American Idol finalist James Durbin and Quiet Riot guitarist Alex Grossi have announced a collaboration entitled “Maps To The Hollywood Scars” – The first five song EP will be released worldwide through New Ocean Media (HIM, Adelita’s Way, Motorhead) in February 2017.
Recorded at Desert Moon Productions in Las Vegas , (a state of the art studio owned by Danny “The Count” Koker, star and creator of the History Channel’s hit show Counting Cars), Maps To The Hollywood Scars showcases the darker side of Hollywood and the music industry – as experienced by two people that have taken two different paths, yet ultimately found many common themes throughout their respective journeys. The first of the two EPs feature a guest appearances by longtime Guns N’ Roses keyboardist Dizzy Reed, as well as programming and engineering by A.J. St. James (The Big 4, MTV),
In 2011, James Durbin released the album, titled Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster. The album debuted at number 36 on the Billboard 200, at number eight on the Billboard Rock Chart, number 25 on the Digital Album Chart, and sold 28,000 the first week, The album went on to sell over 123,000 copies in the U.S. alone. Most recently, Durbin released Riot On Sunset in the summer of 2016.
Alex Grossi has been a member of Quiet Riot for over a decade, having been chosen by the late Kevin DuBrow and Frankie Banali to fill the guitar slot in 2004. Most recently the band completed it’s first full length studio album since 2006’s Rehab which is currently set for a spring release through Frontiers/SRL records. The award winning Quiet Riot documentary Well Now You’re Here, There’s No Way Back has been airing on Showtime since January 2015, and appeared at multiple high profile film festivals including the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. The movie is currently available via iTunes and on DVD at www.quietriotmovie.com.
“I have been a fan of James’s for a while, and after we got an impromptu chance to jam together in Las Vegas last fall, we kept in touch and the ideas just started flowing back and forth” says Alex Grossi “I feel that Maps To The Hollywood Scars is a true labor of love and reflects a lot of where we have both been, as well as where we are both going musically” outside of what we are both known for.”
James Durbin adds “It’s not very often that a project like this goes from nothing to something in such a short amount of time, without a slough of industry BS. Alex started sending me instrumental demos & gave me free range to just write. We started churning out songs one after the other & they weren’t losing their quality, they were getting better. I think that we stumbled upon a winning team and its only fair that we let our collective fans hear what we’ve been having so much fun making!”
For more information, please visit facebook.com/hollywoodscars.
Watch clips of James Durbin performing with Zakk Wylde (on American Idol) and trailer for the Quiet Riot documentary below.
3 Responses
Kid sucks vocally. Can’t believe Zakk would even accept such a cheesy gig. Just when you think things can’t get any worse in the rock and heavy metal world, I saw this “American Idol” video. What’s next, Zakk on “The View” singing Mr. Crowley with Sharon………..
Cool. Check out his debut album, it’s actually really good and it rocks. BTW, the clip with Zakk Wylde, man that dude is so frickin’ good it’s ridiculous.
I love him, and have been fortunate enough to meet him a couple of times on Eddie’s show. He is also very funny.
D 🙂