THE BAND
Eric Nicolas is a singer/songwriter and performing musician, writer and artist. He was born and raised in Topeka, Kansas, where he learned piano and trumpet early and began playing gigs on bass, guitar and vocals when he was fourteen.
He worked as a commercial illustrator and had several gallery shows of his drawings, attended Brown University where he led a popular bluegrass band and graduated with honors, taking the top prize for his thesis in literature and history.
He moved to New York City, worked as a bike messenger, and played for years in original rock bands; The Innocents, Calu!Callay and Surrender Dorothy. He began teaching music and working as a session guitarist and arranger, and founded the successful party-dance big band One Love which has become one of the busiest and most popular high-end event bands in the Northeastern US.
As a solo artist he has released several critically acclaimed albums and opened for and performed with Chris Whitley, Sasha Lazard, Ryan Adams and others. As a sideman guitarist and multi-instrumentalist he started on the “oldies circuit” backing up the Drifters, the Coasters, and other classic live acts; among many such gigs he toured for years accompanying the legendary Phoebe Snow and playing electric guitar for the iconic 80s pop star Taylor Dayne.
Stan Steele was born and raised on the Jersey Shore.
Hired by CBS as a staff writer at 23, Stan worked with Neal Sedaka, Paul Stanley and Billy Joel crafting songs for other artists. Stan went on to work at the NYC Power Station recording studio as a session guitarist and assistant engineer. Stan met Jon Bon Jovi at the station and joined his band. Stan recorded on Bon Jovi's first record with Max Weinberg, Roy Bitten, Tim Pierce and T-Bone Wolk. In the late 80's, Stan returned to The Power Station, where he wrote, recorded and co-produced Jodi Bongiovis record. Stan then toured as Jodi's musical director, while working with world famous artists recording at the power station. These artists included Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Expensive Winos, Willy Nelson, Don Was, Foxy Music, Brian Adams and Cindy Lauper. Stan was both the engineer and session player for these legends.
Matthew Friedman is a singer/composer/multi-instrumentalist from New York, N.Y. He has played piano since the age of 3, and was singing even before he could talk. Matthew studied piano and composition with jazz great David Lalama and electronic music pioneer Herbert Deutsch (the co-creator of the Moog Synthesizer) at Hofstra University, and is self-taught on guitar and electric bass.
Matthew spent all of 2006 as the “The Piano Man” in the First National Touring Company of Billy Joel and Twyla Tharp’s Tony Award-winning musical, MOVIN’ OUT, and played to critical acclaim all over the United States, Canada and Japan. He reprised the role for the Second and Third National Tours, from 2007 to 2009. In February and March of 2011, he was featured as Billy Joel and Elton John in the first run of the original production, THE FOUR PIANO MEN, produced by the Palace Theater in Manchester, NH. And most recently, he began performing in the Billy Joel chair with The Lords of 52nd Street, Billy’s original recording and touring band (Richie Cannata, Liberty DeVitto and Russell Javors). He also had the honor of accompanying Billy Joel at the Piano Man's 2004 wedding.
From 2008-2016 Matthew performed on keyboards with JERSEY BOYS at the August Wilson Theater in New York City.
Kevin Bregande began his drumming career at the young age of seven. A 1996 Summa Cum Laude graduate of Boston's prestigious Berklee College of Music, this New York City-area based freelance drummer has studied with some of the industry's most influential teachers, including: Jamie Haddad (Paul Simon), Casey Scheuerell (Jean-Luc Ponty), Joe Hunt (Bill Evans) and Skip Hadden (Weather Report).
Kevin has performed with heavyweights Richie Cannata- saxophonist for Billy Joel, Bernie Willams- Jazz Gtr and NY Yankee, Andrew Watt-producer, Jeff Golub, John Popper- Blues Travelor, Gavin Degraw, Gerardo Velez-percussionist for Jimi Hendrix, Julio Fernandez-guitarist for Spyro Gyra, and many others.
An in-demand session player, Kevin has been actively recording in NYC studios. He is currently the staff drummer at Cove City Sound Studios (owned by Richie Cannata). His playing can be heard on noteworthy CD’s as Cody Simpson’s “Surfer’s Paradise” album, Wind-Up Records “Worlds Strongest Man” Soundtrack; Bruce Aronson’s theme song "Strongman" as well as NAMMY (Native American Music Awards) winning CD; "Shape Shifter" by Apryl Allen, best pop recording in 2009.
John McFaul has been playing bass and singing in the New York area since 2000. For eight years he was a regular bass sub and background vocalist for the Broadway show “Jersey Boys”, and has currently been subbing on Broadway’s “Ain’t Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations” for the past year. (As such, his onstage “step-touch... step-touch” routine has been perfected considerably...) He is also a bus tour veteran: three national tours of the U.S. and Canada playing upright and electric bass with the Broadway musicals “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”, “Urban Cowboy” and “Little Women”, and he also participated in two USO tours in Europe and the Middle East with country / pop singer Amy-Jayne McCabe. (NOBODY played a meaner sounding “Devil Went Down to Georgia” bridge bass riff... take THAT, Saddam!) Further performing credits include Doo-Wop legends Arlene Smith and The Chantels, The Quotations and The Excellents. John is also a club date veteran, an alumnus of various entities including Hank Lane Entertainment, New York City Swing, the John Marshall Band and Matthew Friedman and Uptown Sounds. He also channeled his inner McCartney and Liverpool lad by playing and singing nearly every Sunday for half a decade with “Glass Onion”, a dedicated group of Beatles aficionados doing homage to all things Fab on New York’s Upper West Side.
Annet Artani is an international recording artist, born and raised in NY, whose singing career skyrocketed in Greece.
After performing and packing clubs throughout NYC as a singer songwriter, Annet Artani auditioned for Britney Spears and joined her world tour in 2001, appearing on shows, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, ‘Britney, Live in Las Vegas’ (HBO), The American Music Awards, Oprah, etc. During their post-tour relationship, Annet co-wrote “Everytime”, which was included on Britney’s "In The Zone" CD, and skyrocketed to number one all over the world. “Everytime” received the MTV European Music Award for Best Song of 2004 and was named one of the Top Ten Songs of the Decade by AOL Music. It was subsequently released on Britney’s Greatest Hits album.
After the success of “Everytime,” 2004, Annet starred on “Fame Story," 2005, a Greek reality show similar to American Idol. Her very first performance on the show caused ratings for the show to skyrocket 7 points in one night. As a result, she signed with Greek label "Virus Music" and released her album “Mia Foni” (One Voice), which went gold in the Greek/Cypriot market and toured all over Greece and Australia. Shortly thereafter, Annet competed for and won the chance to represent Cyprus in the biggest song contest in Europe, The Eurovision Song Contest in 2006, and performed at the Olympic Stadium for 65,000 fans.
Annet has also been signed to Notting Hill Music Publishing since 2004, based out of the UK, and writes for artists worldwide and periodically travels to write with their team of writers.