Worwyk (pron. war-wick) is strictly a studio project band, fronted by Tom Vitacco, a musician based in the suburbs of Chicago. Tom began playing guitar at age 16, jamming with some high school friends as they all learned their instruments together. While attending Illinois State University, Tom played in a couple of different bands, one playing generic cover tunes (mostly non-metal) while the other was mainly Metallica and Slayer covers. After graduating in 1986, Tom soon bought his first "real" guitar, a custom made BC Rich Bich, for which he waited six months while it was hand built in California.
In 1988, Tom hooked up again with his high school buddy John and they formed a technical thrash band with some local metalheads. After a few basement party gigs, the two guitarists decided to search for more serious musicians in the Chicago metal scene and after finding a new drummer and bass player, formed a band called Etheric Despotism. Unfortunately, problems within the band caused Tom and John to look elsewhere and after a while they gave up on trying to get a band together.
In the meantime, Tom bought a four-track cassette recorder and a drum machine and the two recorded their first album, called Serpentile Delusions, under the band name Vitalecco, which is a combination of their last names. Tom and John soon went their separate ways and Tom continued recording albums on his own as Worwyk. Over the years, Worwyk put out 11 albums, including Incinerator in 2002 and The Hanging Man in 2004.
Tom also has a side project with some friends called Affliction as has recorded two discs with them (My Rotting Place and Ignited Soul). Tom plays guitar and bass along with his friend Darren, and the vocals were handled by his buddies Lyle and Greg. You can check out Affliction by clicking the link on the left.
Tom's biggest disappointment with Worwyk has always been the vocals. He handled all the vocals over the years mainly because it was convenient, but he always thought his tunes would sound much better with a real vocalist. As he started to write new music in 2005, he decided it was time to look for someone new to sing on the tunes. Tom always stayed on top of technology and noticed how the internet was changing how home recording was done, especially in terms of working with musicians from different parts of the country. He frequented many online collaboration sites and saw how musicians were jamming together online, and the more he read up on the topic, the more interested he became in trying it out.
While online, he came across a project called Koalition, which is an online team of musicians from all over the world, who collaborate on tunes by sharing files online until the track is done. Tom offered two of his tracks from The Hanging Man to the project and Lee, co-founder of the project, agreed to sing on the tunes, replacing Tom's vocal tracks. The result sounded great and it inspired Tom to search the web for a metal vocalist whose voice would fit the new tracks he was writing - someone with an aggressive, modern voice that was clean enough to be understood while rough enough to blend in perfectly with Tom's riffs.
While listening to bands on Soundclick.com, he came across the band Dragonlips, which was also a one-man project band fronted by Mike O'Hara. Tom really liked the tunes and thought Mike's voice was exactly what he was looking for, so he contacted him to see if he would be interested in collaborating on the disc. Mike said he would give it a shot and the results turned out excellent. Work on the new Worwyk disc began immediately and Worwyk's CD entitled "In Solitude" was released in late 2006.
Tom worked on new music in 2008 and eventually Mike told Tom he wouldn't have time to sing on the new songs. Mike and Tom discussed the options and decided it would be best if Worwyk found a new vocalist so Tom began the search for a new singer and came across Jason Russo's myspace page. He contacted Jason, asked if he was interested and once Jason was able to set up a home studio, he agreed to sing on Malignant which will be released in 2009.
Tom would like to extend a huge thank you to Mike for singing on In Solitude and the support he has shown Worwyk over the last two years. In Solitude wouldn't have been the same without Mike's voice and the musical feedback he provided during the recording of the songs was invaluable. Mike and Tom still might work on some tunes down the road so their collaboration is not officially done!
Mike O'Hara
Mike O'Hara, from the band DragonLips, began playing electric guitar at the ripe age of 15, after being heavily influenced to pick up the instrument from listening to Ace Frehley of Kiss. In 1992, Mike eventually connected with high school friend Jeff Sutphin, and the two began to write music together. Several years passed and the duo decided it was time to get a band together. They joined drummer Eric Trexler and bassist Craig Trexler to form the thrash metal band "Reality". Reality played several shows in eastern Pennsylvania in late '93. The band recorded a six-song demo entitled "Kingdom of God", which contained several original underground thrash metal hits like, "Deceiver","Possessed" and the title track "Kingdom of God".
After several years, Reality was unable to keep up with the changes within the existing metal scene, and the band disbanded and went their separate ways. Mike went on to study video and music production at a local college, and he began to focus heavily on song writing within the rock genre. A half decade would past before he would ever pick up an electric guitar. During this time, Mike produced several original acoustic demos. In 2004, Mike established a close working relationship with a fellow guitarist/songwriter, Charles Silket. Charles re-introduced Mike to the electric guitar and metal music. Charles was an up-and-coming luthier, and he was able to restore much of Mike's old electric guitars, thus re-lighting the passion for metal music. The two experimented with song writing and more importantly, home recording. During this time, Mike was able to use the song writing and music diversity learned from the acoustic works, and apply that to his new form of metal.
In late 2004, DragonLips was born (click link on left for more info on DragonLips). Mike began to work on writing complete songs, focusing on the structure and lyrical content. He envisioned a metal sound that called on his personal influences from all musical genres. This brand of metal would be mainstream, yet experimental - current but with a retro appeal. He began to churn out several demos to showcase this work. Tracks like "Political Dissonance", "The One" and "Bleed the Sheep" saw modest online circulation. In 2005, Mike continued to work on his first self produced EP, aptly titled "Political Dissonance". In late 2005, Mike was approached by Tom Vitacco from the band Worwyk to collaborate on a new metal project. Tom had written several original metal tracks, and he felt that his music would be a good match for Mike's vocal style. Work on the new Worwyk disc began immediately and Worwyk's CD entitled "In Solitude" was released in late 2006.
Jason Russo
Jason Russo, Heavy Metal vocalist extraordinaire, was born in Jacksonville, NC and raised in Buffalo, New York. He has been singing Heavy Metal music since he was 15 years old. His first song was “Aint talkin 'bout Love” by Van Halen and when he grabbed that mic, he knew that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Jason has taken guitar, classical piano and vocal lessons as well as opera lessons, music theory, and sound engineering courses.
They say that life is a series of moments. Well those moments for Jason are singing to a crowd on stage, feeling the energy and love you get when people are responding to music that you wrote or were a part of writing. It is a powerful emotional experience in nature. Music is like a drug; once you feel that energy, love, and experience, you spend the rest of your life trying to get that rush. It’s always been hard to make others realize why musicians do what they do. But Jason is sure most musicians will agree that this is the main reason since many musicians make little or no money doing this.
It takes a lifetime to learn what Jason has learned and now that he is no longer singing for his previous Darkling he hopes to find the time to share his stories and experiences with those of you who would take an interest. He has played countless shows, has loads of studio recording experience, been signed to both indie and major labels, opened for the biggest names in the business and toured the East Coast and the Midwest.
Since Darkling, Jason has had a lot of time on his hands and pretty much went into solitude both after being down about the band ending and frustrated with the music scene in general. Show attendance was dropping, turmoil/arguments within the band; it seemed that what was once fun was becoming increasingly stressful. As soon as the band completely dissolved, he felt maybe it was a good time to retire from music for a while at least.
A few months back, Jason received an email from recording artist Rian Stallkamp from Los Angeles who asked him to do some vocal work. He went into Watchmen studios and laid the vocals down for 1 song (Edge of Thorns) and sent him the files over the web. This worked out great and he really had hoped to get more into collaborating over the web.
Right around the time of Darkling’s demise, Jason got an email from musician Tom Vitacco in Chicago asking if he’d be interested in doing vocals for his latest work because his last vocalist, do to time constraints, was unable to work on his latest project. Jason listened to the music and was immediately impressed by not only his past work but his current work. Within minutes of listening to his music, melodies were pouring out of Jason with an ease he hadn’t experienced since working with Darkling. Only problem was Tom had an entire CD written and there would be no way Jason could afford that much time in the studio. Tom told him that he and the vocalists he worked with all have recorded from home studios so Jason told him if he helps him set up a home studio, then he would be happy to record the vocal tracks for him.
Tom & Rian pointed Jason in the right direction, gave him tips and advice, and it took him a few months of trial and error to get a decent sound going. After all his work, Jason says that he has a new found respect for sound engineers and what you guys do. Getting a good sound is just a difficult as writing a good melody or lyrics. Actually, it’s a lot harder. Jason just finished recording of all the vocals for 10 new Worwyk songs that will be featured on the upcoming album entitled Malignant. He is also working with the band Darkride from France on some songs and he might sing on Tom's side project as well.
