The Michael Thompson Band is back with their brand new album, “Love And Beyond” on April 26, 2019! For this new release, Michael wanted to go back to the more polished AOR sound of the band’s debut album. Once again, he teamed up with Wyn Davis for the mix and also had the amazing Mark Spiro involved in the songwriting and appearing on vocals together with the awesome Larry King and Larry Antonino. Best known for being Unruly Child’s bass player, Antonino delivers a phenomenal vocal performance which can only be defined as stunning. Another Unruly Child member, Guy Allison appears on keyboards, while drums on the album are handled by Sergio Gonzalez and Tim Pedersen.
Amongst musician circles, Michael Thompson is considered one of the leading guitar players in the world. He was awarded the "Distinguished Alumni" award from his alma mater Berklee College of Music to commemorate his contributions to the music industry. Berklee's program for the event noted that "he is widely regarded as being among the elite studio session players, and his amazing list of credits includes such prominent names as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, 'N Sync, Toni Braxton, Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, the Scorpions, Vince Neil, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Bette Midler, Madonna, Babyface, En Vogue, Gloria Estefan, Stanley Clarke and Ricky Martin."
Originally from New York, Michael moved to Los Angeles in 1979 to begin a studio musician career. In 1988, after working to try and get a deal with his band Slang, he finally got signed by Geffen Records to release one album entitled "How Long", under the Michael Thompson Band (M.T.B.) monicker.On "How Long", more great studio musicians appeared as guests, in particular drummer-maestro Terry Bozzio, singer Moon Calhoun (ex The Strand), Pat Torpey (Mr Big), bassist Jimmy Haslip, John Elefante (Kansas), Toto's Bobby Kimball, and Great White associates Michael Lardie and Wyn Davis (who also produced the album). Songwriters would include, among others, AOR luminaries such as Jeff Paris, Mark Spiro, Billy Trudel and Brett Walker.
As of today, “How Long” is still regarded as one of the highest examples of hi-tech AOR / West Coast, with superb production and immaculate songwriting. Reissued in 2007 with 3 bonus tracks, it started a relationship between Michael Thompson and Frontiers, who put out the new Michael Thompson Band album in early 2012.
For the second album which Frontiers released in 2012, Michael teamed up with the awesome singer Larry King from the band Soleil Moon. Larry brought a new and more rocking approach to the MTB sound, but certainly the trademark elements of songwriting and melodies were still to be found on the “Future Past”.
Not only will the Michael Thompson Band be appearing at Frontiers Rock Festival this April 28-29th for their first live performance in Europe, but they are also working on a new studio album! Today, we are pleased to offer you a preview of the new music they are working on with the song, "'72 Camaro"
This video was filmed when Craig Bauer (mixing engineer) was approached by Hear Technologies with the idea of capturing video of a recording session in Sphere Studios, owned by Francesco Camelli (tracking engineer), in LA. They wanted well known, reputable musicians in the video since it was ultimately going to be used at their booth at the NAMM Show. Craig approached Michael Thompson and Larry King, who are in the middle of the recording new albums from Michael Thompson Band and Soleil Moon and they were more than happy to call in some friends to be the subjects for the video with them. So Vinnie Colaiuta, Leland Sklar - Bassist, and Ricky Peterson came in and now you have this video to watch!
“We will see if and how we will use this song later on,” says singer Larry King, “but in the meantime we wanted the fans to be able to properly enjoy this song in preparation of the band’s performance at the Frontiers' Festival. We hope you can enjoy this and see you soon in Italy!”
Frontiers Music Srl is pleased to announce that a new album from MICHAEL THOMPSON BAND is in the works!
With an amazing list of credits including such prominent names as Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Scorpions, Vince Neil, Christina Aguilera, Michael Bolton, Mariah Carey, Madonna, and many, many, many more, Michael Thompson is one of the music industry's most widely heralded guitar players. Less known is the fact that he has his own rock band, who debuted back in 1988 on Geffen Records with the release of a highly acclaimed album entitled "How Long", under the Michael Thompson Band (MTB) monicker.
“How Long” was reissued in 2007 with three bonus tracks and was the beginning of a relationship between Michael Thompson and Frontiers, who also released a brand new Michael Thompson Band album, “Future Past” in early 2012.
For this new album, Michael has again teamed up with the awesome singer Larry King from the band Soleil Moon. Larry has brought a new and more rockin' approach to the MTB sound and the new album will pick up where the previous one left off.
The new album is planned for release in 2018 and Michael and Larry are also working, together with keyboard wizard John Blasucci (Dennis DeYoung), on a the third SOLEIL MOON studio album which will also be released via Frontiers Music Srl and promises to be an absolute must hear for all West Coast AOR/Melodic Rock lovers out there!
