Saraya (band)

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Saraya
General information
origin New Jersey , United States
Genre (s) Hard rock
founding 1987 as Alses Loraine
resolution 1991
Last occupation
Sandi Saraya
Tony Rey
guitar
 John Roggio
Barry Dunaway
Chuck Bonfante
former members
Gregg Munier (until 1991; † 2006)
bass
 Gary Taylor (until 1991)

Saraya was an American hard rock band founded in 1987 , which disbanded in 1991 after only two album releases.

history

Invitation to the first concert of "Alses Loraine"

Sandi Saraya and Gregg Munier founded the band in 1987 under the name "Alses Loraine" in New Jersey and completed it with guitarist Tony Rey ( Danger Danger ), bassist Gary Taylor and drummer Chuck Bonfante. The group made their first appearance on August 19, 1988 at The Showplace club in Dover (New Jersey). In the course of time her name changed to "Alsace Lorraine".

The band got a record deal with Polydor and, at the urging of the record company, changed their name to "Saraya". She recorded her self-titled debut album, which was released in 1989, under the direction of Jeff Glixman, who had produced the solo album by Paul Stanley (1978) and Black Sabbath's The Eternal Idol (1987), among others . It reached number 79 on the US album charts . Music videos were produced for the two singles Love Has Taken Its Toll and Back to the Bullet , which were extracted from the album . The album received positive reviews and there were "few who did not prophesy a great future for the band".

Saraya provided the song Timeless Love, written by Desmond Child , for the Wes Craven film Shocker , but only singer Saraya and guitarist Rey were involved in the recordings, the other musicians were Steve Lukather ( Toto , guitar), John Pierce (bass) , David Garfield (keyboard) and Myron Grombacher (drums). The song appeared in Europe as the second track on the Bonfire released single Sword and Stone , which also included Voodoo X 'song The Awakening . All three songs came from the soundtrack album for Shocker . In the US, it was released as a standalone promo single. Gary Taylor had left the band and was replaced by Barry Dunaway ( Lou Gramm , Yngwie Malmsteen ).

For the second album When the Blackbird Sings… the band worked with Peter Collins , who had previously produced Empire von Queensrÿche . He gave the album a sound that consists of "updated seventies craft", "hidden Zep / 'Smith quotes here and there", "accurate melody lines", "infectious hooks" - in short: classic "heavy rock at its best" resulted. Munier, who was not happy with this development, left the band shortly after the release. The song Seducer ( B-side : In the Shade of the Sun ) was released from the album .

Six months after his departure, the group disbanded in which the guitarist John Roggio had last played in live performances instead of a keyboardist. Sandi Saraya then withdrew completely from the public until 2017. Tony Rey, who had adopted the stage name Tony Bruno with the release of the second album, released a CD in 1998 with Gary Taylor, Chuck Bonfante and two other musicians as part of the Garbo Talks project . He works as a studio musician and songwriter for German artists such as No Angels , Nena and Rosenstolz, among others . Gregg Munier died in 2006 of complications from pneumonia.

In an interview she gave for the US podcast Focus On Metal in 2019 , Sandi Saraya stated that she was working with Tony Bruno on new songs for another Saraya album. She said Tony Bruno was in favor of a Frontiers Records release , but she wanted to speak to labels that asked her to contact her if she did something new. So far (2020) there has been no publication.

Discography

Albums

Singles

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Billboard 200, week of June 24, 1989 , accessed April 20, 2020
  2. ↑ a b c The call of the blackbird in: Rocks - Das Magazin für Classic Rock, issue 05.2017, pp. 74–77
  3. ↑ Shocker soundtrack at discogs.com , accessed April 20, 2020
  4. ↑ When The Blackbird Sings ... at rockhard.de , accessed on April 20, 2020
  5. ↑ Seducer at discogs.com , accessed April 20, 2020
  6. ^ Tony Bruno at discogs.com , accessed April 21, 2014
  7. ↑ Saraya making new music and looking at options for record label on sleazerocks.com , accessed on April 29, 2020