In The Beginning...

 

Chad Sylva was born in San Jose, California. His parents (father was also a drummer) gave him a small drum set for his 4th birthday (which was destroyed days later under the influence of watching Keith Moon). By 6 years old, Chad was playing theme songs from the TV shows of the day for family members and sitting in for occasional weddings with his dads band, along with performing in talent shows at school.

 

After hearing Neal Peart’s drum solo on “YYZ” from Rush’s Exit…Stage Left album, Chad’s interest in drums was galvanized. By 6th grade he took band class at school learning to read and perform in Marching band and sat in with the middle school stage band for a jazz competition, winning an outstanding performance award. Bands such as Missing Persons, Journey and The Pretenders were constantly playing through out the house…

Growing up listening to Prog Rock giants such as Yes, ELP and Rush, it shaped his interest in odd times and flamboyant drumming. In high school he concentrated on performance, tympani and percussion (along with a heavy listening dose of King Crimson and Metal!).

 

While studying music in college, Chad started performing in orchestra pits of the theater, along with drumming at church, where he went on a music tour in Australia, performing on an electric drum kit. Later he began playing with the acoustic band Corduroy Bloom, recording the album “Unbending” with them. By then he had discovered the brilliance of drummers Vinnie Colaiuta, Gary Husband and Stewart Copeland.

 

 

 

 

After getting married in 1999, Chad and wife Deborah (from Corduroy Bloom) moved to Nashville to further study drums and meet and woodshed with some of the world’s best musicians. He started playing at local church (getting a thorough education in gospel music and performance) and regional touring bands (these lead to tours of India and China), along with getting some session work on various projects. The bands varied from Blues to Pop, Electronica to Southern Rock and Acoustic to Jazz, widening his abilities and respect for the different styles of music. At the same time, he took interest Congas and hand percussion, along with the recording process and opened his own studio in Franklin, TN (The Noise Factory), recording drums for various projects and artists (including Jasmine Saginario and 6 Lori Lane) . His co-founded the band Newcastle All-Stars with up and coming musicians Terry Lee Palmer, Lee Francis and Kery Greene, playing Jazz/Fusion in some of Nashville’s legendary clubs. Other bands he performed in include Jessica Dawn, The Oilvia Dunkle Trio (with amazing bassist Jon von Boehm), Dillon Dixon, Top Gun (featuring Guitarist Blair Gilley)  and Southern Hauler.

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Almost 10 years later, it was time to come back home to California, but not after touring countries such as India and China (performing to crowds up to 30,000 people). Retuning to the Golden State in mid 2009, Chad relocated to Napa and dove right back into the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. After a northwest tour with the jam band Los Tikilyches from Mexico, he started performing/recording with pianist/vocalist Ziva Hadar. After meeting guitar player Doug Ott (from the prog-rock band Enchant), the floodgates opened and Chad started and performing with some of the Bay’s great musicians. The bands included Honey Circuit (Dance/Party Band), Stung (The ultimate tribute to The Police), Reluctant Heros, Route 111, Triple Shot, Davies Dukes Band, TMI and Iron Hore Station. In the summer of 2013 he recorded for the group Talk Like Lions (Mixed and Engineered by Tom Size - never seen so much platinum on a walls before!)  He also became house drummer for the Karaoke Outlaws, a live band Karaoke experience that had a catalog of over 300 songs to pull from at any given moment. Before leaving for Las Vegas, Chad played for the Spanish Rock band Anima, playing Peruvian

festivals and playing at the legondary "Yoshi's" in San Francisco...

 

 

Viva Las Vegas!!

 

 

In the Summer of 2014, Chad  moved to Sin City!!

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sInce the move to Vegas, Chad is now the drummer for Sam Riddle (Country) , Super Lemon (Rock/Alt Hits) and Los Rockouts (Rock en Espanol) as well as other bands and studio projects...

 

 

Chad's interests (besides drumming) include Soccer (playing or watching Manchester United!), BBQ, Weightlifting, Sci-fi TV, Movies with great quotes, Watching sports (Go Raides and Giants!) at pubs, good beer, whiskey or tequila, traveling, philosophy, laughing at politicians and of course watching cat videos on Youtube!

 

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