When
your first major tour includes a make-believe club date performing for
surrealist director David Lynch and
actor Nicolas Cage, you know your
career has taken an unorthodox turn. For unconventional drummer John
Macaluso, his
appearance with Powermad during Cage's volatile bar scene
in the movie Wild At Heart (1989) couldn't have
been a more appropriate forecast.
Frustrated with only playing rock's restrictive 2 and 4 around the
world as a
hired gun in bands like TNT, Macaluso broke away, forming
Ark in 1998. Splattering a decade's worth of pent-up
imagination onto
their self-titled debut disk, Ark grabbed peers and prog fans. Their
2002 follow-up and final album, Burn
The Sun,
solidified their 'no rules' reputation. Admirers like Joe Lynn Turner
(Rainbow) likened Ark's heavy
invention to 'AC/DC playing prog rock.'
Ark also caught the ear of Dream Theater's Mike Portnoy, leading
to
Macaluso's placement on singer James LaBrie's recent solo tour.
"They were the first albums where I
was the co-writer," says Macaluso
of his time in Ark. "I wanted to make something where people would say,
'You
can't do that.' Then I say, 'Who says we can't?' It was a no-rules band. I think that's why
musicians really dug it."
Notorious guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen tapped the wild-card player
in 1999 for a
three-year tour of duty, where Macaluso became the only
drummer to ever solo on a Malmsteen album
(Alchemy).
Now Macaluso reunites with TNT vocalist Tony Harnell for the drum-driven
Starbreaker
CD and early fall tour. "Usually drums are recorded first," says
Macaluso. "Here, Tony's vocals were
down already with a click, so I
could play off his emotion and accent the phrasing."
In
October, expect the debut CD
from Macaluso's new band, Masterlast,
where "Techno/jungle meets double bass." And Macaluso's method book,
Repercussions,
is also readied at the gates. In it, mentor Joe Franco compliments
Macaluso's creativity, while a
grinning Nicko McBrain embraces its
humor as it also reveals tested tricks of the trade.
