Music is my heartbeat / exploring sounds, vibes, and stories one track at a time / Always chasing the perfect melody

Songs.  
Sonic soul snap-shots taken on the front lines of life.

New live album Wheels Turn Beneath My Feet II out now! https://finkmusic.net/collections/music

I've had the pleasure of writing several songs for three family movies, "Sidewalk Singer" and "Mr. What" and "Fly Old Bird: Escape to the Ark", all of which have been distributed throughout the nation by Vision Video and Bridgestone Multimedia Group/Twin Engines Global; all are currently streaming on Prime Video and several platforms. I act the lead role in these films, as well.  Also, I've been inducted into my high school's Distinguished Graduate Hall of Fame, and just for fun, I've run three marathons, rode a bicycle across America, and broke a Guinness World Record for "Balancing on One Foot" in order to raise money for crippled children and kids with cancer.

Our mission is to create awareness and support for Native environmental issues and to develop needed financial and political resources for the survival of sustainable Native communities. Honor the Earth develops these resources by using music, the arts, the media, and Indigenous wisdom to ask people to recognize our joint dependency on the Earth and be a voice for those not heard.

Steve Lukather’s new album Transition on Mascot Records strikes a perfect balance of style, power and imagination as he takes risks and challenges himself in ways most other players can’t even approach.

That’s been standard operating procedure for this high-wire artist of the six-string for nearly four decades, as his career has gone from the studios of Los Angeles to the world’s biggest concert halls to the helm of the multi-platinum selling group Toto and, recently, to ground-breaking tours with Ringo Starr, guitar geniuses Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, and the reunited Toto, who have scheduled a follow-up 35th anniversary tour for 2013.

“I’ve got a lot to be thankful for, and now is a perfect time for me to take stock of that, which is part of what Transition is about,” Lukather says. 

Over the previous decade a series of trials including divorce, the death of his mother and business hassles had dampened his joy in music making — a passion that drove Lukather to excel since seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan as a seven-year-old growing up in San Fernando Valley. But today the guitar guru is happy, healthy and strongly reconnected to his muse, and the lushly expressive Transition, his second Mascot album, finds him at a creative pinnacle.

“I equate recordings to paintings,” he explains, “ and I wanted to make Transition a big, beautiful album with lots of fine details and shadings and colors. That’s what I do and what my favorite albums — Sgt. Pepper’s, Dark Side of the Moon, Electric Ladyland, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road — are all about. So if it’s a sin to make massive sounding records with huge production values, then I’m going to Hell.”

Fat chance, because Transition’s heavenly sonic architecture — erected with the help of such A-list musical friends as Def Leppard’s Phil Collen, superstar bassists Lee Sklar, Nathan East, John Pierce, and Tal Wilkenfeld, live band members Steve Weingart, Renee Jones, and Eric Valentine, along with mega-drummers Gregg Bissonette, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Tos Panos, and Lukather’s longtime keyboard foil and co-writer / co-producer C.J. Vanston — actually weaves a tale of redemption. 

“‘Transition’ is a turning point for the album and a turning point for me,” Lukather explains. “As we were writing the songs, I was thinking about everything I’ve seen — all the people I’ve lost in my life, the great and the difficult experiences I’ve had, and how ultimately it was time to get it together and embrace things for what they are, because we’ve only got one life to live and we’ve got to make the most of it.”

Despite the album’s harmonic depth and sonic surprises, Lukather explains that he kept his guitar sound organic. “These days I like it simple and direct,” he says. “I plugged my new Music Man L-3 signature model guitar straight into a Bogner amp and miked it with an SM-57. Any effects were added at the mixing desk. I used a Kemper Profiling Amp for some of the weird sounds, and that was it. Live these days it’s just my guitar and amp and a couple stomp boxes — and I just go for it.”

“I’ve been working really hard on my vocals,” Lukather attests. “For me, these days it’s all about the song and the performance. I’m not interested in being the fastest gun in the West. I want to make beautiful music that means something.”

Lukather, Weingart and Vanston’s closing instrumental rendition of the Charlie Chaplin classic “Smile” has a very deep connection for the guitarist. “That was my mother’s favorite song,” he relates. “We’ve been playing it as an encore live, and it seemed like the perfect way to close the album, too.”

After seven solo albums, Lukather reflects: “I’d like to say this is the best album I’ve ever made, but that’s a cliché. But I do think I’ve realized my goal of moving forward, so let me say that Transition is possibly the best reflection of who I am in 2012.”

Matt Ellis is an Independent, Award-Winning Singer/Songwriter and Producer from Sydney, Australia. Based in the U.S. since 2005, he just released a new single, "Desert Gold".

Along with another world-changing event, 2020 also marked the 20th anniversary of Matt’s first solo release, “Peel”. Since 2000, Matt’s music has taken him across Australia, The United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Mexico sharing the stages with Calexico, Paul Kelly, DeVotchKa, Kasey Chambers, LeAnn Rimes and John Doe to name a few. Album guests have included Nels Cline, Greg Leisz and Merry Clayton and numerous tracks have been licensed by ABC, LMN, MTV, Qantas and The Food Network while receiving airplay on dozens of Radio Stations around the globe.

His latest album, “Rambler Pacifico” is a stream of folk-rock consciousness. A ramble of plain truths in a time of fake news. A collection of songs that speak to the times yet feel timeless. Recorded primarily in Ellis’ garage, the 11 songs kick and caress in equal parts. There is enough twang to remain in the Americana club, yet also a pop sensibility that calls to a wider audience.

 “RAMBLER PACIFICO IS AN AMERICANA TREASURE” 
- David McPherson - (Daily Ripple)

“ARTICULATE LYRICS AND TASTEFUL ROCK BACKING”
 - George Graham - (WVIA-FM)

“A DANDY WILD RIDE”
 - Chris Spector - (Midwest Record)

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