Jay Schellen

Jay Schellen
Background information
Birth name Jay Schellen
Born (1960-05-20) 20 May 1960
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Genres Heavy metal
Occupation(s) Musician
Instruments Drums
Years active 1979-present
Associated acts Hurricane
Asia
Circa
World Trade
Unruly Child
Sircle of Silence
Stone Fury
GPS
Yes

Jay Schellen (born 20 May 1960, Albuquerque, New Mexico) is a U.S. drummer who is best known as a member of the hard-rock band Hurricane. Schellen has also worked and currently working with a number of other heavy rock and progressive rock bands, including with Asia,[1] World Trade, Circa, Unruly Child and several members of Yes.

Career

In 1979 as a teen Jay was introduced to the big Stage touring with R&B Legend Al Wilson ("Show and Tell") supporting The Ohio Players. After moving to Los Angeles in 1981 Jay broke into the LA session scene and played local stages with former Yes guitarist Peter Banks' band and National arenas with Danny Johnson and The Bandits supporting ZZ Top. In 1982, Schellen was invited to join English pop band Badfinger joining Tommy Evans, Joey Molland, Glen Sherba and Yes keyboardist Tony Kaye.

In 1984, Schellen joined Stone Fury, working with singer Lenny Wolf and guitarist Bruce Gowdy. From 1985 to 1991, he joined the melodic rock group Hurricane. Hurricane went on to record three records, Take What You Want, Over the Edge and Slave to the Thrill, 3 world wide tours and posted two top ten MTV videos. In 1993, Schellen joined Gowdy in a new melodic rock project, Unruly Child, releasing a self-titled CD. Schellen again worked with Gowdy in 1995, joining World Trade for their second album Euphoria, alongside Billy Sherwood (later in Yes). Schellen and Sherwood were the only members of World Trade for appearances on two tribute albums released on the Magna Carta record label in 1995.

In 1995-1997, Schellen formed Sircle of Silence with singer David Reece (ex-Accept, ex-Bangalore Choir), guitarist Larry Farkas (ex-Vengeance Rising, ex-Die Happy) and bass guitarist Greg Chaisson (ex-Badlands). In 1997, Schellen published his well regarded drum method book Rocking Independence. In 1998, he played in Heaven and Earth with former Hurricane bandmate Kelly Hansen and guitarist Stuart Saunders Smith. 1998-1999 saw a second Unruly Child album with Gowdy and Hansen. In 1999, Schellen played on Sherwood's debut solo album The Big Peace, while the next year he recorded for Sherwood's project with Yes bassist Chris Squire, Conspiracy. In 2003, Schellen re-joined Conspiracy, recording The Unknown, followed by a live-in-the-studio DVD recorded in 2004 and released in 2006. Schellen has continued to work with Sherwood on a number of other projects including joining progressive group Circa in 2008 (replacing Alan White), thus re-joining Tony Kaye again on keyboards and Jimmy Haun on guitars. They released Circa HQ in January 2009. He also worked with Yoso in the band's initial stages, again working with Sherwood and Kaye. In 2010 Jay joined Sherwood, Jimmy Haun and Kaye again to perform "Headsets" in collaboration with legenday Rock and Roll DJ Jim Ladd staged at the Laserium in Los Angeles, California.

In 2004, Schellen with Sherwood worked on pre-production for Asia's album Silent Nation with Geoff Downes (another former Yes keyboardist). In August 2005, Schellen replaced Chris Slade as the drummer in Asia. The group toured Europe extensively and released a live recording, however, in 2006, Downes left the line up for a reunion of the original founding members Asia quartet: Schellen and the other two Asia band members, singer John Payne and guitarist Guthrie Govan, formed a new band, GPS. GPS released their debut CD Window to the Soul. In 2008, Asia Featuring John Payne was formed with Payne, Govan, keyboardist Erik Norlander, and Schellen on drums. A new album is expected. Unruly Child has also reunited.

From September 2013, he was performing in the Las Vegas production of Raiding the Rock Vault, initially alongside his Asia band mate John Payne.

In 2016 he replaced Yes drummer Alan White on Yes' 2016 North American tour while White recovered from back surgery.

References

  1. Moon, Jill (12 May 2010). "Touring Asia: Longtime frontman John Payne brings own band version". The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
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