theater, Sonata Arctica, Nightwish, Children of Bodom, Kamelot, Dragonforce, Avenged Sevenfold, and Megadeth, Melanya Torosyan - Vocals Melanya Torosyan was born on January 3rd, 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia. She moved to Glendale, California about a year after her birth and ever since she can remember has been surrounded by music. Her mother would always sing at home and her eldest uncle is a well-known Armenian singer. Melanya was always shy about her voice so her parents never knew her potential until she bought a Sarah McLachlan song book at age sixteen. She has been classically training for about two years. Her favorite artists include Dream Theater, Therion, Opeth, Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Queen, Pink Floyd and many, many others. Her favorite vocalists are Renee Fleming, Freddie Mercury, and Sarah McLachlan. Melanya also enjoys Armenian folk dancing, painting, and loves to read. Michel Chitarians - Bassist Michel Chitarians was born on September 21, 1985 in Tehran, Iran. When he was 13, his family decided to move to Los Angeles, California for both his and his brother’s education. At the age of 16, inspired by the love he had for music, he started playing the bass guitar. The biggest inspirations in his life at that point were his mom, who was a pianist, and his brother, who played keyboards, piano, and guitar. As he became more involved, he discovered artists such as Les Claypool, Billy Sheehan, Stu Hamm, Roscoe Beck, and Flea, who all inspired him to start taking his instrument seriously. Michel first discovered metal when he was nine, after hearing of Judas Priest. However, he did not really become exposed and utterly obsessed with metal until age 16, after hearing bands like Stratovarius, Testament, Nevermore and Death. After two years of playing in different bands and projects, Mike got a call from an old friend, Melanya Torosyan, and was asked to come and audition for a band named to Collusion. It was a stretch, because he would have to learn all the songs to be recorded and enter the studio within a period of two weeks. Although he was already involved with another serious band, Mike gave Collusion a shot, performed incredibly, and was impressed with the songwriting. After recording, Mike has taken on the role as co-songwriter for Collusion with Xander Snyder, and is beginning to work on the full length release. Layla Hababeh - Keyboardist Layla Hababeh was born January 29, 1987 in Amman, Jordan. She moved to America at age 2 and grew up in Montrose, California. She has been playing classical piano since she was a toddler. She stuck with classical and romantic music until her freshman year of high school when she heard of Jordan Ruddess, the keyboardist of world renowned progressive metal band Dream Theater, who continues to be one of her leading musical influences today. After getting more into Dream Theater, she went out and bought her first keyboard and synthesizer, the Korg Triton Le, and began to learn some songs that he covered. One of her favorites is still Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. In high school, she participated in the pit orchestras for various musical performances, as well as the jazz band and any other ensembles that needed an exceptionally gifted keyboardist. Although she was busy with practice and schoolwork, she still took time on the weekends to play piano at the local hospital to for the sub-acute patients, where she realized that playing for people was all she wanted to do in life. After graduating in 2005, she attended UC Davis for a year and then transferred to USC to double-major in Psychology and Music performance. A couple of influences, among many, include Tool, Dream Theater, Avenged Sevenfold, Muse, Slipknot, Nightwish and Metallica. Emin Abdalian - Drummer Born in Germany, Emin was raised in a house full of music, culture and passion. His family moved to the US when he was two years old and settled in Glendale. Since his father was a musician, Emin was constantly surrounded by music. It was bound for him to pick up an instrument sooner or later. When he was ten, he took piano lessons, which didn’t last very long. A few years later he decided that he wanted to try the drums. He got his first set when he was thirteen. Soon, after he got better at the drums, he started jamming with friends. He was playing around in different bands in the Glendale area when, to his luck, his friend Xander gave him a call and extended the offer to join Collusion. Emin gladly took the offer and has never looked back.
