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Kat Marco Bio

by Kat Marco

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Kat Notes
Over the course of the past 3 decades Kat Marco has been rocking hard. The journey began in 1980 when her first song "Dear Friend' was written. Fueled with a devotion to Pat Benatar, the concept for the music was developed. The goal to write and peform original songs that spoke of spirituality and a positive outlook with the power of rock and heavy metal set the ground work as this project went forth. The Goddess Of Rock CD contains songs that were written from that time on. The earliest song written on the CD is 'Titanic' by Jon Maye in 1983. Kat Marco joined his New York group Toy's at that time and found a great songwriting mentor in Jon. While performing vocals in Toy's , Kat was able to sing at the famous Studio 54 in 1984, for the Penthouse Pet Of The Year Birthday Party. In 1985 Kat would go on to work with a super group as a vocalist called Ibex which was when she found out about her guitar favorite, Ynqwie Malmsteen. It was through her shred-guitarist Michael Mostert (who once had an audition for Kiss At the time Bruce Kulick joined the group, that she was mentored for power guitar playing though she would not start playing guitar until 1987. Ibex tracked 4 songs at Music America Recording Studio with Paul Curcio producing and Chris Brubacz engineering then in 1985. This after Metallica recorded their Multi-Platinum debut Album 'Kill'Em All' there at Music America with Paul Curcio producing in 1983. After several line up changes in the group Ibex signed a management contract with long time friend of Benny Mardones, Phil Lorito who had managed Michael Bolton in a heavy metal group BlackJack. Phil had also been managing a songwriter who had a song recorded by Pat Benatar, called 'Lightening Strikes'. We were to record that song, as well as 'All Nite' which was written in 1985 by the members of Ibex. However due to personal difficulties, the group parted ways and Kat moved to Florida in 1986.
She then put together a new group which consisted of bassist Rodney O'Quinn and drummer Ernie Peghiny (Paul Chapman, Pat Travers and Les Dudek) who went on to become the rhythm section for Pat Travers. Spending the next year writing songs she met Doug Gibson and co-wrote wrote 'Tonite' which is Rockat Records most downloaded song, and began her quest for mastering guitar. It was 1987 when Kat found her missing link, the guitar, and began to rehearse 10 hours a day. She quickly started playing guitar hero chops because of her work with Michael Mostert, where she learned the discipline necessary to build those kind of chops. She also learned some guitar chops from Paul Chapman (UFO), and Mike Raffenelo (Good Rats) at that time. Writing songs all along Kat decided to go in to production.
In 1988 Kat went to St Augustine to record with Jim DeVito. 8 tracks were recorded with Jim DeVito Engineering and Co-producung with Michael Crawford. Kat performed Vocals, Lead and Rythm Guitar along with Michael Crawford who performed the main lead breaks along with Max Usinga on Bass and Tom Haller on Drums. One of the tracks from these sessions became Kat Marco's first release 'Sleeping Beauty' featuring Kat on Vocals and Rhythm Guitar. Michael Crawford performing the main leads. Michael performed guitar hero leads which blazed through the song setting the pace for what would be a continuing Kat Marco sound. Sleeping Beauty was released in 1991 with the help of Musicland Productions with Ken Cameron whose credits interestingly include Bobby Vinton, Kenny Rogers and Marie Osmond. The Song was promoted to top 40 radio by Bill Jerome of Jerome Promotions and Marketing whose credits include, Paula Abdul, Keith Richards and Steve Winwood. Sleeping Beauty allowed the opportunity for Kat Marco Music to become a publisher member of ASCAP. Sleeping Beauty along with an additional track 'You'll Never Know' received excellent reviews with statements like "She could become a force to be reckoned with" (Jam Entertainment News) Kat had to learn the leads Michael Crawford tracked for the song which caused her to get her chops built quickly.
By 1992 Kat Marco formed Rockat Records and released a 14 song cassette including recording from all the sessions mentioned above titled 'Bootleg Kat Marco' One of these songs 'You Hurt My Heart' has subsequently been re-produced here at Lions Heart and appears on the Goddess Of Rock CD.
Shortly following this release Kat Marco would meet and work with Eddie Rio who just finished 2 tours as bassist for Molly Hatchett. Out of the work they did, co-writing 'Benevolent Ruler' appears on this CD. Eddie also helped Kat in the manufacturing and promotions of her next project in 1993 'Maiden Voyage'.
Kat moved to the Tampa Bay area in the peak of it's dominance of Heavy Metal. Within the first few months she was there Kat got a chance to spend several hours with Michael Schenker who also gave her excellent guitar advice, and listed Kat in the special thanks on his 'Thank You' CD. She also became acquainted with Genya Ravan who coached her on song writing and became the inspiration for 'Rebel Renegade' to appear on Kat's next recording project. Suddenly she found herself collaborating with David Milam on 'Alone At Midnight' who engineered the design of Lazzarra Yachts. It was then she decided to go into Morrisound and work with Jim and Tom Morris. She got together 3 songs 'Rebel Renegade' To Touch Your Face' and 'Alone At Midnight' and named the project 'Maiden Voyage'. She hired Steve 'Dr Killdrums' Wacholz (Savatage) to co-produce with her and Jim. She began the project working with Grammy Nominated Keyboardist Kent Smith who collaborated with her on the music. Then got Mark Prator to lay down the drum tracks. Mark also engineered the keyboards. And the Bass wizard Jeff Berlin tracked the songs along with some additional bass by Jeff McDonald on 'Alone At Midnight'. Jeff Berlin had just got off tour with Yes at that time and the day following his tracking Maiden Voyage, he was in the recording studio with Grammy Award winner KD Lang. (Even Cowgirls Get The Blues) The project would take several years to complete due to changes in backers and person struggles. The persons that helped finance the project were David Milam, Bill Taylor and Eddie Rio. During that time the project landed Kat on several Magazine and Newspaper covers and once it was completed it received mostly positive reviews by music publications world-wide. 1n 1996, the CD was completed and Kat was asked to perform the National Anthem at the Winston Cup Series the year before it became NASCAR but was unable to do the performance due to a person tragedy. The only thing that seemed to get in the way back then was the fact that the music trends had changed drastically to Rap and Hip Hop. Rockat Records still took the songs to radio with Bill Jerome, in conjunction with Cashbox, again at the helm. Once he got the recordings through the door Rockat Records went on to place all three songs into the top 10 in test markets. 'Alone At Midnight' went to no 10, 'Rebel Renegade' to no 6 and 'To Touch Your Face' no 5.
It was very difficult to say the very least to try to get the music to the people to hear the songs. So Kat decided she would take Maiden Voyage to the Internet. Rockat Records was one of the first to set up a website and give away mp3's in 1998.
At that time Kat found some property on a lake in 1999 that she made her home. Living in a run down Florida shanty, she promoted her songs to the internet and concentrated heavily on her vocal, guitar chops and song writing. Her songs hit the internet with a bang and it quickly grew into something that was hard to handle. The earliest reviews on the internet spoke of Kat as a guitar goddess and she was written about along side of artists like Bruce Dickenson and groups like Emerson Lake and Palmer. Maiden Voyage has become a solid entity on the internet even found sold on EBAY for $30 by collectors.
Now 'Rebel Renegade' is on this CD.
Still rocking in 2004 Kat was given the greatest gift imaginable. She qualified for the SHIP program and a new home was built on her property. She stayed in the shanty during construction and once the house was completed, the shanty was removed with a track hoe and a dump truck. She was asked by the organization to write a song about the experience so she wrote 'Ship Of Dreams' while this song did not make it on this CD it will appear on subsequent releases. At this time she had so many song playing in her head. She had to memorize everything. So her rehearsals were long. She admits, sad to say, she has forgotten some of the songs. Then another great gift was given to her. A Boss digital recorder. Her brother Bud Connolly has purchased it and had no time to work with it so he brought it to Lions Heart. And kapow Kat started recording song after song. Her Brother also a musician would come and Kat pre-produced his country music to prepare his songs to go to Nashville where he recorded a 8 song CD with Grammy Award winning players that had performed with Steve Winwood, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, and producer Larry Rogers who produced Alan Jackson. Of course Kat received Pre-Production credit on this CD called 'Black Dog Down'
Over the course of the past 9 years Kat has produced 78 songs here at Lions Heart Recording Studio. Began her domain katmarco.com releasing the songs on free mp3 format. Since day one it has just continued to grow. Kat started the domain in 2006 hosted to date by Ernie and Janet Secrest (Secrest Hosting). Janet co-wrote 'In His Hands' appearing on this CD. And then in 2008 Kat went on Facebook which quickly became the greatest opportunity to communicate directly with those who listen to the music of Kat Marco. Kat has met and worked with some outstanding songwriters through facebook and has been able to reconnect with many long term musical and personal relationships. Kat got the awesome chance to co- write 'Monarch' with the outstanding talent Tommy Stephenson who has 15 gold and multiplatinum records to his credit including performing with the legend Eric Clapton. Collaborating with Rich Tabor long time drummer for Guitarist Ben Jackson (Crimson Glory) on 'Set Them Free'. As well as long time friend Michele Bunker who has worked for Full Sail University as A&R and Music Instructor co-writing 'Time Capsule' on which Michele shreds the main lead guitar break. And now has had the opportunity to have Mastering Master, Maor Appelbaum who has mastered records for Yngwie Malmsteen, Rob Halford, Lita Ford etc, re-master 'Rebel Renegade' for release on this CD. And the chance to receive advice from (Quincy Jones Protege) Gary Gray. This CD is a labor of love that comes from a huge grouping of great talent and Kat Marco carry's with her all the knowledge given her by all of these experiences. But the main ingredient is the 39 songs presented on this Goddess Of Rock CD.
Following the release of Goddess Of Rock Kat became a Grammy Voter and subsequently released Face The Day 2014 which consisted of all new recordings produced at Lions Heart featuring on the title track Ernie Peghiny performing rhythm guitar. Several songs off both Goddess Of Rock and Face The Day 2014 were made for consideration for Grammy in the Rock Category. In 2015/2016 Kats music began to receive numerous plays on SoundCloud obtaining 23 1/2 Million plays and hundreds of excellent comments. Alone At Midnight off Kat's Maiden Voyage made the Top 50 Rock Songs on SoundCloud reaching number 1 along with 8 other songs in rock, metal and world catagories. . The year also saw Rebel Renegade receiving internet radio airplay reaching number 3 on the Lucky Star Radio play list. Many other songs have reach the airwaves as well including 6 new songs from 2016, a remake by Michele Bunker (We Are The Believers), as well as the chance to sing with 600 other singers on David Longoria's We Are One song off The Journey CD. There have been features and interviews and just Kat Marco Rocking On.

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released April 25, 2015

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Kat Marco Fort Mc Coy, Florida

Kat Marco, a previous official Grammy Voter, was one of the first female metal singers of all time releasing her first metal production in 1983, becoming a lead guitarist and songwriter/Producer continuing through 2022

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