Sherri Thal (vocals, violin, percussion)
It all started with insomnia and a love of vocal harmonies for Sherri Thal. Spinning the best of her parents' vinyl collection on her spectacular black and blue, zebra striped record player, Sherri absorbed the sounds of the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Elton John, Taj Mahal, Harry Nilsson, The Beach Boys, Ray Charles, and Cat Stevens by day. At night the six year old, Sherri, would dissect the harmonies of her favorite tunes in her head as a fun game to induce sleep, which eventually engulfed her radio head, only to wake up with incessant melodies, harmonies, and full on songs verbatim, swimming around in her brain. During this tender and sleepless age, Sherri began writing silly lyrics and plays with her sister and best friends to tunes ranging from "The Girl I Left Behind Me" to Beethoven's first and second symphonies.
Sherri legitimized herself in 1994 when she graduated Summa cum Laude in Music from California State University, East Bay and has been teaching music both in public and private schools as well as in her studio since 1993. Sherri has played, sang, been musical director, composer and arranger in numerous bands and ensembles, from age six to present, ranging from the San Francisco Bay Area Chamber Choir to sharing the stage with Michelle Shocked to co-writing with her husband, Brent Magstadt, for their duo, The Elementalz, to producing, arranging harmonies, singing and playing violin and percussion on the kid friendly Lava Jam Band album, "In The Beginning." She also helped pen the title track as well as "Touch Me Gently" on Into Wishin's CD "This Life" and composed music for the Belfast Community Circus in Northern Ireland. She was musical director for the HICCUP Children's circus, producing their first ever youth rock band that recorded original music for their circus show. Sherri Thal continues to play in the Elementalz, composes any kind of music that she can when she can, and learns something new every day. |
Brent Magstadt (guitars, bass, vocals)
Brent Magstadt was born in the cold rocky winds of Montana, weathered in the Pacific NW rains, and finally crawled out from under Seattle's gray mantle and moved to Hawai'i, where he discovered sunshine exists more than three weeks out of the year.
With backgrounds in jazz, classical, and rock/folk, Magstadt is an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and performer (including stage shares with Andy Narrell, Carl Fontana, Matt Catingub, Paul McKee, Steve Houghton, and Randy Brecker). In addition to an extensive log of performances over the years in the US, he has toured through Europe playing festivals, inns and pubs, composed for radio, television/film and scored for software companies. In summer of 2009 he and wife Sherri Thal (Lava Jam Band, The Elementalz, Triple Scoop) completed setting up Wun Whirled Studios on the Big Island of Hawai'i, and released their initial public offering: The Elementalz - a solid EP set of original acoustic music. In addition to writing/recording with Sherri Thal for The Elementalz next release, Magstadt writes Film/Television music for production music libraries. He also continues to compose instrumental rock fusion for small ensembles (his real musical passion), writes/co-writes alternative rock & acoustic music, pens chamber orchestra pieces whenever possible, and maintains an occasional sideman presence on the Big Island as a guitarist for various ensembles, from jazz to big band to rock to folk. In 2012, Magstadt also played sideman (as well as contributing co-writes) on Ethan Freckleton's Unlimited Love EP , and the forthcoming 2014 release "Empty Palace". Check out Ethan's website here: Ethan Freckleton. |