Biography of The Sign

JOEY & PALL'S BIOGRAPHY

BIG BIO

JOEY DEE

Growing up in a household that was predominately classical and jazz based choosing to play guitar and write songs of my own was a natural progression. I had played piano for a few years, loved improvising Beethoven and giving it a beat to the point when it became wiser to play guitar as it weighs less than a piano and is easily transportable. I have been lucky in my exposure to great writers and to have been influenced by some great bands made possible by having friends from over seas at a really early age. They had brought to Australia both British and American rock, early Queen, Hendrix, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Donovan, Simon and Garfunkel, Genesis and Kraftwerk. Worked with really interesting talented people in the industry, having recorded with both Chris Thompson and Tony Cohen, been involved with some fantastic sessions. I worked with Kim Fowley (who worked with the Byrds), played in a number of great bands. Went solo, then met Pall, my musical match in Sydney, on my way to Berlin. Ended up in Los Angeles for nearly two years,worked with Stevie Wonder's keyboard player Isaiah and a couple of great R&B writer/performers and of course Pall. Been writing consistently for the last couple of decades, playing and singing, finished a law degree, helping and encouraging writers and bands to learn about the music business, whilst working on new projects. on recording time at Marlin studio in Prahran in 2001 for having won a song writing competition got a six song ep out of it, invited by APRA to enter the Johnny Dennis competition, been a finalist in the Johnny Dennis Song writing competition and got an honourable mention in the USA Billboard songwriting competition in 2003. I had been told living in Tasmania on my return from the USA was musical death as I should have been relocated to Sydney, but the lifestyle in Tassie wins out every time and the isolation of an island state really does give our songs a different flavour. Global contact is possible and the world is only a click away. The songs to date have been of interest to a number of people in the publishing field and currently we are finishing an album before shopping for publishing and distribution. We "The Sign" are trademarked in Australia and Canada and have a label Rock Spider records plus our website www.thesign.com. There is a six song acoustic ep and a four song rock ep released and available for sale. I love working with other writers creating and playing. Speed writing sounds like fun and a test of skill which I would personally enjoy and make the most of, especially welcoming the opportunity to work with other skilled writers.

PALL MALL

There has always been music in the Volta household. My father was a singer and a drummer. My older brother and cousin also played drums and sang. In the fifth grade I was introduced to the trumpet for music class. Aside from the usual songs taught at school I found it was easy for me to learn songs from listening to the radio. I used to like make up my own melodies when there was a break in the vocals and just play along with the singer or trumpet player (Herb Alpert back then). A year later I joined a drum and bugle corps (Dutch Town Squires) and played the one valve bugle in festivals and street parties in my home town of Rochester, New York. When I was twelve years old my best friend got a guitar. Say goodbye to the trumpet and hello to the guitar! I had a few lessons playing the Mel Bay style of guitar but I wanted to play the songs I listened to on the radio. A couple of years later I formed a seven piece band called The Blues Union and played cover songs by Chicago Transit Authority, Blood Sweat & Tears, Hendrix, Cream, Sly & the Family Stone etc…Given my trumpet background and by the time I was in high school I played the saxophone, I arranged the horn parts for the band. I learned the parts on guitar and transposed them for trumpet and sax. After a few years and a few singers later, it was decided by my band mates that I should be the singer because I could do the job just as well if not better than the ones we had. After touring the east coast of the US playing cover songs in a four piece band called Prodigy, I purchased a Tascam 4 track reel to reel recorder and started to write my own songs. That lasted for another year and it was off to Hollywood as the music biz was happening there! Hollywood was everything one would have expected. Two years in La La land saw another incarnation of "Prodigy" now playing original songs and also started one of LA's largest vintage guitar shops "Voltage Guitars". I also worked with other musicians such as Mickey McMeel (Banana Splits), Goldie McJohn (Steppin Wolf), Michael Murphy (REO Speed Wagon), and Kim Simmons (Savoy Brown) amongst others and all the time honing my writing, recording and production skills. Whilst I was in Hollywood I had the privilege to sing and play bass in a song featured in the movie "European Vacation" (co-written by my business partner). I also got to narrate, do voice-overs, write; record and produce the theme song for a video called the L.A.C.D. Story as well as write the theme song for a program featured on pay TV called "Beyond Sound" that won an "ACE" Award. In 1987 on a business trip to Australia; I met Joey Dee and discovered we made "beautiful music" together. After a year and a half of living and writing songs together in La La Land we moved to Tasmania where we have been writing and playing together ever since.