Schooldrivers – Modern Rock Band
Schooldrivers is a modern rock band originating from Athens, Greece.
The group is comprised of Kay Darens (Lead Vocalist), Nico Boneli (Lead Guitarist), AJ Anasto (Bass, Backing Vocals), Vl@hos (Drums) and Marpi (Keys).
With the tag Modern Mental Rebellion and a new album named Theronation, Schooldrivers’s sound features dirty grunge distorted guitars, heavy drum beats and dark bass lines, all strung up lyrics and minimal enhancing keys.
Formed back in 2009 the band has released an album in its mother tongue that proved to be quite a success amongst local fans. Before deciding to change its language and sound the band had: completed over 200 live appearances all over Greece, headlining most of them, organized 2 successful rock fests, released 4 music videos and 3 singles, got major airplay by local radio & TV stations and starred in the 1st Greek rockumentary on MTV Greece.
Recommended to fans of Foo Fighters, Seether, Bush, Clutch, Faith No More, Mars Volta, Muse & RHCP.
The Band Members
Kay Darens
Kay Darens (born Oct. 11) is the frontman and founder of Schooldrivers.
As he would say: “I originally wanted to be a pirate not a musician but Guybrush Threepwood got there before me!”.
Kay Darens – Singer / Songwriter / Musicpreneur
Kay Darens started singing and vocal training at the age of 12 with the world renown opera composer Giannis Boufides (“Stavrosis“, 1st Performed at Washington DC – The White House) and to the day he is still training and developing his own vocal technique: a mix of funk & metal throat singing with fast attacks and low vibratos.
Having spent some years of his early teen years in England, his root influences reside on bands like The Doors, R.H.C.P., Guns’ N ‘Roses, Iron Maiden and on singers such as Freddie Mercury, Ray Charles, Bruce Dickinson and Chris Cornell.
At the age of 21, Kay got to Rotterdam (Holland) to participate in the 2007 European RootsNRoutes project, receiving acclaimed critics by Trugoy (De La Soul) for the “Funky Brother”, a song he wrote together with his band The Fungle Brothers.
Shortly after that time, he got back Greece to get his own thing on finally releasing Pame Ekdrome! a grecophone album as Kay & The Schooldrivers in 2009.
One year later arguments led to the dispersion of the original lineup and Kay decided to start fresh by forming a REAL band – naming it simply: Schooldrivers. From 2010, till now this decision led to an enjoying life full of surprises.
Nico Boneli
Bonelis Nikos or Boneli Nico (Born January 29) is the guitarist and one of the founding members of the band.
Being influenced from a young age by many classic guitar riff heroes like Ritchie Blackmore, Jimmy Hendrix, Tony Iommi, David Gilmore, Randy Roads but also from the more “modern” ones like Steve Vai and Wes Borland resulted into a certain play style which includes repeating riffs and big outbursts.
Nico Boneli – Nikos Bonelis / Guitarist
Playing with many bands as a teenager he formed the band “Orfeo Bianco“ (2003), a psychedelic prog project, with Dimos Tsolakidis. After some songwriting which never got published Orfeo Bianco broke up in 2006. In 2009 he joined forces with Kay Darens to form Schooldrivers.
Since then they are setting forth to release their debut international album Theronation later this year.
Marpi
Marpi (born Sept. 23) is the keyboardist of Schooldrivers.
She started playing the keyboards at the age of 5, and as she would say: “I first learned how to write & read the notes on the musical stave and then the letters of the alphabet!” and it is true!
A few years later she took her first diploma in Harmonium, followed by another one on Electronic Organ. completing her studies in Music Theory, Music Harmony & Solfège. At the age of 17 she continued her studies with modern piano lessons and joined her first band…and then her second band…
A few years later, and while she was studying Business Administration in Athens University of Economics and Business, she joined an exchange students’ program (Erasmus) and moved to Innsbruck, Austria for a semester. During her studies abroad she got in contact with Kay, via Facebook, and decided to take her chances with an audition for Schooldrivers’s keyboardist position.
The odds was with her, so she is a member of Schooldrivers since then!
AJ Anasto
Andreas Anastopoulos (born April 16) a.k.a. A.J. Anasto. is the bass player for the Greek based modern rock band Schooldrivers.
Exposed at a very young age to the sounds of Black Sabbath made him love the bass guitar. Having Geezer Butler, Cliff Burton, Tim Commerford, Duff McKagan, Flea, James Jamerson, and Bach as bass heroes, fused into a play style which varies from smooth to furious but all with a rock flavor.
AJ Anasto / Bassist
While studying structural engineering in Crete, he joined forces with many aspiring musicians and with Manolis Zografakis (a.k.a. Trygos) they formed the prog metal band Soundgeist (formerly known as Devil’s Interval).
After one album and two Greek tours, AJ relocated in Athens and in the end of 2010, stumbled upon Schooldrivers as part of the audience in one gig. Eventually after a short time he rushed the stage as part of the band and the beat goes on ever since.
Vl@hos
Vlachos Panagiotis (born June 16, 1981) a.k.a Vl@hos is the drummer for the band Schooldrivers.
Vl@hos is well known for his powerful and minimalistic drum beats, as well as his extremely loud snare rim shots . He is also the one that tells all the cold jokes in the band 🙂
Vlahos Panayiotis – Vl@hos / Drummer
Vl@hos grew up in Athens. He started playing the drums as a teenager. He has taken lessons from many top class Greek drummers like: Yiannis Stavropoulos, Nick Siderokastritis, George Metalinos, George Katsikas, George Mitsotakis, Panos Tsimisiris, Alex Ktistakis, Kallistratos Drakopoulos, Manos Matsos, Serafim Bellos and Michael Kapilidis.