Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage is a relatively new band comprised of old friends. Hal formed the band in October of 2005, from the remnants of a couple bands that "unceremoniously dissolved" earlier that year (hence the name). His vision was to create music reminiscent of the glory days of rock, and yet have the flexibility to reach across many musical genres. To ensure that the band would have broad appeal, public performances would consist primarily of popular songs from the 60's 70's and 80's, while gradually introducing original tunes into the repertoire. The band would also dedicate ample studio time to record songs from the ever-growing library of original material. With that in mind, Hal carefully selected musicians who were versatile and skilled performers, both on stage and in the recording studio.

Hal is a singer/songwriter from North Hampton, NH USA. He has been playing guitar for over 30 years and has written over fifty songs and instrumentals. Hal is easily recognized for his smooth, melodic, and clean lead guitar style and vocal accompaniments. His musical roots are in classic rock and the blues. However, many influences such as folk, new age and jazz are also evident in his playing style and original compositions. Most recently, Hal was the lead guitarist for the Boston-based band "AwryZen".

Collateral Damage began to take shape in October of 2005. At that time, second-generation bassist Sean Morales (Farmington, NH) and session drummer Ken Lawas (Kensington, NH) dropped by Hal's studio for an impromptu jam session. Sean was previously the bassist for "The Katz 'n Jammers", a local jam band. Ken began his formal drum study in grade school 30 years ago, eagerly participating in all aspects of percussion performance, including orchestra, stage bands, solo festival competitions, pit bands and even marching bands. However, his inspiration for playing the drums has been the fun of playing rock and blues with friends, while entertaining audiences. The trio played non-stop for nearly five hours. Weaving in and out of impromptu jams and standards, it sounded like they'd been playing together for years. During much of 2007, Sean and Ken also pulled double-duty and performed dozens of gigs in the New England area and NYC, with the Boston-based band "Infinite Frequency".

Still, there were more pieces needed in order to complete the puzzle. Hal asked former AwryZen band mate and collaborator Tim Rose (Burlington, MA) to join the band. Tim has written over sixty songs - in styles ranging from reggae to rock to folk to musicals and, of course, the blues. In addition to singing and songwriting, Tim also plays guitar, sax, harmonica, mandolin, and wind instruments. He has played in many bands over the years, covering a wide variety of musical styles, and occasionally can be seen performing as a solo artist in Boston-area pubs and coffeehouses. Tim was born in East Tennessee and learned to sing in church. He was raised on a mixture of gospel, blues and rock n' roll. With Tim on board, Collateral Damage was born. The band made their first public performance three weeks later, and quickly progressed from a jam band - to an accomplished cover band, as the repertoire grew rapidly. More recently, dozens of original tunes have been added to the repertoire. In 2007 the final piece was added, as keyboardist Mark Sapossnek (Burlington, MA) joined the band. Mark's vast experience, musical knowledge, and versatility has added an exciting new dimension to the music, and has enabled Collateral Damage to take their music to new heights.

The musicians share a vision of performing classic tunes and new material with structure and improvisational attributes. Framework without boundaries. They want the music to remain familiar, yet fresh to the listener, while also presenting new challenges to the artists themselves. Their individual influences include many of the premier artists of the past half-century, and encompass many genres, most notably rock, blues, jazz, folk, reggae, new age, and classical. Collateral Damage is unique in that they can tailor their public performances to meet virtually any requirement. Not only can they perform all the classics, but they can devote sets (or entire gigs) to a specific genre (e.g. blues, rock, or folk), or play exclusively original material written by the band. No flash and pyrotechnics. With Collateral Damage, it's all about the music!

More information can be found at their website (see link below).