I'm hoping I can get some help with the musically knowledgeable folks here! I'm trying to figure out who this artist is!

About 8 years ago (or so), a friend of mine played me some music by a solo artist that was pretty good. He was playing me some modern music so that I could shed my 80s influences. He was telling me... you need to listen to this for the style. This music I'm guessing must have been recorded from the mid 90s to the early 2000's... I'm thinking. That era. Anyway, this artist goes by his namesake... not a band name. His music is modern-sounding... definitely not 80s style. He has a deep voice, and for some reason, the singer of Creed comes to mind. The songs are very dark, but they are heavy rock. The artist was known for playing the majority of the instruments on his releases. He was known as somewhat of a genius for his studio work and writing. The songs were varied... some of them were acoustic songs, with vocals and some heavy guitars mixed in. Others were straight-up heavy rock... very intense. If I had to describe the music, I can only say somewhat 'post-grunge'... I'm thinking of a mix between early Creed with Soundgarden. From what I understood at the time... this artist's music was very popular. I don't know if he has made new music since then.

I've tried contacting my friend, but haven't had luck. This is killing me for three days now.. I want to find this music and listen to it again.

WHO IS THIS GUY?

Almost sounds like Devin Townsend especially the "The artist was known for playing the majority of the instruments on his releases. He was known as somewhat of a genius for his studio work and writing." part.....except for the deep voice thing.

Devin is a genius, IMHO.

Thanks for chiming in. No, it's not Devin. The guy I'm talking about... I think he has three names... like, for example: Andrew Kevin Walker. He's a solo artist.. may have been in a band... but I still can't figure out who this guy is!!!!

Devin is no doubt extremely talented. Didn't he do an album with Steve Vai?

xx123456

Alex, thanks for your efforts. I really appreciate it. I was hoping you'd chime in, because I remembered you were always pretty knowledgable about music in general.

I liked that SYSTEM OF A DOWN song... it was a bit quirky, but cool! I'd never heard it before. I'll probably get it.

Actually, after agonizing for what seemed like a LONG time, I finally connected with the friend that played me this stuff. I was wrong about the three names... but it ended up being:

DAYS OF THE NEW

It seems that the singer, Travis Meeks... was the guy. He recorded the first album with the band, then parted ways with them. They went on and formed TANTRIC. Anyway, Meeks went on (he kept the name of the band) and started doing new albums mostly on his own... the vision became his, and he played the majority of the instruments on the next two albums. He got people to help him, but the band became more of his vision.

Anyway, looking forward to hearing this stuff now that I know who it was almost 9 years ago!!!

Days of the New is awesome stuff. Travis Meeks is a mess now and has been working on the 4th album for quite sometime. see this -The first DOTN album was great, and the 2 others are pretty amazing as well. I heard "dope road" which is supposed to be on the upcoming album. If you can find a link to it its got a great chorus. I found a crappy live version on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B91DUu6Vh5w

Glad you finally found it Fernando. This was a fun little mystery for a few days though. I was going to guess Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age, but he didn't quite match up with your story.
...and my other guess, Guy Mann-Dude, was too '80s

Thanks for the video link!

Is he still a mess? I read he sobered up in 2005 or so... but did he have a relapse?

I also read somewhere... that Meeks had reunited with some of the old band members, and they were working on album 4.

I'm looking for the CDs!

My friend says that his favorite album is #2. He says that it is very layered, and that there's a lot of stuff there to look for! That every time he hears it again, he discovers something new.

Have they ever done any hard stuff? I thought it was hard rock, but a lot of what I've previewed on Itunes seems to be acoustic.

Yeah, I did research Troy... I thought the same thing for a while...

Guy Mann-Dude! I remember that guy from the late 80s... he was in a lot of ads in guitar magazines. To this day, I've never heard any of his music, but I know what he looks like! Almost CONAN-like (the "Crom" Conan, not the TV one)! I'll have to google him some time!