Vince DiCola: Difference between revisions

| caption = Vince DiCola in his home studio{{deletable image-caption|Sunday, 11 June 2017|F7}}

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1957|1011|1711}}

| genre = [[Electronic music|electronicElectronic]], [[New wave music|Newnew wave]], [[Synthpopsynthpop]], [[film score]], [[dance music|dance]]

'''Vincent Louis "Vince" DiCola''' (born OctoberNovember 1711, 1957) is an American composer, keyboardist and arranger. He has composed scores for films such as ''[[TheStaying Transformers:Alive The(1983 Moviefilm)|Staying Alive]]'', ''[[StayingRocky Alive (1983 film)|Staying AliveIV]]'', and ''[[RockyThe IVTransformers: The Movie]]'' soundtracks. DiCola also pioneered the use of sequencers on his soundtrack recording for ''Rocky IV'', one of the first to exploit the [[Fairlight CMI]] and [[Synclavier|Synclavier II's]] computer's sequencing capabilities.

DiCola was born in 1957 in [[Lancaster, Pennsylvania]], to Italian-American parents. After majoring in percussion in college, DiCola began his professional music career upon moving to California in 1981. One of his early credits as a session musician was his synthesizer performance on [[Juice Newton]]'s albums ''Dirty Looks'' and ''Old Flame'' released in 1983 and 1985, respectively. His first major break came when he was chosen to co-write several songs on the ''[[Staying Alive (1983 film)|Staying Alive]]'' soundtrack (1983) with [[Frank Stallone]].<ref>[{{AllmusicCite web |classtitle=artistVince DiCola Songs, Albums, Reviews, Bio & More |idurl=p6403https://www.allmusic.com/artist/vince-dicola-mn0000211848 |pure_urlaccess-date=yes}}2023-09-19 |website=AllMusic.com Music Bio]|language=en}}</ref> Following his work on the ''Staying Alive'' project, he was recruited by [[Sylvester Stallone]] to write the original score for ''[[Rocky IV]]'' (1985), followed by scoring ''[[The Transformers: The Movie]]'' (1986). Since then, he has been active in the capacity of producer, recorded and performed as both a solo artist and member of several bands, and continues to work as a session musician and contributor to film soundtracks as composer and performer.

In 1983, DiCola was a co-nominee for the '''Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special''' [[Grammy Award|Grammy]] for co-writing the soundtrack of the movie ''[[Staying Alive (1983 film)|Staying Alive]]'', in spite of the poor critical reception of the film. He also received a [[Golden Globe Award|Golden Globe]] nomination for '''Best Original Song – Motion Picture''' for the song "[[Far from Over (Frank Stallone song)|Far from Over]]", which he co-wrote with [[Frank Stallone]] for the same film.

At the time, critics didn't appreciate his usage of electronic music in the ''Rocky IV'' soundtrack and he received a [[Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Musical Score]] as a result.<ref>[{{Cite web |title=Vince DiCola - Awards |url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0225746/awards/ IMDB:|access-date=2023-09-19 Awards|website=IMDb for Vince DiCola]|language=en-US}}</ref> But on a more positive note, the song "[[The Touch (Stan Bush song)|The Touch]]" from the ''Transformers'' soundtrack won DiCola a 1986 Apex award for '''Best Original Song – Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror'''.

Around the same time in 1996, DiCola, Storming Heaven bandmate Doane Perry, and [[Tower of Power]] vocalist [[Ellis Hall (musician)|Ellis Hall]] formed a soul/progressive-rock trio named Thread and released their one and only self-titled album on CD.

In 2001, he worked again with Perry and released ''In-VINCE-ible!'', a collection of diverse works from various past projects, with ex-members of Santana and Chicago assisting as session musicians, and featuring several special guests including [[Steve Walsh (musician)|Steve Walsh]] of [[Kansas (band)|Kansas]] and his Storming Heaven bandmates.<ref>[{{Cite web|url=http://www.midwestbeat.com/ezine/july2001/cd.html |title=''In-VINCE-ible'' Album Review]|website=Midwestbeat.com}}</ref>

He and Perry once again formed a trio, this time with bassist Paul Ill and called DPI, to release a 3three-track EP called ''Found Objects'' in 2006. Previously the trio had worked with vocalist Vincent Kendall and guitarist Reeves Gabrels in releasing a 42-minute suite called "Pity the Rich" based on recordings made at the same time. The jam-session style recordings for these releases were originally intended to be part of a new DiCola solo instrumental release, but while editing the tracks in his home studio DiCola felt they had the feel of a project for a band and chose to expand his original plan to include the other performers.

In 2008, he was featured on the ''[[Gran Turismo 5 Prologue]]'' Original Soundtrack and was responsible (along with guitarist Doug Bossi) for arranging the series theme, "Moon Over the Castle", (withwhich the guitarist Doug Bossi) as well as another piece titled "Truth". Both titles werewas written by the[[Masahiro JapaneseAndoh]] Bandof [[T-Square (band)|T-Square]], with which VinceDiCola worked on thetheir 2001 album Truth 21c (2001, with Takeshi Itoh,released as T-Square Plus).

He described his work on the Gran Turismo's soundtrack's project in an interview with [[Music4Games]], noting that he collaborated with T-Square and Doug Bossi on the project, and looks forward to becoming involved with game music in the future.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=251| title=Interview with Music4Games| publisher=Music4Games| accessdateaccess-date=2008-04-15| url-status=dead| archiveurlarchive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090817041831/http://www.music4games.net/Features_Display.aspx?id=251| archivedatearchive-date=August 17, 2009| df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In 2009, he composed the song "Bound and Gagged" as a submission for the upcoming ''[[Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen]]''. The track featured DiCola on keyboards and drums, Kenny Meriedeth on guitars, and Rick Livingstone on vocals but was not selected by Michael Bay for the ''Transformers II'' soundtrack.

In 2011, he began composing music for the video game ''[[Saturday Morning RPG]]'' from [[Mighty Rabbit Studios]]. The game released on the iTunes App Store in March 2012.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.n00balert.com/preview-saturday-morning-rpg-episode-1-and-2-for-ios-59747/ |title=Preview of Saturday Morning RPG Episode 1 and 2 for iOS |publisher=N00bAlert.com |access-date= |accessdate=2012-02-21}}</ref>

In 2013, DiCola released a Christmas medley that was featured as a part of the [[''Saturday Morning RPG]]'' soundtrack ahead of a planned full soundtrack release for the game.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.loudr.fm/release/christmas-adventure-from-saturday-morning-rpg/7P37H |title="Vince DiCola – "Christmas Adventure" (from Saturday Morning RPG) |publisher=Loudr.fm |date=2013-12-02 |accessdateaccess-date=2015-11-19}}</ref>

In 2014, DiCola along with Kenny Meriedeth, wrote the music for ''[[Angry Birds Transformers]]'' for [[Rovio Entertainment|Rovio]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.vgmonline.net/vince-dicola-revisits-his-transformers-work-for-angry-birds/ |title="Vince DiCola revisits his Transformers work for Angry Birds" |date=August 31, 2014 |publisher=vgmonline.net}}</ref>

DiCola also wrote original music for the video game ''[[Transformers: Devastation]]''.

In 2016, DiCola also Alongsidealongside Meriedeth wrote original music for the video game ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutants in Manhattan]]''.

In 2019 DiCola features on the song "This Isn't Love" from the album ''Exhibits'' by the rock band Work Of Art. He also toured in 2019 with Glenn Hughes playing keyboards on his 'Glenn Hughes Performs Classic Deep Purple' tour.

*''[[Artistically Beatles]]'' (1993)

{{reflistReflist}}

* [http://www.tdrsmusic.com/vince.html Vince DiCola]

* [http://www.melodic.net/interviewsOne.asp?interviewId=63 Melodic Net - We Rock, Do you?] interview in 2004 by Kaj Roth for melodic.net

* [http://store.intrada.com/s.nl/it.A/id.6605/.f Rocky IV Original Score], [[Intrada Records]]]

* [http://scarletmoonrecords.com/ Scarlet Moon™ Productions - Records] Scarlet Moon Records Store

[[Category:20th-century American keyboardistsmale film score composers]]

[[Category:LivingColumbia peopleRecords artists]]

[[Category:MaleEpic filmRecords score composersartists]]

[[Category:MaleAmerican newvideo wavegame singerscomposers]]