Mark Jay - Lead Vocals
Like many WNY'ers that love music I have had a long history with music and recording. I am a guitar player, song writer and have written and recorded much many original over a 30 year span. In the 1990's I was the singer and leader of an all original project called "Caution". The material was progressive and we were fortunate to enjoy some local success. Family life took over for a while and I mainly kept my passion alive by recording and playing at home and visiting local taverns for Karaoke. It is in these last 5 years I really started to focus more on vocals again. I became committed on refining my techniques to increase my range, deliver strong tone and I learned some new tricks from vocal tutorials, other singers, and trial and error. While I am still recording an original CD with Greg Czech (drummer MCCarthyism) I have really come to enjoy singing and performing cover music as well.
My tastes are diversified so meeting these guys was a true blessing . I love the mix! 70s classic, pop tunes, The Hip, 1990s grunge etc... the eclectic mix is what drew me to this project. I have found in my life that most people who really like music often respond to the question What kind of music do you like " by saying ALL...except country lol. While it is true I am not a country fan most everything else is on the table. Kings Madness is a perfect project for me. The diversity of the music and the Medieval theme and a great fit. I hope to both sing and entertain in this band and I think the musicianship is outstanding so I feel lucky to be part of Kings Madness!
Mark Waley - Guitar
Mark's main axe is his Wine Red Gibson Les Paul Studio. His tone comes from a Victory Sheriff 22 head (or sometimes a Marshall DSL40CR) and Celestion v30 loaded cab. For FX, Mark uses an arrary traditional analog stomp boxes mounted in a homemade aluminum pedalboard. Mark's main job is keeping the band together with solid rhythm along with the Bass. He and Mike compliment each others playing perfectly.
Mike DiStefano - Lead Guitar
Mike has been in a band with Mark since 1997, and about a dozen other ones before that. To call him seasoned, would be an understatement…more like salty!! Hard rock at heart but also a fan lots of other styles. He is constantly learning, new techniques and theory. Originally influenced by greats like Michael Schenker, Joe Satriani, David Gilmore, Jimi Hendrix, and 80s metal in general, his style is a mash of technique and recklessness. Whatever, it's all rock and roll.
Mike is usually seen with a '67 Flying V he's had for 20+ years…a reliable old friend, and any number of other Stratocasters or Les Pauls, usually amped up with a Marshall. It's old school. Mike's been nominated several times over the years in the WNY People's Choice Awards and Buffalo Music Awards.
Alex Rzepka - Drums
Alex started playing drums in 6th grade (2014) playing in the jazz band and taking lessons from Damone Jackson. He soon began getting a huge influence from James brown as well as other funk music. He progressed to learning and playing a lot of rush, with Neil Peart being his biggest influence as well as Taylor Hawkins and Chad Smith.
He has previously played with Below the Salt and still plays with Dutch Rocket. He plays Sabina cymbals and Pearl Drums.
Giulio Genua - Bass Guitar
Giulio, as you can tell by his name, is not your average rock bassist. Born in Italy and always into music, his bass playing roots extend all the way back to the early 70’s when, after moving to Buffalo, a friend introduced him to an acoustic guitar that was missing the two bottom strings. After learning Iron Man and Hey Joe on that guitar, Giulio soon realized he was playing bass!
Enter Giulio’s brother, who, after hearing what his little brother was doing on that old folk guitar, bought Giulio his first real bass for his 12th birthday. It was a short scale Kimberly fender knock off, but to Giulio, it was pure heaven! From there on, Giulio embarked on a journey to learn every single Geddy Lee (Rush) song in existence, his favorite band at the time, along with any other bassline he could get his hands on including those from Chris Squire (Yes), Roger Waters (Floyd), John Paul Jones (Zeppelin), Chuck Panozzo (Styx), Greg Lake (ELP), Ed Gagliardi and later Rick Wills (Foreigner), and on and on.
Fast forward to 46 years later and you’ll be hard pressed to find a more versatile, solid rock bassist. His claim to fame is finishing 11th place out of 5400 other bands in the 2007 Bodog Battle of the Bands, where his three-piece original rock trio (visions of Rush?) toured the east coast and played to many huge crowds in large, well-known venues like Cleveland’s House of Blues and Atlanta’s Center Stage. He joined King’s Madness in 2009 and now you too can hear his thunderous basslines echoing in your head long after the end of our show.
His main axe is a mercury Fender American Standard II Jazz 4 string bass, but also plays a black Lakeland Skyline 5 string for specialized tunes. Giulio plays through a monstrous Mesa TT800 head with 2x10 and 1x15 cabs.