Elijah Wood BIO (for YAF – Oct 2011 Featured Artists of the Month)
Elijah has performed at the NAMM Show in Anaheim, CA for 4 consecutive
years with The Mark Wood Rock Orchestra, whose performances on the
main stage in the convention center lobby consistently draw a capacity
crowd. He also performs at a variety of different booths at the
convention.
Elijah was the drummer for the historic first-ever Mark Wood Rock
Orchestra Camp in Kansas City, and will be featured in an upcoming
segment of NBC’s “The Today Show.” This can be seen in the “videos”
section.
Elijah studies with several prominent drummers, most notably his
mentor Jeff Plate (Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Savatage, Metal Church,
Machines of Grace); and John Macaluso (ARK, TNT, Yngvie Malmsteen).
In 2008, Elijah was the winner of Drumfight, a major NY area drum
competition; thoroughly impressing the judges who included legendary
drummer Carmine Appice, with whom he was personally invited to jam at
the 2010 NAMM Show.
Elijah is a featured drummer on many of Mark Wood’s music scores,
including the CBS-TV national broadcast of the Tour de France. He is
currently collaborating with Mark on material for his upcoming CD.
Just this year, he joined the group Coldest Fall, a well known
alternative rock band. They are now working on an upcoming album,
“Lines We Drew,” that is set to be released in the next few months.
The rest of the band members are located in Turkey and, despite the
distance, Elijah and Coldest Fall can easily exchange ideas via the
internet (real time) to create unique drum sounds. To check out how
they do it, visit the “videos” section.
While Elijah performs with many notable musicians, he also is working
on his solo career and will be releasing an album in late 2011 on
which he will be playing guitar, drums, and handling the vocals.
While his instrument of choice is drums, he also sings, plays piano, and guitar.
My influences include:
Mike Portnoy, Gavin Harrison, Jeff Plate, Neil Peart, John Bonham,
Terry Bozzio, Vinnie Colaiuta, Dave Weckl, Dave Grohl, John Macaluso,
David Lewitt, Joe Franco, Carmine Appice, Bernard Purdy, Bill Bruford,
Alex Van Halen, Keith Moon, Mitch Mitchell, Tony Williams, Phil
Collins, Billy Cobham, Chad Wakerman
