Mandy Meyer

Mandy Meyer (2012)

Mandy Meyer (real name Armand Meyer, born August 29, 1960 in Balcarres / Saskatchewan , Canada ) is a Swiss rock guitarist.

He gained greater fame when he replaced the legendary Yes guitarist Steve Howe in the progressive AOR band Asia in 1985 . Meyer is a founding member of the band Unisonic .

life and career

Mandy Meyer is the son of an Anglo-Canadian and a Swiss dairy farmer. He learned to play a marching drum from the age of nine and became a member of a drum club for seven years. During this time he acquired knowledge of playing the classical guitar . At the age of fifteen he formed his first band, with which he played in local clubs and school parties. In 1975 he became lead singer and guitarist for the band BM Smith . In 1980 he accepted Chris von Rohr's offer to replace guitarist Tommy Kiefer at Krokus . He played with Krokus on their US tour.

In 1983 he founded the American hard rock band Cobra with the future survivor singer Jimi Jamison , with whom he recorded an album. Through a recommendation from producer John Kalodner of Geffen Records , he was recommended as guitarist for the rock band Asia in 1984, with whom he recorded their third album in 1985. He left the band in 1987 to settle in Los Angeles as a session guitarist (e.g. for House of Lords and Mark Ashton ), and played in his newly formed band Katmandü . From the late 1980s to the 1990s he worked as a studio musician in Los Angeles .

From 1996 to 2004 Mandy Meyer was the guitarist of the Swiss rock band Gotthard , and later played again with one of his first bands, Krokus. For their 2006 album Hellraiser , he replaced long-time member Fernando von Arb on lead guitar. Meyer has been playing in the band Unisonic since November 2009 with the ex- Helloween musicians Michael Kiske and Kai Hansen and the Pink Cream 69 musicians Dennis Ward and Kosta Zafiriou . The group's debut album, also titled Unisonic , was released in 2012. The successor Light of Dawn followed in 2014 , for which Meyer also contributed his own compositions.

Discography (excerpt)

As a band member

• Cobra - First Strike (1983, featuring Jimi Jamison )
• Asia - Astra (1985)
• Katmandü - Same (1991, featuring Dave King )
• Gotthard - The Hamburg Tapes (1996)
• Gotthard - Defrosted (1997)
• Gotthard Open (1998)
• Gotthard - Homerun (2001)
• Gotthard - Human Zoo (2003)
• Crocus Hellraiser (2006)
• Unisonic - Unisonic (2012)
• Crocus - Dirty Dynamite (2013)
• Unisonic - Light of Dawn (2014)

As a studio guitarist

• Ashton - Modern Pilgrims (1988)
• Stealin Horses - Stealin Horses (1988)
• House of Lords - Sahara (1990, featuring Gregg Giuffria )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ mandymeyer.ch: biography