Inside AJs corner

After AJ attended one of our charity shows at work he was surprised to see a horn section. This was something new for the band since we tend to play classic rock with a classic rock lineup drums, guitar, bass and Keys. As we talked about the set AJ tells me he loves the horns and enjoyed playing with a horn section early on in his career. Now I knew AJ had an outstanding Jazz background (read the Bio on the web page) before joining Twisted, but he never mentioned the band with horns.

He tells me he had an old reel to reel tape of a band he was in that cut 6 demos all with horns. I bugged the crap out of AJ to find that tape and bring it in for me. Turns out mom had it tucked away safe and sound at her home. Thank god for mom!

I'm holding this rare snapshot into the early drumming of one of heavy metals premier drummers in my hands. It took me a while to get my gear setup, but I recently transferred the original stereo master to my PC. These are the real deal, pro quality recordings, I mean these songs sound great and this tape was recorded back in the early 70s!

I must say the tunes blew me away! AJs drumming as a teenager is outstanding! This tape is a diamond in the rough. I hope AJ can work it out and make these recordings available for fans to download, and I know he is looking into it. I'll keep you posted on his progress on this front. He.s pretty busy with Twisted right now and several other projects, but I know he would love to get these recodings out

• Welcome to my first column
  
  AJ and I met several years ago while we were both working in the labs for a major telecommunication company. We were both involved in various functions of running a lab to support the testing of new and emerging services.
  
  One day I get a call from my manager telling me we need some equipment racks and that one of the groups we work with might be getting ride of some. “Give AJ Pero call and see what he’s got”, I was told by my overly excitable boss. So I scheduled a meeting with AJ in his lab for the following day. As I walked around the mountains of racks and miles of cat5 cable there was AJ. I was escorted in the lab by one of AJ’s co-workers who introduced us.
  
  My band, Under our influence, had just played a lunch time charity show at work and AJ informed me that he was present and enjoyed the show. As I referenced our set list it was clear to me that AJ had a depth of musical knowledge greater then anyone I’ve ever spoken with at work. The conversation included some not so household names like Carl Wilson and Ray and Dave Davies. Could it be after all these years I have someone to talk to about music that knows what he's talking about? No more “oh Jethero Tull he’s good” comments from guys pretending they know music. As we headed back to AJ’s office he informed, “Dude I play drums for Twisted Sister”. I said no way,, I use to see TS in the clubs back in the late 70’s. He told me he wasn’t in the band at that time, but had joined prior to TS being signed to a major label. Little did we know that this was the start of a great friendship?
  
  I enjoyed running wires and racking up servers with AJ until he ultimately left to re-join Twisted and the music business full time. We continue to be great friends and I look forward to working on this column as the year progresses.
  
  Stay tuned for the next installment of the column.
  Gabe