Vlad (musician)

Vlad (musician)

Volodymyr (Vlad) Mykhailovich DeBriansky (born 3 January 1972, Kalush, Ukraine), better known by his stage names Vlad (or sometimes Jack Spade), is a jazz, blues, rock and classical guitarist, composer, songwriter and producer as well as an actor.

Vlad was born in western Ukraine in 1972 and studied jazz and classical music as a youth. He was a member of popular Ukrainian bands Forte, Tea Fan Club (Club of Amateurs of Tea, Клуб Шанувальників Чаю) and Loony Pelen (Луні Пелен), with whom he had several hit records in the Ukrainian and Polish charts. He studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts in 1996 and later moved to New York City and then to California in 2000. He released his debut US album, Vladosphere in 2004 on Orpheus Music label. The album became a commercial and critical success with its single "Little Star" climbing to #4 place on Adult Contemporary radio chart bypassing Phil Collins and John Mayer. The following second US album Sun In Capricorn released in 2008 aired mostly on classical music radio stations around the US and received a praise from critics earning a Grammy nomination.

In the Fall of 2009 History Channel aired a series "Nostradamus Effect: Da Vinci's Armageddon" - where Vlad plays Leonardo Da Vinci.