Will Wallner | |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | William Ernst Wallner |
| Born | 24 January 1987 (age 34) |
| Origin | Shute, Devon, England |
| Genres | hard rock, heavy metal, blues rock |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, author, entrepreneur |
| Instruments | Guitar |
| Years active | 2011 – present |
| Associated acts | Wallner Vain White Wizzard Will Wallner & Vivien Vain |
| Website | www |
Will Wallner (born 24 January 1987) is an English musician, entrepreneur, and author.
He began playing guitar at age 16 and received his first "real guitar", a Gibson Les Paul Custom, which he has played his entire career, at the age of 18. [1] He began playing guitar by ear, then had taken his first formal guitar lessons from a rock guitar teacher in his home town of Devon, England. His main influences are Ritchie Blackmore, Gary Moore, Eddie Van Halen and John Sykes. [2] [3] He is an alumnus of Colyton Grammar School and a graduate of the University of Portsmouth with a BSc in Music and Sound Technology [4] [5] [6] and has also studied at the Musicians Institute, in Hollywood. [1] Since 2012, he has been a regular contributor to Guitar World . [1] [7] He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
Since 2011, he has worked with Croatian singer Vivien Vain, forming the project ‘Wallner Vain’. Their music has featured many guest musicians including Don Airey, Carmine Appice, Vinny Appice, Rudy Sarzo, Derek Sherinian, Jimmy Bain, Neil Murray (British musician), Tony Carey, and Tony Franklin. Their song "Streets of Rage" was the first studio recording to feature both Vinny Appice and Carmine Appice on drums. In 2021 they released a Thin Lizzy tribute EP ‘The Legend Never Dies’. [1] [8] [9] [10] [11]
Wallner's other music related works include recording sessions with Grammy Award winning producer Bob Kulick for various bands. From 2012 to 2013, he toured and recorded as lead guitarist for White Wizzard. [1] [12] [13] His first show with the band was in Shibuya, Tokyo on 12 May 2012 at Club Quattro. [14] In 2013, he recorded guitar solos for White Wizzard's new album The Devils Cut, which was released on 3 June in Europe via Earache Records and on 25 June in North America via Century Media Records. [15] He toured North America and Europe in support of the release but left the band in October 2013. [16]
From 2013 to 2019 Wallner resided in Berlin, Germany, He founded the company Escape Game Enterprises Ltd in 2015. The company owns Escape game locations in Brighton, England and Berlin, Germany. Wallner designed several Escape game scenarios including Ghost of Kunsthof and Murder in Metropolis. In 2021, he published a memoir about the years he spent living in Berlin, detailing his journey to achieving financial freedom, as well as his experiences caring for his father, Peter Wallner, who suffered from pancreatic cancer until his death in 2018.
In 2016, Wallner purchased several pieces of musical equipment which used to belong to Gary Moore. These included several Gibson Les Pauls and vintage Marshall amplifiers.
In 2019, it was revealed on his website that Wallner had purchased the former home of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilminster, located in West Hollywood, just off the Sunset Strip, directly across the street from the Rainbow Bar and Grill.
Blow by Blow is the second album released under the name "Jeff Beck". It was recorded in October 1974 and released via Epic Records in 1975. A purely instrumental album, it peaked at No. 4 on the American Billboard 200 and was certified platinum by the RIAA.
Blue Murder were an English rock band led by guitarist-vocalist John Sykes. The group was formed in 1987 following Sykes' dismissal from Whitesnake. The initial line-up was rounded out by bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Carmine Appice. In its nascent stage, vocalist Ray Gillen and drummer Cozy Powell were attached to the project. In 1989, Blue Murder released their self-titled debut album, which cracked the Billboard 200 chart and spawned a minor hit with "Jelly Roll". By the early 1990s, however, Blue Murder's music had fallen out of fashion with the popularity of grunge. Franklin and Appice left the band, while Sykes put together a new line-up and released Nothin' But Trouble in 1993. After a live album the following year, Blue Murder were dropped by their record label and broke-up. Since then there have been numerous attempts to reunite the band to no avail.
Holy Diver is the debut studio album by the American heavy metal band Dio, released in 1983. Vocalist Ronnie James Dio had just finished his first tenure in Black Sabbath, whose drummer, Vinny Appice, he took with him to put together his own band. The roster was completed by his former bandmate from Rainbow, Jimmy Bain, on bass and by the young guitarist Vivian Campbell, coming from the new wave of British heavy metal band Sweet Savage. The album was acclaimed by the music press and is the band's most successful effort.
Carmine Appice is an American drummer and percussionist most commonly associated with the rock genre of music. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. Appice was inducted into the Classic Drummer Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Modern Drummer Hall of Fame in 2014.
John Voorhis "Tim" Bogert III was an American musician. He graduated from Ridgefield Memorial High School in his hometown of Ridgefield, New Jersey, in 1963. As a bass guitarist and vocalist he was best known for his powerful vocal ability and his fast runs, fluid agility and ground-breaking sound on his Fender Precision bass. He was one of the pioneers of using distortion with his bass to help it cut through the mix with the low-powered amps of his time which also imparted a very sharp-edged sound to it. He was a frequent collaborator with drummer Carmine Appice; the duo performed in such bands as Vanilla Fudge, Cactus and the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice.
Vincent Samson Appice is an American rock drummer best known for his work with the bands Dio, Black Sabbath, and Heaven & Hell. Of Italian descent, he is the younger brother of drummer Carmine Appice.
John James Sykes is an English musician, songwriter and producer, best known as a member of Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy and Tygers of Pan Tang. He has also fronted the hard rock group Blue Murder and released several solo albums.
Jeffrey Steven Pilson is an American musician best known for being the bass player in Dokken and currently classic rock band Foreigner. He has also had an extended stint with Dio in the 1990s. He is a multi-instrumentalist who plays guitar, cello, keyboards, piano and mellotron. Pilson played fictional heavy metal bassist Jörgen in the 2001 film Rock Star, and voiced Johnny Cage in the 2011 video game Mortal Kombat.
Sacred Heart is the third studio album by American heavy metal band Dio. It was released on August 13, 1985 on Warner Bros. Records in North America, and Vertigo elsewhere. The record peaked at No. 29 on the Billboard 200 chart. It includes the singles "Sacred Heart", "Rock 'n' Roll Children" and "Hungry for Heaven".
Blue Murder is the eponymous debut album by English hard rock band Blue Murder, released on 24 April 1989 by Geffen Records. It was produced by Bob Rock. The band was formed by guitarist John Sykes after his dismissal from Whitesnake. He was eventually joined by bassist Tony Franklin and drummer Carmine Appice. The band entered Little Mountain Sound Studios in early 1988 to begin recording their debut album. After several unsuccessful attempts at finding a lead singer, John Sykes took up the role, having already sung the band's first demos. Following the record's release, Blue Murder embarked on tours supporting Bon Jovi and Billy Squier.
Joe Lynn Turner is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He is known for his work in the hard rock bands Rainbow, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Deep Purple. During his career, Turner fronted and played guitar with pop rock band Fandango in the late 1970s; and in the early 1980s, he became a member of Rainbow, fronting the band and writing songs with guitarist, Ritchie Blackmore and bassist, and producer, Roger Glover. After Rainbow had disbanded in March 1984, he pursued a solo career, released one album, Rescue You, and then later did session work, singing background vocals for the likes of Billy Joel, Cher, and Michael Bolton. On the advice of Bolton, Turner began recording jingles for radio and television. Other songs he had composed or through collaboration with songwriters like Desmond Child and Jack Ponti were being recorded and released by international recording artists Jimmy Barnes, Lee Aaron, and Bonfire. Turner had a short-lived association with neoclassical metal guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen and then Deep Purple. From the mid-1990s, he resumed his solo career, releasing an additional nine studio and two live recordings. Turner did other session work, appearing as lead vocalist on tribute albums and working on projects involving various musical groups including progressive rock band Mother's Army; Bulgarian hard rock band Brazen Abbot; funk rock duo Hughes Turner Project; and classic rock/ progressive rock band Rated X. In 2006, Frontiers Records approached Turner to become involved with the AOR side project Sunstorm. By 2016, four albums under the Sunstorm name had been released. That same year, Turner released The Sessions via Cleopatra Records featuring a veritable who's who of classic rock royalty as guest musicians, before resuming his seemingly constant touring schedule back in Europe.
Heaven & Hell was a British-American heavy metal band active from 2006 to 2010. The band was a collaboration between Black Sabbath founding members Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and former Black Sabbath and Dio members Ronnie James Dio and Vinny Appice. The band's name was taken from the title of the first Black Sabbath album to feature Dio after the band's original vocalist Ozzy Osbourne was fired in 1979.
White Wizzard is an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2007. They have released one demo, one EP and four albums: Over the Top released in 2010, Flying Tigers released in 2011, The Devil's Cut released in 2013, and Infernal Overdrive released 2018. Throughout the band's history, it has undergone numerous lineup changes, with only Jon Leon remaining a stable member of the band. The end of the band was announced by Jon Leon in April 2018, however, he announced that he was reassembling the band in March 2019.
Kill Devil Hill is an American rock supergroup, founded in 2011 by drummer Vinny Appice, bassist Rex Brown, guitarist Mark Zavon, and lead vocalist Dewey Bragg. The band is named after the town of Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, a location renowned from pirating days.
Joel Hoekstra is an American guitarist currently in the band Whitesnake and also tours with Trans-Siberian Orchestra and Cher. The son of classical musicians, he started out playing cello and piano at a young age, but it was hearing Angus Young of AC/DC that inspired him to start playing the guitar. He was raised in the suburbs of Chicago, in Orland Park, but has lived in New York City since 2001.
Ethan Brosh is a rock guitarist from Boston, Massachusetts. He is best known for his solo work and for his work as the lead guitarist in the band Burning Heat.
Hollywood Monsters was an American hard rock supergroup from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2013. The band members include Steph Honde, Don Airey, Danko Jones (vocals), Ronnie Robson (bass), Vinny Appice, and Tim Bogert.
Steph Honde is a French singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Honde is most famous for being the frontman and songwriter of the American hard rock supergroup, Hollywood Monsters which he founded in 2013. Before Hollywood Monsters, Honde was the guitarist of the French rock band Café Bertrand from 2004 to 2010, when he resigned from the band and joined Paul Di'Anno band as the guitarist on tour across France.
Alessandro Del Vecchio is an Italian multi-instrumentalist and producer, best known for his collaborations with hard rock and heavy metal artists such as Jørn Lande, Revolution Saints, Hardline, Fergie Frederiksen, Ted Poley, Kelly Keeling and Mat Sinner, and for his work as the in-house producer for Neapolitan record label Frontiers Music SRL from his personal Ivorytears Music Works Studio located just north of Milan.
