I’ve been chasing this one for a long time…
MelodicRock Records is thrilled to announce the signing one of the best collections of unreleased music to ever be left aside in the vaults, for a deal that will finally see this classic melodic hard rock material released to fans that have been demanding it for two decades.
Only one artist could possibly gather all these names into their recording career: Joe Lynn Turner, Tony Bruno, Al Pitrelli, Al Greenwood, A.J. Pero, Ian McDonald, Mark Hitt, Lincoln Schleifer, Tony Harnell, Bob Held, Phil Woods, Chuck Bonafante and even more…
The man that was once considered to replace Lou Gramm when he left Foreigner, a role he could have pulled off with ease.
Who else than ARTI TISI!
The Arti Tisi legend goes back many years. To the mid-to-late 80s, into the 90s…. Arti Tisi was one of the finest vocalists and go-to guys in the world. But why isn’t he the mega-star that the material demonstrates he should be?
It’s a mixture of bad timing, bad luck and bad record labels. Best that Arti explains himself:
I would never change a thing, not a single thing. I am so fortunate to have played with so many talents and I feel they were the reason the music was great and the reason I tried to always push myself to keep up. I think the thing is that a lot of the musicians I played with were trying to make a living in other bands. Talents like Al Pitrelli or Tony Bruno or John O’Reilly, they were so fantastic, so in demand. Denny McDermott who was on with Donald Fagen on drums and Mark Hitt on guitar and was soon off playing with John Entwistle.
It was so amazing, I had so many opportunities to record and work with many great producers, engineers, studios and musicians. And the constant team of John Greenberg, Billy Phelan and Billy Cinotti kept us together so that we could experience amazing, amazing times like when the guys from Deep Purple came to see us in Connecticut right after the ‘Perfect Strangers’ album and the next thing I know we are signed to Bruce Payne and Thames Talent! I mean c’mon Deep Purple’s management! That same year we began talking to Michael Wagener hoping to get something together between his producing the first White Lion and Skid Row records, then the amazing Jack Ponti who was another great mentor.
But I enjoyed working with Al Greenwood and Dave Greenberg the very most, they were the ‘Team’. Dave was an amazing engineer and Al a fantastic producer. Al, Bobby Held, Al Pitrelli and Tony Bruno would help by co-writing with me and getting me some great songs that they had written with Joe Lynn Turner with his amazing vocals, or Jordan Stanley with some fantastic lyrics, I mean we would just go in and record the songs and everybody would go off and I would do my vocals with Al and David in the studio all of the backgrounds, and the odd guitar or drum part and what a treat to have Al occasionally play a B3 on some tracks and bam – Dave and Al mixed it in an amazing fashion – always.
We would do label showcases but then one guy went out with Doro or Alice Cooper so it was hard to get everybody together for longer than just the recording. I remember one time we did a showcase for Atlantic at like 10 o'clock in the morning!
We were playing around New York at the China Club or L’Amour Brooklyn, or L’Amour East or the Cat Club to make money, build our fans, hustling, a publishing deal here or there.
Then I had these opportunities like when Lou Gramm left Foreigner, I met with Bud Prager to be considered to replace him but Lou was my idol and his idols were my idols, guys like Steve Marriott and Paul Rodgers and then Terry Reid once Al introduced me to him. When Ray Gillen passed away, John Greenberg arranged for me to go to San Diego and audition with Jake E Lee and Badlands. When I was on the plane to California I popped in the tape of some of the songs to learn and the first song I heard was High Wire with Ray killing it! I think I was paralytic with the guys (laughs) - Everyone I played with was amazing, all true gentlemen. They were so professional and creative; Complete masters of their craft.
No matter what the circumstances at the time or the way these tracks were recorded, the fact is they were and they are magnificent!
So fate has held them at bay all these years. At times there has been attempts by other labels to release these songs, to no avail. Arti Tisi’s work was left to be heavily traded via cassette in the 90s and then online in recent years. But no one has the masters. Or the complete picture. Until now.
After several months of conversations with MelodicRock Records, Arti Tisi is ready to unleash his collected works upon the world.
But what was uncovered is nothing short of spectacular. Going back through the collection of DAT tapes and quarter inch tapes was a vault of songs unprecedented in recent memory.
Of the 20 or so expected songs MRR was hoping to work with, we are now up to 53, with the possibility of still more.
All the cult classics will be included – A Little Too Early, I’ll Be There, Love You Too Much, Love Finds You Guilty….and plenty of never before heard songs, including a heartfelt cover of Rick Springfield’s My Father’s Chair. More details will be announced soon.
So with this rich vault of classic material to go through, fans can be guaranteed a treasure trove of killer music to add to their collections soon. All remastered by the guiding hand of JK Northrup.
Work continues on this right now and an announcement about a release will be made prior to the end of the year, with the aim to have this material officially released in the first quarter of 2017.
Classic American melodic rock, hard rock and AOR has never sounded better.
