Alex Skolnick

Alex Skolnick
Background information
Born	(1968-09-29) September 29, 1968 (age 43)
Genres	Heavy metal, thrash metal, jazz, jazz fusion
Occupations	Musician
Instruments	Guitar
Years active	1983–present
Labels	Roadrunner, Nuclear Blast
Associated acts	Testament, Alex Skolnick Trio, Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Attention Deficit, The Dream Engine, Skol-Patrol, Stratospheerius, Ozzy Osbourne
Website	www.alexskolnick.com
Notable instruments
Heritage Guitar Ibanez 540 Power II Ibanez Saber Gibson Les Paul

Alexander Nathan Skolnick (born September 29, 1968, born and raised in Berkeley, California) is an American jazz and metal guitarist. He was a member of the San Francisco Bay Area thrash metal band Testament from 1983 until his departure in 1993. He returned briefly to re-record some old material for the band's First Strike is Still Deadly release, as well as the "Thrash of the Titans" all-star performance in 2001, before returning full-time four years later.

Biography

Alex Skolnick began to play guitar at 9, he was influenced by Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Randy Rhoads and Yngwie Malmsteen.^[1] He was a student of Joe Satriani^[2] and was one of many guitarists (Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan) to achieve fame. His parents, Jerome and Arlene, are both professors of sociology at New York University and have previously taught at UC Berkeley. Skolnick has an older brother, Michael (b. 1962).

He joined the band Savatage for the recording of Handful of Rain, as well as its follow-up live album and home video release Japan Live '94. He has also recorded and briefly toured with the Stu Hamm band, and played with the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. In 2004, Skolnick made a guest appearance on Lamb of God's Ashes of the Wake album, recording a solo for the album's instrumental title track. He also briefly played guitar for Ozzy Osbourne in 1995.

After leaving Savatage, Skolnick fronted several projects in the Bay Area during the mid to late 1990s, such as Alex Skolnick and the Skol-tones, Exhibit-A and Skol-Patrol (a funk band exclusively dedicated to cop-show themes, both covered and original, featuring Michael Manring). He also recorded two albums with Attention Deficit, a 3-piece featuring Tim Alexander from Primus as well as Manring. Recently Skolnick relocated to New York City and began devoting all of his energies to jazz, enrolling in the jazz program at The New School. It was while at The New School that he met and began collaborating with electric violinist Joe Deninzon in Stratospheerius. Most recently, he has been touring and recording with the Alex Skolnick Trio, a jazz group known for playing rousing bebop renditions of classic rock and heavy metal tunes.

In the spring of 2005, Skolnick and the rest of the classic Testament lineup reunited for a short European tour (10 Days of May Tour), with some American dates appended on. The tour was successful and a CD/DVD release was put together from the May 8, 2005 London show. In 2007, Skolnick contributed a solo for Egyptian Artist Nader Sadeks' project, "Faceless," which was composed by Steve Tucker (formerly of Morbid Angel) The song was only to be heard in an art gallery in New York. In October 2007, the Alex Skolnick Trio were support act to Rodrigo y Gabriela on the US East Coast. In 2009, Skolnick featured a guitar solo on 'Atman' for Rodrigo y Gabriela' studio album 11:11. The Skolnick Trio were also the main support band on Rodrigo Y Gabriela's consecutive European and US tour in late 2010, including five nights in London, all of which sold out. Alex released a 3 DVD Jazz tuition set with Rock House Method in May 2010.

On April 29, 2008, Testament released their first studio album in nine years, Formation of Damnation, the first to feature Alex Skolnick on guitar since 1992's The Ritual as well as the first to feature bassist Greg Christian since 1994's Low. Alex and Testament are currently working on a new studio album, entitled The Dark Roots of Earth, set to be released in July 2012.

Skolnick has Composed music for the USA Network's broadcast of the 2002 Westminster Dog Show (a big band jazz piece), and the MTV series "Makin' The Band."^[3] Skolnick played one of the solos of the song, "Ashes of the wake," of Lamb of God with Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth. In Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Skolnick would work with Al Pitrelli, also formerly of Megadeth.

Raised in the Bay Area, he now considers Brooklyn, New York his home. The silver streak in his hair is natural. Alex has become a writer, penning a popular blog, "SkolNotes" (featured on Alltop.com) and is a frequent contributor to Guitar Player Magazine on-line. A memoir is forthcoming. Until 2009, Skolnick toured with the East Coast set of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in the winter months.

Skolnick now plays Heritage Guitar electric and hollow-bodied models with Seymour Duncan pickups.^[4] In 2009 Heritage released Alex's first signature guitar. The Alex Skolnick model is a solid body based upon the H 150/157 model. In his early years with Testament he endorsed Ibanez guitars and mainly played the 540SLTD model.^[5] For amplification, he uses discontinued Marshall ModeFour hybrid amps.

Discography

References and footnotes

External links

• Official webpage
• Testament's official webpage
• Savatage's official webpage