What got you into music? Can you give us a bit about your background?
Much like the musicians I grew up with, the birth of MTV had a big part in me wanting to be a musician. I think I “first” got into it when a friend of mine’s older sister had records from KISS, Journey, Boston and others. I really liked what I heard but “seeing” it made it that much more appealing. I was hooked the first half hour of watching MTV. Typical.
With so many appearances, and performances under your belt, is there some place you’d like to play, but you haven’t yet?
I would love to be able to play some of the House of Blues venues – or at least be fortunate enough to be in a band that is playing places like that. I would also love to be able to play some of the cool festivals that happen every year like the Monsters of Rock Cruise.
Can you tell me about your CD Guitarcadia? How was that put together?
Guitarcadia was my debut CD and I was really looking forward to making this. There were about 50% of the songs that were written over the course of my life (for example, Under a Darkened Sky was written in 2004) and I wanted to get all of these songs recorded at some point. Other songs were written for the CD itself. For example there, the title track, Guitarcadia, was written at the time I was making the CD. The whole process was done over the course of a year with myself sending mixes to CJ Snare for him to mix and master. It was such a great feeling once it was done.
You’ve been working with some talented folk, what’s it like working with vocalist James Rivera?
James is such a great guy. A true powerhouse metal vocalist – but, don’t let his legendary status fool you – he can sing just about anything! James is a gracious person and good soul overall. We haven’t had the time to work together in 2014 but hopefully we can put something together for 2015 to do something.
What are your current projects and what’s coming up next for you?
Right now, I am recording the follow-up CD to Guitarcadia and I am also working on a CD of cover tunes – because that just seems to be a cool thing that people are doing these days. I may include it as a bonus disc (or just bonus material for my new CD). I am still in the process of all that so that stuff is subject to change. I also have a killer cover band working now called Raised on Radio – it’s a healthy splattering of Journey along with some great classic rock mixed in. I would like to join an original project that is looking for a lead guitar player that I can offer my style to.
Where can we grab some copies and learn more?
You can go out to www.xanderdemos.com and get everything you need from me. That will link you to my Facebook, Twitter and YouTube social media sites.
The Xander Demos Interview
