Alex Skolnick - Biography

Biography

Born and raised in Berkeley, California, Alex began playing the guitar at age nine. He was influenced by Eddie Van Halen, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Johnny Winter, Randy Rhoads Yngwie Malmsteen and The Scorpions. He was a student of renowned guitarist Joe Satrianiand was one of many guitarists (Steve Vai, Larry LaLonde, Rick Hunolt, Kirk Hammett, Andy Timmons, Charlie Hunter, Kevin Cadogan) who studied under Satriani to achieve fame. His parents, Jerome Skolnick and Arlene, both Ph.D graduates from Yale University, were professors of sociology at New York University and have previously taught at UC Berkeley. Skolnick has an older brother, Michael.

Alex 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 Still Deadly release, as well as the "Thrash of the Titans" all-star performance in 2001, before returning full-time four years later.

After his first departure from Testament, Alex joined the band Savatage in 1994 for the recording of Handful of Rain, as well as its follow-up live album and home video release Japan Live '94. In 1991 he recorded and toured with the Stu Hamm band. He also played guitar for Ozzy Osbourne in 1995. 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.

During the mid to late 1990s, Skolnick fronted several projects in the Bay Area, including 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. In the late 90s, he collaborated with electric violinist Joe Deninzon (who he met in New York City at the New School) in Stratospheerius, recording The Adventures of Stratospheerius album. He also appears on their Live Wires album. In May this year Alex was invited by Deninzon to perform at their Next World CD Release concert in New York City.

In 1998, Skolnick relocated to New York City and began devoting all of his energy to jazz, enrolling in the The New School University and graduating with a BFA in jazz performance. Since 2002, Alex has been 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. The Trio has performed at the Rochester International Jazz Festival, MusikMesse in Frankfurt, Germany, at the National Center for the Arts, Mexico City, at the Iridium Jazz Club, New York City, and numerous other venues all over the world. AST blends the conviction of rock with the elegance and sophistication of jazz. Since their debut, AST has been honored with 4 ½ stars by Downbeat, reviewed by Jazziz, The Village Voice and has charted on the JazzWeek radio charts. Fans of the group include international superstars Rodrigo y Gabriella who have recorded and performed with Alex and Metallica’s Robert Trujillo, who joined the band for an impromptu jam at Radio City Music Hall. The trio’s latest record, Veritas, reached the Top Ten of the iTunes jazz charts, positioned between Miles Davis and Esperanza Spalding, and is released via the esteemed jazz label, Palmetto Records. In October 2007, the Alex Skolnick Trio were a support act to Rodrigo y Gabriela on the US East Coast. In 2009, Skolnick featured a guitar solo on 'Atman' for Rodrigo y Gabriela's studio hit album 11:11. The Alex Skolnick Trio was also the main support band on Rodrigo Y Gabriela's consecutive European and US tour in 2010, including five sold-out nights in London. Alex released a 3 DVD Jazz tuition set with Rock House Method in May 2010. Skolnick appears on "What's Next?" - a jazz duo album by pianist-composer Randy Klein released in October 2012.

Alex has also been active in blending music with works of art and literature. In 2007, he contributed a solo for Egyptian artist Nader Sadek's project, "Faceless." The song was only to be heard in an art gallery in New York. In 2012, he performed live at the Feature Inc Gallery in New York, for a musical interpretation project for the works of visual artist Douglas Melini. He is currently working on a musical spoken-word project "The Bestiary" with author Bradford Morrow. He also has an upcoming World Music-Art-Ecology-Architecture project Planetary Coalition which was kick-started at Union Square in June 2012, at the annual Make Music New York Festival, sponsored by Guitar World Magazine. For the Union Square performance of Planetary Coalition, Alex formed a consortium with violinist Rachel Golub and the members of House of Waters to combine jazz with various world-music styles.

In the spring of 2005, Alex 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. On April 29, 2008, Testament released their first studio album in nine years, Formation of Damnation. Alex and Testament finished work on a new studio album, entitled Dark Roots of Earth, released on July 27th, 2012. The album debuted at No. 12 on the Billboard Top 200 and debuted at No.1 on Billboard Hard Rock and Rock albums. It was no. 9 on the World Charts.

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." He played one of the solos of the song, "Ashes of the wake," of Lamb of God with Chris Poland, formerly of Megadeth. For the 2012 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic Hockey on NBC Networks Skolnick performed the music for NBC's television commercial. He has appeared as the guest guitarist on That Metal Show hosted by Eddie Trunk in episodes featuring Lars Ulrich and Sammy Hagar. Until 2009, Skolnick also toured as a lead guitarist with the East Coast set of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in the winter months. In 2010, Alex Skolnick became a producer for the Iraqi Thrash Metal Band Acrassicauda which was the subject of the critically acclaimed documentary Heavy Metal in Baghdad. He has been recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the Musicians Institute, Hollywood, California.

Raised in the Bay Area, he now considers Brooklyn, New York his home. The silver streak in his hair is natural, and appeared at age fourteen. He is also a writer, penning a popular blog, "SkolNotes" (featured on Alltop.com) and is a frequent contributor to Guitar Player Magazine online. His first book "Geek to Guitar Hero", a memoir, which he wrote between 2009 to 2011, will be released in late November or early December 2012. He made the announcement of the book on Sirius XM Radio during the New York Comic Con in October 2012.