The Band
Anthony Lai - Lead Vocals/Guitar
Anthony started on the guitar after catching The Beatles Anthology on television in 6th grade. He studied the music of the Beatles and was largely self-taught as a songwriter and guitarist. He studied guitar briefly under Emmanuel Padraza in high school, but his musical training really began at Henry Ford Community College. There he studied classical and jazz guitar under John Hall and excelled in music theory under the instruction of G. Kevin Dewey and Randy Knight. Anthony has also studied piano under Gina D’Alessio and Robert Conway, and studied classical composition under James Hartway and Wayne State University.
Anthony performs professionally in southeast Michigan as a guitarist and vocalist, and in January 2009, performed at the Michigan Democratic Party’s ball for the inauguration of President Obama in Washington DC with the Henry Ford Big Band.
Anthony Fiolek - Drums
Anthony Fiolek is a percussionist with backgrounds in several different genres. Starting out in his junior high band, he played the drum set as a hobby, not planning on doing it for long. Throughout attending Flat Rock High School, he played in the high school marching and concert bands actively, and soon became extensively interested in music, specifically drums and percussion.
The music department at HFCC took his natural skill to a new level, notably when he began studying set drums with Rob Emanuel. His instructor exposed him to funk, jazz, latin, and asymmetrical rhythm. Fiolek’s dedication brings to the band a steady, musical sense of time. He is equally capable of playing a complex funk pattern as he is imitating the simple backbeat of Ringo Starr, and his background in rock, jazz, and classical music is indispensable to the eclectic style of the group.
Anthony Fiolek performs professionally in the Dearborn area, playing events and theatre gigs and occasionally temps with local rock groups. Currently, he is active in working on his career as a session musician, while remaining dedicated to Anthony Lai, optimistic to what the future holds for him in the band.
Joe Giese - Lead Guitar
Joe Giese is a Dearborn-raised musician with remarkable fluency on lead guitar. His style can range from subtle, melodic fills to soaring, overdriven leads as the music demands. Largely self-taught, he developed his technique and style from the masters. His main influences include The Beatles, and the lead guitar work of Eric Clapton, Joe Walsh (The Eagles), Mark Knopfler, Steven Stills (Crosby, Still, and Nash), and of course, Stevie Ray Vaughn.
Aside from his work as a guitarist for Anthony Lai, Giese is a sound engineer for studio and stage. He co-engineered his own band’s album, Odds and Beginnings, by The Wall Clocks (for which he also plays lead guitar), and often works sound for local theaters and venues. Currently, Joe Giese studies music at HFCC. For more information about The Wall Clocks, visit www.thewallclockband.com
Bonnie Schippling - Keys/Vocals/Percussion
Bonnie Schippling has a diverse range of musicianship, which has added indispensable color and detail to the band. Having grown up in a musical household, she spent most of her childhood enjoying the different acoustics on her voice in various bathrooms, making rubber band instruments, and playing melodies on an upside down guitar while her dad took a break from their motown/oldies jams. She played piano, recorder, saxophone, a little bass guitar, and percussion in her youth, and in college picked up a little flute and guitar. As she matured, so did her musical abilities, most notably with voice and piano. Her biggest influences are Ella Fitzgerald, Queen, John Lennon, George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; more recently she has found a strong love for the music of Eric Clapton and Paul Simon.
Bonnie met Anthony Lai at HFCC where she first began thinking more seriously about music. She has since studied with Gina D’Alessio, Dorothy Duensing, Lani Meeker, and Gayna Lee, four great Detroit-area musicians. She is currently working on earning a B. M. in vocal music education at Madonna University. While not performing with Anthony Lai, she works as a choir director and private voice and piano instructor, as well as furthering her own solo music. An active vocalist, Schippling also sings in the women’s choir, Renaissance Voices, and the vocal jazz ensemble, Midnight Blue, as well as being a studio musician for other local bands.
Nick Kischuk - Bass
Nick is a self-taught musician. Primarily a guitarist, his bass-lines gravitate towards the melodic style of Paul McCartney, matching perfectly with the integrity of the group. He was inspired to become a musician from his brother, Doug Kischuck, and believes that music is life and emotion. This belief his heard clearly in his low-end work, adding the final element to the band’s sound.
Influenced by the likes of Elliot Smith, Oasis, Radiohead, and The Beatles, Nick Kischuk is also a songwriter and musician in his own right. His own band, The Rubber Bullets, also performs in Metro Detroit. Hear them at www.myspace.com/therubberbullets.
Nick was awarded full speaking privileges on June 4th, 2010.