BILLY CHAPIN
Musician, producer, songwriter, label executive … all of these can be used to describe Billy Chapin, a man who has made his mark on the music industry by following his dreams and doing what he loves. Billy began his professional music career at the age of fifteen playing back-up guitar for then Polydor recording artist Ruby Winters. He played with various bands throughout high school, while also writing and recording and after graduation he joined a regional touring act. After years of touring and session work, Billy got his big break when he was asked to play guitar for the Backstreet Boys on their 1997, 1998 and 1999 national and international tours. That led to touring with other major pop acts, such as Brittany Spears and O-Town. Through these relationships he performed on many national television shows and music videos. During this time Billy continued to hone his writing and recording skills, and worked as a writer and producer on albums for acts such as Backstreet Boys, O-Town, Aaron Carter, Leslie Carter, Turbo B, Menudo, Sister Hazel, Edwin McCain and Don Henley. He has received numerous Gold and Platinum album awards for these projects. He received a BMI Award and a Juno Nomination. Billy’s longtime association with Backstreet led to an imprint label deal with Dreamworks Records and a publishing deal with Warner-Chappell which has afforded him the opportunity to work with various well known artists, producers and writers. Currently Billy owns Chapin Music Group, Funkamongus Music Publishing, and Deep Blue Recording Studio. He is on the Board of Governors of the Florida Chapter of NARAS (the Grammy’s), continues to write and produce with longtime business partner Stan Lynch (Tom Petty, Don Henley) and is currently producing television shows. Chapin’s first TV production, SkyLife aired May 2015 on NBC Sports.
SEAN IMPARA
A lifetime fan of music, Sean started his career in the business about eleven years ago. As a manager of a restaurant that featured live acts six nights a week it wasn’t long before he was able to pick out the talent and build a name for himself as knowing and working with several future great artists. From there, he started his own company, Reluctant Genius Productions which helped provide live music for over ten well known places within the Volusia county area over the next eight years. With time he has continually proved by working with various venues and artists that he has a great ear for music and seems to know which types of bands fit at each specific place. Today if you ask him his greatest claim to fame he will undoubtedly tell you that it’s the 35 local charity events that he’s been able to participate with. “There’s something about how you feel at the end of the day knowing you raised money for a greater cause that makes you feel awesome,” he says. In 2016, he teamed up with local producer, songwriter and composer Billy Chapin. At first he was just helping bring in new potential talent but it didn’t take long for both of them to realize that there was a common bond between them when it came to music. In asking him his future goals his first reply is ” I’m honored and a little blown away that someone with Billy’s background is now my business partner, but ultimately I hope to help local artists take the next step at growing and ultimately getting better within the music industry.” There’s is no doubt that he has found his passion both in work and with what he wants to achieve in the future. When asked what’s next his simple reply is, “Time to get to work and follow my dreams.
JENNY McLAIN
Although she is affectionately known as “Rock Mom” to many of the local artists she works with, Jenny is Editor in Chief of Static Live Magazine and writes the column “On the Block”; she is also Director of Operations for Static Live Media Group. She has been working with Central Florida musicians and venues since 2015 but she has been bringing bands and venues together since she was a teenager in Jacksonville and her brother had a garage band that wanted to play on the beach. Growing up in a musically diverse family, her influences range from Heavy Metal to Southern Rock to Gospel and everything in between. Her professional background includes IT and Administrative Management for large corporations, including Procter & Gamble, Pepsi Cola and Abbott Laboratories and Office Management for a large medical practice.
GARY KROMAN
A New York City native, Gary Kroman began working independently as a freelance illustrator in 1972. Gary worked extensively for ad agencies and magazines. In 1973 he met with the people at Relix magazine and began illustrating for the magazine. Inspired by Rick Griffin, Kelly and Mouse and most of the San Francisco comic and poster artists of the late sixties and early seventies he created volumes of posters, magazine covers, album cover art and tee shirts.
His posters, most notably the 100 Grateful Dead songs, Sunshine Daydream, Summer of Love 20th year anniversary and Dead Serenade are licensed and sold to various companies in many categories and are still traded and sold all over the world to this day. He has shown most recently at the J. B. Kline Gallery in Lambertville, N.J. and was spotlighted at the Hard Rock Vault’s 30 Years of Grateful Dead Art exhibition at their gallery in Orlando, FL as well as been involved in higher end rock and roll auction houses such as Guernsey’s 40 Years Of Rock and Roll. He is well published and is featured in the Paul Grushkin book “The Art Of Rock” Vol. 1.
After more than 30 years of doing traditional painting and drawing techniques he realized it was getting old and he wanted to experiment with new techniques. Everything seemed so flat. He saw some glass paintings and liked the “floating” aspect of an image seeming to be hanging in space. He then acquired different kinds of glass and played with laying paint on the front and back of the glass and saw more dimensionality occurring. After doing some shows and realizing how fragile the work could be he thought of what might be a good replacement for glass.
His daughter had found some plexiglass and gave it to him, thinking it might be a good idea to try working on it. After working on that one piece he realized what materials and media would work. He then mounted it on a plain white board to lay space between the plexi and the backboard. It seemed to work much better than the glass and the dimensionality became immediately apparent. After creating a few more pieces he began adding textures and different materials for added dimensionality and doing more work on the backboard. Each piece opens a new avenue and asks more questions for the next piece such as what if I add this or that? Or how about a different mounting technique or a mixed media background and lining up the front image more exactly with the back image?
Currently his subject matter is celebrity and what that persona means. The art makes a statement about the particular person. Every new piece goes a little further to enhance the “hanging in space” dimensional view.