Calling the first volume of Mike Keneally’s Scambot trilogy "ambitious" might be understating things a bit. For five years Mike held it close to his heart as his main project, employing nine engineers and many musicians at six studios."We devoted intense energy to every second of the album," says Mike. "There is a plot, and a bunch of characters. The CD booklet contains a very long story I wrote which lays out all of the action. Musically speaking, it's about two-thirds instrumental. It encompasses a little bit of straightforward-ish rock and pop, a lot of rigorous composition and arrangement, some obsessively intricate vocal and instrumental harmonies, some improvisation which has been orchestrated, some digitally-manipulated musique concrete, some purely uncategorizable stuff and, I think, some of the most interesting melodies I've come up with. It is a peculiar album but I think very satisfying as a journey, and emotionally it hits a lot of different moods."
And here's another clue for you all: Scambot 1, Mike adds, is "dedicated to anyone who still listens to entire albums with their headphones on."
One of the music world's most creative, intense and unique artists, Mike's achievements as a composer, arranger, producer and multi-instrumentalist are nearly unequalled. Known chiefly as a guitarist through his work with Frank Zappa and Steve Vai, since 1992 Keneally has built a body of solo work of remarkable inventiveness and originality. His live performances, featuring brain-bending performances on a variety of instruments, have delivered consistently reliable thrills to his passionate fanbase.
Enhancing his virtuosity is Keneally’s sheer joy in exploring all types of sounds. He is equally at home singing and playing guitar with some of music’s top acts as with improvising or meticulously arranging solo piano recordings, as on 2004's Vai Piano Reductions Vol. 1, specifically commissioned by Vai, or creating The Universe Will Provide, Mike’s lauded album-length composition for guitar and Holland’s 52-piece Metropole Orchestra.
Mike is currently touring as guitarist with the [adult swim] metal band Dethklok; the new album The Dethalbum II recently debuted at #15 on the Billboard pop chart.
For more information about Mike, please visit www.keneally.com, and for Mike Keneally music online 24 hours a day (including fun unreleased things), tune in to www.radiokeneally.com.
** MIKE KENEALLY SCAMBOT DEBUTED AT #9 in the Gagliarchives Weekly Top 20 located here: http://gagliarchives.com/weeklytop20/111309.html
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