3) Tell us a bit about you personally.
I am a father to two beautiful girls; Olivia and Lucinda. I have been married for 20 years to my wife Karen and we live in Long Branch with our dog Watson and cat Evie. I love to run just about every day and I have completed many marathons, 5K’s and everything in between. I always feel closer to God when I’m running because I feel like I can hear his word easier when I’m quiet and in the moment. Maybe the most important thing about me is that I live a sober life. I’m blessed to have more than 34 years of sobriety and have also helped others to find their way. Lastly, I am a huge New York Mets baseball fan.
4) Tell us a bit about you musically.
I play a few different instruments but am most comfortable on bass or guitar. I am self taught. I have a studio in my house where I produce artists, write songs and record vocalists. I had an original band called The Churchills in the late 90’s until about 2006. We got signed and put out 1 record on Universal and 2 more on our own. We got to tour Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and play all throughout the US. Michael J Fox was a fan and put us on camera for 3 episodes of his show ‘Spin City” playing our song Everybody Gets What They Deserve. That led to music placements in many other television shows including Scrubs, ER, Third Watch, Pretty Little Liars along with the theme song for MTV’s Juvies. As a studio musician I worked with many great artists including Alicia Keys. I co-wrote and played guitar on the song Tell You Something(Nana’s Reprise) from her album As I Am. I’ve been blessed to be the bass player in Bruce Springsteen’s band for a few performances in addition to being in bands backing Gwen Stefani, Sheryl Crow, Bono, Rob Thomas, Gavin Degraw, Alicia Keys, Southside Johnny and more. I’ve been very lucky!
5) What's your favorite Christian song to perform?
It’s hard to narrow down to just one but I always love Oceans by Hillsong United. I love the way the song rises and falls and the chord changes are beautiful. I think that song transcends the Christian genre and emotionally reaches and touches people of all faiths.
6) What's your favorite non-christian song to perform?
My favorite song to perform is directly correlative to the reaction of the audience. If a song is resonating with an audience you are a part of that moment and God is working through you to bring it to life. Those moments are so precious and for me are the true essence of what it means to be really alive. That said, playing Born To Run at a sold out Stone Pony show with Bruce Springsteen and playing No One with Alicia Keys at Hammerstein Ballroom are transcendent moments that stick out. Over the last year I’ve really loved playing John O’Neill’s song North Star.
8) Who's your favorite musician/band?
I love a lot of Indie Rock like The Smiths, Eggstone, The Trashcan Sinatras, Sigur Ros, The Flaming Lips, Red House Painters and classics like The Beatles and The Beach Boys.
9) Tell us about what you do musically outside of Tower Hill and where people could check you out!
One of my favorite projects is my work writing songs with veterans groups. I work with an organization called Music For All Seasons Musicforallseasons.org that has a program called Voices of Valor. We go in to the State Veteran’s Facilities like Lyons, Veterans Haven North and South and Soldier On in NJ, NY, PA and Massachusetts and over the course of 9 weeks we write and record a song that best expresses them at the time. These are vets struggling with PTSD, drug and alcohol addiction and other issues who are trying to get reacclimated into society. It’s a life changing experience not only for them but for me every single time.
Locally, I play with the aforementioned Danjos, Bob Bandiera, Carl Gentry, Jillian Rhys McCoy and others but my main band is The Eddie Testa Band Eddietestaband.com. We play 3 or 4 nights a week up and down the shore. I am still working hard in my studio by day working and recording with talented people like Erika Hallenbeck and Mark D Conklin. My great joy to share is that Mark D Conklin’s record “The Gospel According To Mark”, much of which was recorded in my studio, was just nominated for a Grammy Award. We just attended The Grammys and even though we didn’t win, it was an amazing weekend with family, friends and peers.
