Professional | Discography  Bands | Influences    :: Xander Demos Bio ::   Xander Demos started playing guitar at the age of 13 after spending some quality time in front of MTV in the very early 80s. It was the sounds of Brad Gillis while playing in Ozzy Ozbourne as well as Neal Schon from Journey, Tom Scholz from Boston and Adrian Vandenburg from his early band Vandenburg. I remember it like it was yesterday - sitting there wanting to be a drummer and seeing Brad Gillis wrangle all kinds of noise out of the guitar and thinking how cool it was. I was hooked instantly... Through the 80s he studied with the likes of G.I.T. Graduate Dallas Perkins as well as Ralph Santolla as he grew up in the Tampa Bay area. There was no shortage of talent down there and Xander would eventually make a name for himself when he started the band Scarified - a high-energy hard rock outfit that started life as a Racer X tribute band. During this time he had the distinction of winning a few of the local guitar competitions and getting the opportunity to open for some national acts. Scarified was a great experience. I got the chance to play with some great musicians and it was my first venture into a real band situation. There are so many projects that you get involved with at a young age that you just don't take seriously. This was the first one that opened my eyes. As the 90s began and guitar started to change, Xander moved to the Pittsburgh area where he immediately became a player on the local scene joining up with the huge talent in the band Stormfront with Bryan Cole on vocals. In and around 1993/1994 when guitar music seemed to belong to Seattle, Xander hung it up for a little while until a certain album re-ignited the passion for guitar again. I couldn't believe that I put the guitar down after all of that but I was pretty disappointed in the state of guitar at that time. Xander heard the song "Analog Kid" on the Working Man tribute to Rush CD. After that, the fire was re-ignited and he was off and running again. Deciding to throw a monkey wrench into the mentality of simple guitar playing, he formed Timepeace - a blazing 5-piece progressive metal band that was slated to be the next big thing in prog rock. It wasn't meant to be and Xander worked on solo material for a few years before joining Pittsburgh metal band Stronghold who he would go on to record an EP and a full length CD with. There's nothing wrong with something evolving as necessary but it had gotten to a point where the more skilled you were the more you were put down. I was glad to not have waited too long when I discovered the guitar playing of Shawn Lane, John Petrucci and Micheal Romeo. To this day, Romeo's solo on Analog Kid is one of my favorite solos of all time. In the new millenium, Xander has seen his career take off as he is now a professionally endorsed musician and well respected in the local and national music communities. In 2008, Xander will be releasing another series of recordings including those with Into The Arena, his solo promo EP and a full-length CD with bass virtuoso Vic Danger.   News |  Bio |  Gear |  Media |  Home |  E-Mail Xander