EDDIE RUZZI – FINDING HIS VOICE THROUGH MUSIC AND LITERATURE

Finding one’s own artistic voice rarely comes on the first attempt. It requires numerous failures and mistakes that are made on each effort. Struggles may bring achievements, but sometimes, every effort goes in vain. The saying ‘Nothing ventured nothing gained’ holds immense weight as: anything that amounts to something is never easily achieved. All successful individuals have a story to tell – a story that has built its foundations of previous failed attempts. A legendary athlete might have suffered from continuous defeats in the beginning. A pop singer might have faced rejections initially. Like so many other professions, both the music and literary arts industries require passionate individuals who have no plans to give up but consistently add more value to every effort. Everyone starts with a struggle, but their consistency strengthens them, adding value and experience to their skills and boosting their potential.

Success comes through determination; artists (in general) need to put in more effort to be discovered due to such a crowded field. Improvement in each attempt means a step closer to fame and fortune. Music and literature go along on this same track. Any music (or stories) that lack creativity will not persuade an audience, and therefore, artists need to implement novel new ideas and persevere with both consistency and tenacity to produce outstanding results. With advanced tools and social media platforms like YouTube, it has become easier to present artistic projects to the general public. As things become more accessible, the number of competitors also increases as well. So, in the modern era, artists need to develop more innovative and entertaining projects to achieve the top spot in the industry to receive any notoriety.

A prominent example of consistent effort can be seen in American music composer and novelist, Eddie Ruzzi, who has been working for decades on numerous projects with different artists. Although some of the projects couldn’t be completed due to creative differences among the band members, he consistently improved with each effort. In addition to music, Eddie is interested in creative writing, and has published a self-authored novel entitled “Death Ball.”

Born on May 11, 1960, Edmond “Eddie” Rogers is an American drummer and music producer, who also plays mallet instruments, keyboard, Latin percussion, and synthesizers. Besides his instrumental skills, Eddie has a great talent for composing and singing lead and background vocals. He studied music and literature at Interlochen Arts Academy and later attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, where he studied percussion as his major. During his college days, Eddie got the opportunity to play drums with “Guitar Great” Steve Vai, Randy Coven, and David Rosenthal in a band called Morning Thunder.

Eddie was born in Atlantic City, NJ, and moved back after attending Berklee for several years. In Atlantic City, he played in numerous casino ensembles and later moved to New York City, where he met virtuoso violinist Mark Wood. He wrote and performed with Mark Wood in a rock band named Tazmania. After parting ways with the band, he went on board various tours with a cover band. Returning to Atlantic City, he continued to perform professionally as a drummer in casino acts as well as becoming a house Sound Engineer at Trump’s Castle. During this time he formed his own original band called DZYNE, and for several years he played locally. Unfortunately, although having good reviews and a substantial following, he was unable to get the act signed and it disbanded.

In 1987, Eddie moved to Los Angeles and met Mark Montague and Jeff Morrison, who had a successful rock group called ‘Sick Puppies.’ After performing for several years, Eddie decided to record and fund the band’s first record, entitled Sick Puppies Symphony No. 3. The recording was released independently but did not leave a great impact. However, even after facing defeat yet again Eddie did not admit defeat and stood back up with a stronger drive to succeed. He parted ways with the band and started a home-based recording studio, where he recorded numerous projects and produced local artists. Meanwhile, Eddie also started working as a Dialogue Editor, Sound Mixer and Composer on various movie and TV projects.

Eddie collaborated with several artists on different projects including — replacing Peter Criss in his own band when Peter rejoined KISS. This band including Mark Montague and Jason Ebs became known as Skoff but also unfortunately did not gain any traction. After meeting Brian Steward (a guitarist), they decided to form a new band that would include him, Brian Steward and keyboard player Todd Jasmin. The trio began working on a project, The Futurians. was released independently but never took off. Some time later, Brian left the project due to creative differences, and the other two initiated multimedia promotions for the projects, including a movie script, novel, a new CD, and a video which was all funded by Eddie.

Around 2000, he was contracted by Mark Wood to both perform at several NAMM shows as well as record drums for Mark’s third album “Sanctuary”. In 2005, Eddie reunited with Sick Puppies, and the band recorded tracks for their second CD, Good Ole No. 2. However, again, there was a falling out with the other members and this album was never formally released. 2006 brought a reunion of sorts with Steve “Zeus” Johnstad — a singer he had known from his earlier days in NYC when he auditioned for Zeus’ band, “Mayday”. Again, Eddie funded and recorded an album under the name of “Geezer” but this also did not pan out.

Recently, he has adopted the stage (and pen) name Eddie Ruzzi to avoid confusion with other people by his original name. Due to all the false starts and large sums of money that he had laid out for other projects, Eddie decided to form a new band called “Cast of 1000’s”, for which he wrote (most of) the music and lyrics and hired session players to come in to his studio and record the parts. He is currently finishing the first CD, entitled ‘Climb’, which he plans to release in late 2022. If this wasn’t enough, Eddie is also in the final phase of releasing his second novel called “Science Pulp Fiction”, due for release on Cyber-Monday of 2022.

Through these trials and tribulations, Eddie feels he has found his voice through both music and literary arts, and intends to make it loud and clear to a waiting and eager audience.