10 KINGDOMS started as a band in the spring of 1992, though at the time it was under a different name. The name of the band would actually come to light after the initial break-up of the original line-up. Joseph Ellis, the bands primary songwriter, started playing guitar at the age of 15; somewhere around the same time as the original NWOBHM hit the shores of the United States. Bands such as Def Leppard, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Mercyful Fate, Scorpions (with Michael Schenker), and later on Queensryche, Ozzy Osbourne (with Randy Rhoads, Jake E. Lee & later Zakk Wylde), Slayer, Metallica (with Cliff Burton) and Megadeth (with Chris Poland); these bands and their respective guitar players (and bass players in a few cases) all had an affect on the development of his playing abilities.
Steve Harris of Iron Maiden, Ronnie James Dio and King Diamond, each in their own right a legend in the realms of Metal music, would become his "Rosetta Stones" to writing his own music/Lyrics. Somebody gave me a copy of Rainbow's Long Live Rock & Roll (with Dio as vocalist and co-songwriter) and I was fucking floored. Steve Harris was actually my first influence as a complete songwriter. Those rhythms that he came up with just blew me away, because no one else at the time was doing that in Metal (with the exception maybe of Rush), laying vocal lines over complex riffs and rhythms. And of course there's Fate. Mercyful Fate have influenced every fucking metal band I know of, and yet NOBODY every gives them their due. I'm doing it right here, right now, Fate changed metal forever, and me along with it.
Ellis graduated from the Arts Magnet School of Dallas in 1983, a school no less prestigious than Julliard. I may not have been what you would call an A student at Jazz, but I did work my ass off to learn everything from playing the piano to composition. That place showed me that there was a major difference between being influenced by other bands and straight-out sounding like a fucking cover-band. Van Halen and Rhoads were the first two players that I noticed using theory and still having it sound like a 100 mph Hurricane, and no two Hurricanes are alike, ever. It was not too much, not too little, and definitely their own unique style. And the dual-guitar bands, fuckin' 'ell! Priest, Maiden, Fate, Diamond, and so many others that just inspired me over and over and over to keep to what was true to my ears, not whatever the 'flavor of the day' was, has been, or ever will be."
After being in numerous bands from graduation until around 1991, Ellis decided to form his own from the ground up, and surround himself with like-minded players who were as hungry as he was to get up on stage and play their own material instead of covers. It never has been about the money, or the women, or any of that other clichéd shit. It has always been about that rush you get when you're on stage and look down and there is someone in the front row mouthing/singing the words to a song that YOU wrote. There's no describing that feeling, no words, nothing. And it doesn't matter whether you're playing to 10, 100, or 1,000 people or more; it's some sort of emotional/ethereal Vampirism where you feed off the audience's energy, and they reciprocate 10 fold, and so on. That's about the only way I know how to describe it.
After several line-up changes and two EPs and two full length CDs (which unfortunately are no longer available due to legal issues), 2008 looks to be an outstanding year for 10 KINGDOMS. I've already got two full CDs worth of material to record, plus some new stuff that might make it out by the end of the year. 2007 was a pretty fucked up year for 10 KINGDOMS, but 2008 is going to be the year that we completely musically fuck people up! It's taking a lot out of me to get to this point and I'm not about to stop now. No fucking way. To me, this is where it STARTS!
Source : http://www.myspace.com/10kingdoms
