Press Release / Columbus, Ohio based power metal act JACOBS DREAM has announced the addition of vocalist Kevin Wright to its ranks.  He replaces long-term front man Chaz Bond, who departed JACOBS DREAM in late 2013 after having spent the previous ten years with the band.

Commented the group: “Good News. The vocalist search is complete. Kevin Wright has been selected from a wide field of worthy candidates. As we continue to work on our new material with him, we are also working on a solid set of older songs so as not to let the summer gigging season slip away. Stay tuned for more info and pictures of Kevin.  Maybe he will let us post some raw studio clips of rehearsals or tracking the new CD (Where Vultures Gather). Please welcome Kevin to the Jacobs Dream family.”

Wright offers his thoughts in regards to how he joined JACOBS DREAM: “In 2012, I was looking to get back into (music), so I put an ad on Craigslist. I (soon) got in touch with these guys who were looking to do a hair metal tribute and I thought that would be perfect. I never made any money doing originals, so I thought I would make some doing covers. The band was called Teezer, and it was a lot of fun, and I had a great time doing it and met a lot of cool people in the Columbus music scene.

“James Evans (Jacobs Dream bassist) was at one of the Teezer shows and video taped me with his phone and then played it back to the guys in JD. They didn't know my name and didn't know how to get a hold of me, but a couple of weeks later I went to a gig of a friend of mine and James was there. He approached me about joining JD, but I just wasn't interested at first. Things with Teezer kind of died down and I was trying to put something else together when John Berry contacted me. I told him no like, 2 or 3 times (LOL!).

“I actually blew it off, but something kept telling me to at least research it. I got on YouTube and Spotify and was totally blown away by the guitar work. I'm not a very good player, but I am a guitar nerd! I love all things guitar, so that guitar work spoke to me. I emailed JB and told him after listening to the music, I had changed my mind and I wanted to audition. He sent me some tracks to work with, so I came to the audition and they liked what they heard I guess.”

He goes into further detail about his background and musical influences: “I'm originally from Saint John, New Brunswick Canada. My parents used to travel and do evangelism when I was young, so I started singing on stage at around 6 years old. My father graduated from Bethany Bible College and (started) a church in Damascus, Maryland. I continued to sing in the church until I reached my teens. I wasn't allowed to listen to secular music until I was around 13, and even then it could only be pop music. I was aware of bands like KISS and Led Zeppelin and a lot of the bands that were influential to modern metal, but didn't know any of their music, so most of my early influences were pop stars like Daryl Hall, Freddy Mercury, The Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross etc.

“At age 16 or so, hard rock songs started coming on the radio by Billy Idol, Ratt, Def Leppard, Scorpions, Van Halen etc. I fell in love with what is now known as the "hair metal" genre and vocalists like Sebastian Bach, Axl Rose, Jani Lane, Ray Gillen, Don Dokken and Geoff Tate really took it to a different level than the stuff I was used to hearing. Most of the bands of that era were kind of party rock, so to speak. I started looking for something similar, but with serious subject matter. When I first heard Iron Maiden, they were already well established and I sought out other bands in that vein like Queensryche. For a while, Queensryche was the be all/ end all for me.

“I was in my first band at age 16, we did a cover of Men at Work's "Overkill" and I was hooked on being in a band. I was in several bands that did nothing but implode. Almost all the bands I've been in were original bands. The most notable were SNaG, we had a great demo out, but no takers. I'm good friends with them til this day. The other was a band called Sunbelly. It was a Sabbath-y type of riffs combined with a heavy soulful vocals type of thing. Things just didn't take off. I also did a lot of cover work with all different people from around the globe. I did some original work for a few folks as well. I did vocals for a project called Drawing on Scars out of Georgia, a band called CLAN out of Dallas and for a guy named Jonathan Keifert from England. When my oldest son was born, I took time off from being in bands.”

Digital audition of Kevin Wright performing the track “Stain” off Beneath The Shadows (the fifth JACOBS DREAM album from 2009): https://soundcloud.com/official-jacobs-dream/stain

JACOBS DREAM remains at work on its next album, Where Vultures Gather.

JACOBS DREAM online: http://jacobsdreamusa.wix.com/jacobs-dream & www.facebook.com/OfficialJacobsDream