Destined to be a rock star one day, John Prasec started playing drums at eight years old in his home town Trieste. He’d spend hours talking music with his buddy Daniele Dibiaggio, or playing in his high school band “Sunlow.” He quickly set his sights on stardom, and by fifteen, John was playing his first gig.

At eighteen, he put pen to paper and wrote “God save Rock n Roll.” John sung and played drums, and Daniele played the keyboards, bass and guitar. To them the song was a dream, but the real test would be the audience. With fingers crossed, they played their tune to their friends, hoping that they would like it. To their surprise, they didn’t just like it, they loved it! It was a huge hit.

That song was to later launch John’s career, if only he and Danny could work out how to put a demo together! The boys didn’t have a clue how to go about it, but they were so excited, that come hell or high water, they were going to work it out, and they did. In just one week, they had managed to put together a large batch of homemade single cd’s.

They recorded that first demo on a computer with a very old version of cubase and a cd burner. They designed and printed the artwork, cut each one and put them in the sleeves, old school style. Before they knew it, the cd’s were flying out the door. The feedback was amazing and everyone wanted them to play. The boys’ hard work had definitely paid off. 

One of their friends suggested they did a live show, and John and Danny jumped at the idea. Word got out and it wasn’t long before they hooked up with local guys, Alberto Bravin (Drums) Roberto De Micheli (guitar) Alessandro Sala (bass) – three phenomenal, professional musicians. Although these guys already had other musical obligations, they liked the idea of being part of a light hearted and fun side project.

With a few more original songs in their repertoire, and just four rehearsals, the John Prasec band smashed it out of the park, at their first gig in the Oblivion Pub in Trieste. On the 27^th March 2007, they played a mixed set of classic rock covers (Deep purple, Led Zeppelin, Rainbow and Queen) and their own original music. The pub was rammed, and the crowd went ballistic. The John Prasec band killed it that night, and with such success came the obvious requests for bookings and more shows.

They went on to play a few more gigs to rapturous applause, and John soon started to realise that this thing had legs. The problem was he didn’t have a committed band. As more dedication became a requirement, the various band members started to go their own way. This meant John had to go on another mission to find new players. After some time, Alberto was replaced by Jimi Bolco, Roberto was replaced by Luca Lunardis, (aka Lion Kubajashy) and Saverio Gaglianese replaced Alex Sala. New band, new start. They went on to play shows all over Italy and in 2008 they started to record their new material. 

By 2009, they enjoyed significant show successes including, the “Friday Grass Carnival” concert in Muggia, Italy, where they played to a crowd of over 4000 people. To add to this momentous occasion, was yet another memorable live show, in Trieste. John Prasec performed alongside guest lead guitarist, Kee Marcello from rock band Europe in a sold out theatre.

In the summer of 2012 John took a short break from his band and sung lead vocals with the Slovenian rock band “Wicked”.

Later that year, John decided to take up an offer to sign up with a prestigious record label in Milan. John met with the producer who really liked what he’d heard and decided to publish; “God save Rock n Roll.” The song was released on iTunes on the 6^th of November, and hit the Italian charts with a bang, reaching position 44. It gained lots of exposure and of course, publicity. Ultimately skyrocketing John’s popularity and fan base in both Italy and Japan. The John Prasec band was flying high.

An excellent result for the record label. With such momentum, the only way was up, or was it? Out of the blue, with no explanation, the label announced they were replacing the artistic manager. You’d forgive John for assuming the record company had an ace up their sleeve.

Instead of diamonds, however, what he got was the ace of spades. In the form of an uninterested party who couldn’t care less about the music, and even less about where the band was headed. John didn’t know what had hit him, one minute the band were in the shiny limelight, and the next, they were down the toilet!

John had signed a five-year contract, and the label owned them. They didn’t care about John’s protests. He could rant all he liked, it was their way and that was that. He’d quite literally signed the band to the devil.

The label wanted John’s pre-recorded material, but he refused to hand the files over. Eventually, they offered him a get out clause, for the princely sum of £30,000. John’s response is unprintable, but believe me when I tell you, the sun doesn’t go there! It was sink or swim time, and there was no way John was staying with these sharks. He pored over the contract to find a loophole that would release him from this hell.

When something is meant to be, it happens, and for John Prasec, it seemed fate was in his favour. The contract had been poorly written, omitting such things as copyright and royalty clauses in certain countries.

So that was it, no need to sleep on it. John had had enough. The band had played everywhere there was to play, and there was no room for manoeuvre. They had come to the end of the road, in Italy at least. It was time to breathe a new kind of air.

He bribed the studio engineer, copied the files to his hard drive, obtained a visa for Canada, packed his bags, and jumped on a plane to …… London. His plan was to have a brief stay there, catch up and say farewell to long-term friends, Ed and Stefania before relocating.

Technically, he hadn’t broken his contract, and the record label had learned a valuable lesson. He wasn’t anyone’s puppet. If anyone was going to be pulling the strings, it certainly wasn’t going to be them.

After the record label fiasco, John went on to enjoy some much-needed downtime with his friends. During this time, he continued to make plans for his upcoming travel. That is until fate stepped in, and Ed Randall declared that he was planning to buy a rehearsal studio. Suffice to say, this was music to John’s ears. It put a whole new slant on things, and all thoughts of Canada shot out of the window.

He was fortunate to meet with many interesting people like Alessio Garavello, the studio engineer. When they were introduced, it was as if they’d had known each other for years. Maybe it was the common love of music or just a natural affinity. Either way, John felt a connection with many of the musicians that used to frequent the studios.

It was an exciting time helping Ed set things up at Rogue studios. In fact, he was having so much fun, that when his visa finally expired, he didn’t even realise! Everything was going really well, and John was in his element. He loved being at the studios and couldn’t have wished for more. However, it soon became obvious that  Ed had other ideas, when he revealed to Alessio that John’s song had been in the charts.

Not one for having the wool pulled over his eyes, Alessio did a google search on John. He nearly fell off his chair when he realised he wasn’t kidding. He asked John if he had any more songs he could hear, and of course, he did (remember the hard drive?) But, after his bitter experience, John was disillusioned with the music business. He was quite sure he was done. It had been a very stressful time and he had no interest in going anywhere near that road again.

Alessio understood John’s reluctance, but managed to persuade John to bring his hard drive in the next day. They listened to the tracks in the control room and Alessio was truly impressed. He told John he would be completely nuts if he didn’t go ahead and publish the songs straight away. John wasn’t convinced, but Alessio kept on, reminding him that he was free to do what he wanted. The contract had no hold over him here. He already had the music files, and this meant he was already 80% of the way there. It was simply a case of re-recording the vocal lines, mixing, mastering it, and a bit of dubbing here n there. So John went away and toyed with the idea. He searched his soul for direction and soon realised that Alessio was right. It was time to move on and get some kind of closure. After all, what was the alternative? Leaving the tracks gathering dust in a drawer somewhere for the next 20 years and then later agonising over “what if I had done this or done that.” No, that wasn’t the John Prasec way. It was time to take a leap of faith, take Alessio at his word, and go for it.

Together they worked on it and finished producing the EP quickly. The next step for John was to set up his own record label and see where this journey would take him. It was a project that took a long time to accomplish. As the song goes, once bitten twice shy. Naturally, it was important that he got everything right. John made sure he covered every angle and had complete control. In a moment of madness, and maybe a few too many Jack Daniel’s, John came up with name, “Lola Bumpher Conspiracy” aka L.B.C. Records to release his EP, the self-titled, “John Prasec” on 26th September 2014.

The album received a lot of adulation especially in Italy and Japan, and even started to get reviews. The response re-ignited his passion, and his earlier feelings of retiring quickly vanished. Yet what was next on the cards was anyone’s guess. Unsure of which direction to go, John choose to put the feelers out around the studio for some session playing. This led to a stint as frontman to the Heavy metal band, “Ritual,” covering their 2015 reunion tour.

His Rock mojo was back in full swing, and he decided it was time to relaunch the John Prasec band.

During the early days of the studio, John had met and became good friends with Bruno Tolosa.  Aware of John’s plans, he put him in touch with a guy called Adam Eric Milde, an experienced rhythm guitar player. Together they worked at John’s home recording studio, in his small room in Ealing, putting his songs and ideas together. They turned out a song a week, and three months later had a finished demo for the album, “Unchained.”

Brilliant! But Adam had returned home to Argentina after recording his parts for the album, and once again, John had no band to play the rest of the music. He set about putting all his energies into finding players for his band, but no matter how hard he tried, it just wasn’t happening. Either no one was interested, they didn’t have the technical ability, or they wanted more money than the budget would allow. This became a pattern of events that was to reoccur all too often.

It was time to think outside the box. So much so, it lead to a couple of phone calls to Trieste and his old buddies Daniele and Luca. John put his dilemma to them, and the solution came. “Yeah man, it’s 2015 we have FaceTime, we’ll do it, why not!” 

So that’s what they did! They used FaceTime and Google Drive to share the files, and went from demo to pre-production. They were almost there, except for one hitch, they needed a drummer. John contacted several drummers in London, but they all wanted too much money. Frustrated, John finally contacted Bruno. He hadn’t approached him before, because he knew he was busy recording a new album with his own band ”El Brano”, but it had to be worth a shot. Bruno asked when he was planning to record, and as luck would have it, they set a date for the first week in January 2016.

The scene for this amazing collaboration was set. Vocals and drums in the UK, bass and lead guitars in Trieste! The guys put together a system to enable them to record their individual sessions in two studios in two countries, at the same time. You can imagine the pace at which they worked, when for example they were recording drums here in London, editing and then bouncing the track over to Trieste.

Luca would record the bass over Bruno’s drums down on the Adriatic shoreline, while the next section of drums, were recorded by the River Thames. Then it would be over to London again to add Adam’s “re-amped” rhythm guitars, and back to Trieste for Luca’s leads and Daniele’s Keys & Hammond.

The drums alone were a mission to complete. Bruno was suffering with severe back problems at the time and it was only through his dog-eared determination, and lying down between takes that he got through it.  John spent eight hours a day, for four day in row in the booth. He had a maximum of three takes per song to record his vocals or blow his budget.

It was the only way to get it done, but it also meant that the organization and discipline involved kept them on budget and schedule. The album was released on 16 of June 2017.

John contacted some big labels, and the consensus was that it was good and they liked it. However they didn’t think there was a market for it, and the answer for now, was no. Rather than feeling disappointment, it spurred him on. The very fact that he had even had a response, was enough to give him hope. Maybe, just maybe, they had something.

By now, you know the drill; John was stuck without a band. It was like a bad habit he couldn’t kick. The only consistency with the John Prasec band, was John Prasec himself. He spent months trying to find the right people to put together, but it was the same old story. Eventually though, his persistence paid off and he managed to put a line up together with Grigor Zaka (drums) Federico Bianco (guitar), Enrique de le verde (bass) and Jose  Costa (lead guitar). They played together for 3 months, but the chemistry wasn’t quite right and John wasn’t willing to compromise anymore. It was do or die and he wasn’t planning on lying down. 

John brought in Mathieu Spaeter to play lead guitar and Jimmy Pallagrosi to play session drums, until he met up with George Gt Stergiou who then took over solo duties from Mathieu. Unfortunately, this association also didn’t last long, and Bruno returned to the stool to finally stabilise and ignite the line-up.

Things are not going great in England for John as the London audiences don't really have  interest in heavy rock bands below stadium grade. frustration starts to kick in between the members of the lineup, but once again, fate has something new and exciting in the cards for John.

A new chapter begins when old friend Adam Milde made contact with John in 2017, the duo always had a good chemistry and they decided to do something crazy and bring John and the music they wrote together to Argentina, and together they began to organise their first intercontinental tour.

In march 2018 John took off from heathrow and officially brought his Unchained Tour to Argentina. Waiting for him across the pond, a carefully selected lineup  of local musical heroes captained by Adam Milde on Guitar, Chris Gomez, Valentin Robidu, Federico Giraudo, Daniel Rainoso and Pablo Centeno joined forces with the englishman and made history.

The reception was incredible, the shows were crowded and the ticket sales were off the roof, John couldn't believe they pulled it off.

John returned to England ignited and ready to rock again but on this side of the Atlantic he hasn't found the same sort of interest received in latin america, so things came to a natural end with the London based lineup after one last show at the Metalworks in Camden Town in June 2018.

It was time to make tought decisions and John decided to take some time off to plan his next move. Overall the London experience has been great and he got to meet many new people and raised many eyebrows including ones of legends such as Nicko Mcbrain (Iron Maiden) and Joe Elliott (Def Leppard) to name a few. but something is missing, the audience is not there at least not how John wants it, they're not there singing back his songs to him.

In 2019 John starts to work on some new material in his homestudio, he's looking for a new sound something different, soon he realised that it's way too different to be put under John Prasec's flag and decides to start a  new project, and so Voltstorm was born.

Jonh has been working relentlessy with Voltstorm for the majority of 2019 together with guitarist Fred Stigliano, drummer Ivo Yordanov and the old mate Enrique De La Verde on bass.

Once again fate had something else planned for John and towards the end of summer 2019 he started to receive numerous requests for Latin American performances. Which surprised the singer who then called old friend Adam Milde down in Cordoba and enquired about it. Adam response was shocking " Mate you're famous here! People love you and they want you back!" John could not believe his ears  "What, are you kidding? lets do this!" and so the dynamic duo started their biggest task to date, a national tour of Argentina that  took place in 2020.

The tour touched several cities and the guys traveled the nation on a tour bus, and most important of all they got to play together again!

The lineup was quickly assembled: Adam Milde on guitar, John Prasec on vocals, Matias "Machinegun" Moretti on drums, Enzo Nicola on rhytm guitar and young gun Julian Veht on bass.

The tour was an absolute success and John finally had what he wanted. The audience was finally singing back at him.

John also realised how powerful the message of his music is and how much it can empower people in and out of the band. 

The tour was also featuring a new unpublished song "Masters and Demons" that John wrote during 2019 and was curious to try out live, the response was grand to the point that the singer is planning to release his on the road experience in the forthcoming "John Prasec - En Vivo" to be released later in 2020 and has also made plans with Mr Milde to write some new John Prasec music together and enlarge their discography.

Country of birth:

Argentina

What instrument do you play?

Guitar

Why & when did you start playing?

When I was 9 years old, I wanted to play like Ace Frehley

Musical Influences:

Kiss, Judas priest, iron maiden, Motorhead, black Sabbath, Ozzy, Megadeth

Where do you see the band 5 years from now?

Playing music on venues and rocking around the world

What’s your fav band song?

Take a look

What’s your fav quote?

Take a look and tell me what you see

Who else have you played with?

A lot of bands of different genres (uncountable)

What would you say is the highlight of your career to date?

Master and Demons Tour 2020 with John

What is your most memorable moment with John Prasec?

Writing and recording the demos for Unchained at John's Ealing home.

Date Of Birth

February 16th 1987

Country of birth

Argentina

What instrument do you play?

Drums

Why & when did you start playing?

In 1996, immediately after I watched "Until it sleeps" Metallica music vídeo on MTV

Musical Influences:

Classic thrash like Metallica and Sepultura, melodic punk rock like Green Day, NOFX, Lagwagon, Swedish Death Metal, melodic death metal, black metal, brutal death metal, post-rock, metalcore, deathcore, grunge,  and many other genres and bands from all over the world

Where do you see the band 5 years from now?

Having evolved and with lots of new material to play around the world

What’s your fav band song?

Iron Horse

What’s your fav quote?

Can't chose just one

Who else have you played with?

More than a dozen of underground bands from Argentina Knockout, Poltergeist, Testa, Renunciar just to name a few

What would you say is the highlight of your career to date?

Filming my first drum vídeo covering frenzal rhomb songs, recent tour with Mr. John Prasec and company

What is your most memorable moment with John Prasec ? 

John refreshing me with a "stage shower" in Rosario

Date Of Birth

March 2nd 1983

Country of birth:

Free Territory of Trieste

What instrument do you play?

The Crowd

Why & when did you start playing?

I started to play drums when I was about 8 then I decided I wanted to front the band at around 17

Musical Influences:

Deep Purple, Rainbow, Whitesnake Judas priest,  Motorhead, Black Sabbath,Saxon, Van Halen

Where do you see the band 5 years from now?

Taking our show on the world's finest stages

What’s your fav band song?

The One

What’s your fav quote?

We shall never never never surrender

W. Churchill

Who else have you played with?

Ritual, Kee Marcello, Roberto De Micheli just to name a few

What would you say is the highlight of your career to date?

Doing a solo tour 6,500 miles from home

If you could choose a Band to play for one night only

My absolute dream would be to sing for Deep Purple even for one night only