Doug Bryan

Doug Bryan needs no introduction to the tri state area/east coast music scene. At the young age of six, he got his first guitar, a nylon string Spanish Flamenco acoustic from his parents for his birthday. His parents then enrolled him into the local Childrens Cultural Workshop Weekend Music Study Class where he began to learn all about guitar.As it turns out it was this strict way of teaching Doug all about the guitar that ultimately led him to quit playing after only 3 months of workshop lessons and take up art instead. " I hated it, because at the time I thought you just pick the thing up, play it, and it all just happens like that." Doug continues..... "And my teacher in the workshop was some freak that was ready to whack my hands with a steel ruler if I made a mistake. I guess you could say I was way too young and way to nieve to understand that doing something like this actually took alot of work and alot of practice so I gave it up."It was around 1981 that then 12 year old Doug heard something what ultimately would lead him back to that very same guitar to not only learn how to play hard, but practice just as hard and this time never look back...."Eruption" from the very first Van Halen album "totally made my jaw drop" insists Doug! "I heard it in Music Appreciation class one day in, I think, sixth grade and was just amazed. I had no clue that it was even a guitar until I asked my music teacher and when she told me who it was I went home, dug out the old acoustic because I didn't have any money as a kid to just go and get any guitar and practiced on that saving every penny from my allowance to buy books to teach myself how to play. I wanted to literally 'BE' Eddie Van Halen and was obsessed", Doug explains.The following year, Doug's parents bought him his first electric guitar, amp, and effect pedal......" I got a Hondo black with white stripes EVH Frankenstein wannabe guitar with two single coil pickups that looked more like a Telecaster than anything else, a Yamaha Solid State combo amp and my parents actually did something cool when they bought me an old Ibanez TS-9 Tube Screamer to go with it. I never left the house the whole winter break from school and played all day and night. As a matter of fact, that's pretty much all I did right through college", Doug says with a laugh.After graduating high school in 1988 and having already been in countless high school original rock bands it was by what Doug considered a "stroke of luck" that he got his first break on the music scene when one night at dinner with friends he got up to play with the house band at a local restaurant in New Jersey when he was approached by agents from the William Morris Agency who asked him if he would be interested in a chance tryout to join the Tom Jones Band."To be honest, I was like, 19 years old, a total 80's hair band wannabe, because at that time that's how we all were successful on the original scene and didn't have a clue who Tom Jones even was and to be honest, I had no desire to pursue this at all", says Doug. But when he told his family the news the very next day it was his mother, who told him just how big of a deal Tom Jones was, which as a result, led to his mother guiding him through the audition process every step of the way. "Yeah, she kind of lit the fire under my ass to go to the audition." Doug said.After several auditions across the country, Doug was selected to be the guy who would play in that very band, but in the end it wasn't something he felt would make him happy." I still had no clue really who the guy was and again this was probably me being nieve once again, but I passed on the opportunity and went back to college." Doug says.Doug would never get to finish college because just two years later he got the call from local indie favorites Reel Big Fish as a session guitarist to tour relentlessly around the US in place of their then current guitarist."I played one cover song with them when I was invited to join them onstage at County College Of Morris' Theater. We covered Sex Type Thing from STP and after the show I was asked to join the band as a touring guy to temporarily replace their guitarist while he recovered from wrist surgery", something that Doug graciously accepted. For the next two years he toured non stop with the band and saw and did it all!!"From '93 through 2004, when I got home from the tour I kind of did nothing musically except sit home and write original tunes which I did nothing with really and tried to find my way, my direction you know??? After being on the road for so long you come home and your really jaded sometimes because what you are used to doing for so long, well, now it's not there and you have to learn how to adjust to life at home. I think I got used to life at home and just never got off my ass to get back out there" says DougThen in 2004 Doug got bit by the live bug again and decided that in order to gig effectively he would have to succumb to playing the NY/NJ tri state cover circut which, as he states was a "pretty cool thing getting to play live, songs he so loved to listen to". Eventually he auditioned for and got the guitar slot in what then was New Jersey's best Hard Rock/Alt Rock/Metal cover band Sound Pound where he stayed until 2005. Then in 2006 he changed bands and became the lead guitarist for local Jersey cover favorites Plan B. After almost a year in Plan B and in addition to that band Doug's services were called upon by any cover band in the area who was in need of a temporary session guy on the live end when needed. "I was a busy guy in '06-'07," Doug states.In August 2007 Plan B broke up, Doug stayed busy as a fill in live session guitarist through years end and in 2008 made a valliant effort to put together many a tribute band, amongst them a Black Label Society tribute band, an Ozzy Osbourne/Black Sabbath tribute band, and a Fuel tribute band respectively, a feat that never came into fruition because, as he figured there were not enough musicians in the area who showed a big interest in his having never recieved enough replies to his call ads placed everywhere.Currently, Doug is busy working in a brand new cover band featuring longtime friends Steve K drummer for Too Many Godz on drums and local Jersey vocal sensation Laura Abita Kleinberg on vocals. Band name, My Space page, general website page to debut asap, the bands format concentrates on the current trend of rock, pop, etc, and is ever changing and ever evolving. " We just want to stay on top of the new stuff that's fresh in everybody's heads so that when you come to a show you leave not only feeling like you just saw the greatest sounding cover band in the area, but one that plays the newest, hottest stuff out there as well!"And of course Doug's services are still made available to any band/solo artist, original or cover if needed. And in addition, Doug has also returned to writing his own songs and hopes to eventually release something independently through either a collaborative effort, band effort or even solo as soon as possible. " I think the time is right for this", states Doug.Either way you look at it keep your eyes and ears open because this is one guitar player/performer with a ton of energy you won't want to ever miss on the live circut when given the opportunity!!!