Wild Colonials - Biography

Biography

Formed in early 1992 as an impromptu jam session at an Irish coffee house in Hollywood called Café Beckett. Singer Angela McCluskey had gathered together a group of fellow musicians to arrange a “musical evening” to showcase her friend/guitarist Shark, who had recently relocated to Los Angeles from New York. Brought aboard were Paul Cantelon, on violin and piano; Scott Roewe, on bass, keyboards, and saxophone; and Ian Bernard (drums/percussion) and other revolving special guests. The “musical evening” evolved into a regular gig from the group soon to be known as Wild Colonials - named after the Irish song “Wild Colonial Boy.” Also joining in with the ever changing line up of guests included Dave King (Flogging Molly), Vivian Campbell (Def Leppard), and several members of the Hothouse Flowers and Leonard Cohen's touring band.

From Café Beckett the group developed a large following, performing regularly at Molly Malones, an Irish pub in Los Angeles, and then moving to Café Largo a larger venue in West Hollywood. With a Tuesday night residency that lasted several months the buzz that developed in the LA music scene procured the Wild Colonials a record deal with DGC/Geffen Records. Fruit of Life (1994) and This Can’t Be Life (1996) were both released to critical acclaim, landing the group as the second stage headliner on the prestigious Lilith Fair lineup in 1997. Over that time, Wild Colonials–either as a group or as individual artists - have lent their musical talents to the great art of film - a collection of unreleased tracks, soundtrack only tracks and score cues was collected to make up their third album "Reel Life vol 1" (2000) (released through indie label Chromatic Records).

The band's fourth album will be released as four separate EPs under the umbrella name Life As We Know It (UMe/Universal). This is the first time that a multiple single/EP release has been released by a major label.

The band members have a number of connections to other celebrities and musicians: Thaddeus Corea is the son of pianist/composer Chick Corea, violinist Paul Cantelon is the brother in law of American singer Rickie Lee Jones, and vocalist Angela McCluskey is British singer Lily Allen's Godmother.