Derek Sherinian Biography
Derek Sherinian is an American keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, Yngwie Malmsteen, Kiss, Steve
Vai, and Joe Bonamassa. He was also a member of Dream Theater from 1994–99, is the founder of Planet X and also one of the founding members of Black Country Communion and Sons of Apollo. He has released seven solo albums that have featured a variety of prominent guest musicians, including guitarists Slash, Yngwie Malmsteen, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Lukather, Joe Bonamassa, Billy Sheehan, Zakk Wylde, and Al Di Meola.
Since 1999, Sherinian has recorded seven solo albums, featuring performances by numerous highly acclaimed musicians. Sherinian’s first solo album, Planet X (1999), written and recorded with Australian drummer Virgil Donati, led to the formation of a band of the same name (Planet X). Guitar virtuoso Tony MacAlpine was recruited to complete the band. Sherinian has stated that his intention when forming Planet X was to create a group of musicians that “played their instruments so fiercely that they would strike fear in the hearts of all musicians”.
In 2001, Derek teamed with drummer Simon Phillips and guitarists Steve Lukather and Zakk Wylde to record Inertia, followed by Black Utopia (2003). For Black Utopia, three new faces joined Sherinian’s group: bassist Billy Sheehan, rock guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, and jazz fusion guitarist Al Di Meola. With respect to this fusion-influenced lineup, Sherinian stated: I have always been a fan of jazz fusion, but from the perspective of a rock, player crossing over to jazz, not vice versa. I think that is how Jeff Beck (who Sherinian stated he hopes to play within numerous interviews) approached his classic instrumental records and I like to follow in that path.
Sherinian also calls the album “a lot darker and heavier than [Inertia]”. In Japan, the cover of Black Utopia was altered to remove the cross in the title without Sherinian’s consent; Sherinian has commented that the cross “meant nothing” and was added for aesthetic purposes. Sherinian extended further into the fusion realm by collaborating with guitarist Allan Holdsworth and violinist Jerry Goodman (formerly of the Mahavishnu Orchestra) on Mythology (2004). In addition to another appearance by Phillips, other musicians appearing on this recording were Zakk Wylde, John Sykes, Steve Stevens, and Tony Franklin. Since 2002, Sherinian has toured with several well-known artists, including Billy Idol and Yngwie Malmsteen.
Derek’s fifth solo album, Blood of the Snake (2006), features contributions from Idol, as well as former Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash, John Petrucci of Dream Theater, and Brian Tichy; Phillips, Franklin and Lukather make return appearances. A video for a cover version of Mungo Jerry’s “In the Summertime” was released along with the album. Sherinian also worked with duduk master Djivan Gasparyan on the song “Prelude To Battle” on the release, written for his great grandmother who survived the Armenian genocide.
Derek Sherinian Photo
In 2009, Sherinian released his sixth solo album, Molecular Heinosity, again featuring Zakk Wylde, Tony Franklin, and Brian Tichy. Later that year, Sherinian also performed a one-off acoustic gig with Alice in Chains to launch their Black Gives Way to Blue album. In September 2011, Sherinian released his seventh solo album titled Oceana, reuniting with Simon Phillips and Steve Lukather, and featuring a guest appearance from BCC bandmate Joe Bonamassa.
Derek Sherinian Age
Derek Sherinian an American keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol was born on August 25, 1966 (age 52 years), Laguna Beach, CA.
Derek Sherinian Height
Details concerning his height are still under research and will soon be updated when we come across any information concerning his height.
Derek Sherinian Education
After his junior year at Soquel High School, he received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was the roommate of future Megadeth guitarist and Trans-Siberian Orchestra musical director Al Pitrelli.
Derek Sherinian Family
She was born in Laguna Beach, California. He began taking piano lessons at age five in Santa Cruz, California. After his junior year at Soquel High School, he received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he was the roommate of future Megadeth guitarist and Trans-Siberian Orchestra musical director Al Pitrelli. He has since studied with other keyboardists, including Mitchel Forman, T Lavitz, Russell Ferrante and Alex Alessandroni.
Derek Sherinian Net Worth
Details concerning his net worth are still under research and will soon be updated when we come across any information concerning his net worth.
DEREK SHERINIAN Says SONS OF APOLLO Won’t Perform DREAM THEATER Material Moving Forward
SONS OF APOLLO keyboardist Derek Sherinian (BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION, ex-DREAM THEATER) recently spoke with Greece’s Rock pages TV. The full conversation can be viewed below. A few excerpts follow (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).On his initial goals when writing the music for what would become SONS OF APOLLO’s debut album, “Psychotic Symphony”:Derek: “I just started pumping ideas out, and a lot of them were progressive, and some of them were, like, straight-up hard rock, like AC/DC, AEROSMITH [and] VAN HALEN.
I really wanted to make sure that I wasn’t putting labels or limits on what I was writing — I just wanted to let it flow out. I sent everything to Mike [Portnoy], and he loved it all, and so we let the music write itself in a sense. I will say that originally, when we put SONS OF APOLLO together, the plan was to be more of a continuation of what Mike and I were doing in the old act [referring to DREAM THEATER] — like, off of the last record [we recorded together], ‘Falling Into Infinity’ — but once we started writing, the hard rock element started coming out, classic rock.
That’s just the way it turned out. If I look at SONS OF APOLLO, I don’t consider us a progressive rock band at all. I consider us a hard rock band with sick-ass chops [and] virtuoso players. There’s some progressive moments for sure, but it’s based in hard rock.” On the album’s opening track, “God Of The Sun”:Derek: “‘God Of The Sun’ was the first thing I wrote for SONS OF APOLLO. Once I knew that this was going to be a band and we were doing it, I started writing, and I just started adding to it every day, and probably in a week, I finalized the song form.
I sent it to Mike, and he goes, ‘This is genius. This has to be the album opener.’ I love collaborating with the band and bouncing ideas — that’s great — but there are some times where I just need to have the freedom to not be messed with, and just let me do my thing and trust me – at the end, it’s going to be brilliant.”On SONS OF APOLLO performing two “Falling Into Infinity” songs live during their world tour in support of “Psychotic Symphony”:
Derek: “Honestly, I like to be in the present and to play songs [from] the past, that’s cool and stuff, but my mind[set is that] I want to keep it fresh. I want to tread on new ground. Honestly, if it was up to me, I wouldn’t play any of it. Mike is in control of the setlist, a lot of it, and yeah, we kind of have to play from that record, because there’s fans from both of us that really enjoy that record. That’s cool, but in the future, I don’t see us playing that stuff anymore.
There’s no need to, because we have our own music, and that was a long time ago.”On the group’s future plans:Derek: “We’re going into the studio [soon] to get out a record sometime in 2019. I don’t know what the release date will be. It’s just going to be a continuation of the way I write. It’s just a matter of how I feel at the time is what comes out. There’s no strategy — I just go in and do it.
Derek Sherinian Twitter
Tweets by DerekSherinian