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Sunburst have been playing and singing together since late 1997, but the roots of their musical collaborations go back almost 20 years. John Baumgartner (keyboard/songwriter), Stanley Demeski (drums), Marc Francia (guitar), Glenn Mercer (guitar), Toni Paruta (vocals/woodwinds) and Dave Weckerman (bass) are old musical friends who have shared many stages and recording studios during the last two decades. Recently, they’ve been hard at work creating new music for what will be Sunburst’s debut release.
Sunburst’s first glimmer can be traced to the early days of the Haledon, NJ "music scene," which began with the Feelies (Demeski, Mercer and Weckerman), the critically-acclaimed and influential guitar-driven band. Throughout the 80’s, all the members of Sunburst were involved with other Haledon-based bands such as The Trypes, Yung Wu, and the Willies, each of which reflected different aspects of the players’ musical interests. Some of the bands went on to record for the New York label Coyote in the late 1980’s.
Baumgartner, Francia, and Paruta went on to form Speed the Plough, which released four full-length albums between 1989 and 1995 on the Rykodisc offshoot East Side Digital. Demeski was a member of Luna from 1991 to 1995. Mercer and Weckerman are also currently involved in Wake Ooloo, which has released three highly-regarded albums for Pravda.