Welcome to the VASLAV

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Purchase music by VASLAV at Fading Ways Music Store

A short Vince Strnad History

Son of an immigrant family from Czechoslovakia, Vince Strnad found freedom of expression in early musical lessons of discovery, growth, loss, and universal love. The classical and folk genres were abundant in his home country, while the Beatles and Stones were only available via the black market. In their voyage to Canada, Vince and his family endured many hardships. They spent the year in Italy in an immigrant camp. Their experiences ranged from lining up for food and living with criminals to discovering Rome and visiting the Vatican to Vince sighting his first electric guitar. At even at an early age Vince actively searched for music stores to look at every instrument.

Canada made music more accessible, providing more space and range of expression. During his teens Vince learned to play guitar, clarinet and saxophone; he played guitar and bass in several cover bands, while composing and beginning to record original music. One such band was an early incarnation of VASLAV, with drummer Zack Levy (from the band August), bassist Simon Levy and first singer Adam August. The story is that Zack wanted Vince to join August, and put an ultimatum to August guitarist Alan Aicken, who chose to split up the band. He later played guitar for Amanda Marshall prior to her signing.

Meanwhile VASLAV secured a management deal and looked for a new frontman. Neil Leyton stepped in as vocalist and the band changed their name to "Henry Farm", recording a demo "groove machine", with some of Neil's songs and VASLAV songs. After a year of playing live there was major label interest, but the management company closed its doors and Neil tried other projects, leaving the vocal duties to Zack. Disappointed by not finding a lead singer, however, Henry Farm disbanded shortly afterwards.

Vince continued playing with various friends. During a Passion'd Flower sound-check, Vince stepped up to mic and sang an old blues number, "Spider and the Fly" and immediately Neil encouraged him to sing. At his next studio session, Neil asked Vince to record one of his original songs, "The Therapy Song". Vince's passionate, strong yet fragile vocals opened a new door to the dimension of his song-writing.

Vince then went through a period of depression. He continued to write songs, some by himself, some with Neil Leyton, some with Skutch Shimoda from Passion'd Flower. It was a scary time for him, and eventually Vince Strnad walked away from performing to work in a music shop fixing guitars - the aspiring artist became an artisan.

A year later he was approached by the manager of the Dean Petty Show to perform live during one of their holiday specials. Slowly, Vince's music started to develop. He was coming up with his own songs, composing a range of cascading melodies and lyrics during this time period. Endless demos were completed. A chance came up to showcase some of the new songs at the "Goulash PartyHouse" (owned by the Green Room) in the Annex - all the old friends were there: Skutch, Neil Leyton, Devin Stoneham, Dan Cohen, Kim Schraner. The VASLAV project was reborn, but with a very important difference: it was now, rightfully, Vince's own songs both musically and lyrically. No longer trying to be just a rock n roll band, all of Vince's life-long influences and experiences came together to spontaneously create a genuinely original voice that defies definitions.

Vince Today, Vince feels that he "was truly given a gift, that of being a musician and being able to express all the musical voices" that he had heard both externally and internally, over the years. After meeting members of the band "DIAL", songs were recorded for an aptly-titled collection: "reCORDING". A new musical collaboration was started with Dimitri Brune Derome, who helped produce two full albums. Santino Degasferis (of the band "Blue Orange") also played on the vaslav recordings, and Vince also participated in another project, "Model Minstrels" with Louie George and Dimitri, who independently released the CD "rags & stomps".

Fading Ways Music is issuing VASLAV's albums via their new website's special-item mail-order. "reCORDING" and "VASLAV" will be available in early 2004. Meanwhile, Vince also plans on sharing his song-writing with other artists - he's got a wealth of musical sketches to offer.

VASLAV will continue to perform live, whether it's just Vince with an acoustic guitar, or with Dimitri, Santino, and other friends; Vince's music will continue to inspire people to love life, endure hardships... "I would love it to feed optimism into people's existence, be a small light of hope in people's struggles", explains Vince. His is not merely a tale of down times - today Vince is a happy, self-fulfilled young man, always stylishly dressed, regardless of whether or not the limelight is shining on him.

Let it shine.