Musicians - Kip Winger

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	Musicians - Kip Winger

Kip Winger is an American rock musician, formerly of the metal band Winger and currently a solo artist.

Biografi

The Early Days

Born Kip Winger III, in Denver, Colorado, on 21 June, 1961. His parents were Jazz musicians and growing up Kip was always involved in music. At the age of 5 he was enrolled in a pilot Yamaha music program for preschoolers. Blessed with supportive parents, he was given music lessons and supplied with instruments. When he was 7 years old, Kip, his brothers and a neighborhood friend, Pete Fletcher, started a band, "Blackwood Creek". Kip grew up listening to pop radio and what is now considered progressive rock. As a band his favorites were Yes, Jethro Tull, Uriah Heep, Rush, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, C.S.N.Y, and, of course, the Beatles.

When Kip was 9, he did a gig at his elementary school and later a few gigs at different schools. Kip eventually left school after the tenth grade because he felt school was getting in the way of his musical education. Around that time, 1976, Kip became interested in classical music and started studying classical guitar. At the same time he started appreciating dance. Kip's girlfriend at the time wanted to take ballet, and since none of her friends would do it with her, she convinced Kip to. This was a broadening experience for him, considering his eclectic schedule--in the morning ballet class listening to Tchaikovsky or Mozart, then on to the gig, doing a sound check, and playing Van Halen and Zeppelin all night.

Later that year, Kip's manager Cliff Powers was back stage at a Heart concert and met another Denver local, Beau Hill. He asked him to produce a demo tape for Kip's fledgling band. They were the first band, other than Beau's own, that Beau produced. At that time the band were calling themselves Colorado but the group changed their name to Wingerz. A lot of writing and recording went on in those days despite Wingerz lacking an actual record deal.

Rise To Fame

In 1979, now a three-piece band, Kip and the boys ventured to New York to try to "make it." They played all over a tri-state area and opened for bands that were big in clubs at the time like Twisted Sister, Zebra, and The Good Rats. They had no luck getting a record deal, and after about eight months, the group decided to go back to Denver and concentrate on writing and recording. Unfortunately, soon after, the band started drifting apart wanting to go in different directions. Kip was living near Denver University, and after he got his GED, Kip enrolled in music theory, guitar, voice, and acting classes. He obtained a small role that year in Follies, a musical by Sondheim and got a small taste of musical theatre, but Kip knew that school wasn't for him. Kip was really into writing songs and dance classes, and he soon started taking dance classes with the Colorado State Ballet. Because of the shortage of men, Kip got recruited into the company. When Kip wasn't painting apartments as a job, he was Studying dance three hours a day, then going home to write songs or going to a gig to do 3 sets of heavy metal. The myth of Kip being a "dancer" is bogus, although studied ballet for years.

Kip stayed in Denver writing and studying for about two years, but he desperately wanted a record deal, and it wasn't happening anytime soon. So, Kip set off to New York again in 1982 at the age of 21. Beau Hill was in and out of New York and had a place across the river in Hoboken, NJ. He let Kip stay there. Kip slept on his living room floor for a year or so and got a job waiting tables at the Madison Café on the corner of 14th and Washington. He had an 8-track tape machine, and Kip wrote and recorded songs when he wasn't working.

It was at that time that Kip met Sandy Stewart, who had previously written songs with Stevie Nicks. She was writing for her second album, and the two co-wrote many songs, but none of them made it to her second LP, Blue Yonder.

Kip also found himself studying composition with Edgar Grana on 53rd Street. This was a profound and enlightening experience for Kip. He encouraged Kip to analyze music by deconstructing and reconstructing. It was late 1984, and Kip had written 57 songs that year. Beau was starting to have significant success, having just produced a then new band called Ratt, which was really taking off. He hired Kip to do bass and vocals here and there, and Kip got his first writing credit on "Bang Bang," a song on an album by Kix called "Midnight Dynamite."

Beau was working on Fiona's (Flanagan) second LP, Beyond the Pale, and for that, Kip had also written a chorus part on a song called "Tragedy." One day Kip was introduced to Reb Beach, a new studio guitar player. The two hit it off, and Kip had him play on his demos. This group, besides Kip, consisted of Reb, and a drummer named David Rosenberg. They called themselves ViceVersa. But they still had no luck getting a record deal.

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Musicians - Kip Winger

Biografi

The Early Days

Rise To Fame

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