Alfunction (born Alan Leonard James; June 9, 1972 in

Costa Mesa, California Costa Mesa (; Spanish for "Table Coast") is a city in Orange County, California. Since its incorporation in 1953, the city has grown from a semi-rural farming community of 16,840 to an urban area including part of the South Coast Plaza–John Wa ...

), is an American

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

. His stage name was bestowed upon him in 1994, by future bandmate Lauren Boquette, in reference to his band at the time, "

Malfunction A malfunction is a state in which something functions incorrectly or is obstructed from functioning at all. Some types of malfunctions are: *Malfunction (parachuting), malfunction of a parachute *Sexual malfunction, also called "sexual dysfuncti ...

". He played guitar as a founding member of Six, from its beginning in 2001, until its disbanding in 2010. He was previously a hired guitarist for

Cypress Hill Cypress Hill is an American hip hop group from South Gate, California. They have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have multi-platinum and platinum albums. They are considered to be among the main progenitors of West Coast and 1990 ...

during the ''

Skull and Bones Skull and Bones, also known as The Order, Order 322 or The Brotherhood of Death, is an undergraduate senior secret student society at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. The oldest senior class society at the university, Skull and Bone ...

'' tours, making his debut U.S. performance for the band while playing keyboard on the

Conan O'Brien Conan Christopher O'Brien (born April 18, 1963) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and producer. He is best known for having hosted late-night talk shows for almost 28 years, beginning with ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' (19 ...

show. Alfunction went on to play guitar for

until July 2000, when he toured with Famous on the

Tattoo the Earth Tattoo the Earth was a concert tour from 2000 to 2002 in the United States. Scott Alderman, the festival's creator, believed that the tour would help "catch the vibe" between the musical artists and the body artists, saying in a prepared statem ...

festival. In late 2010, he performed with

Killing Joke Killing Joke are an English rock music, rock band from Notting Hill, London, England, formed in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass). Their first album, ''Ki ...

, taking over bass guitar duties for original bassist

Martin Glover Martin Glover (born 27 December 1960), better known by his stage name Youth, is a British record producer and musician, best known as a founding member and bassist of the rock band Killing Joke. He is also a member of the Fireman, along with Pa ...

on the North American tour in support of the

Absolute Dissent ''Absolute Dissent'' is the thirteenth studio album by English post-punk band Killing Joke, released on 27 September 2010 by Spinefarm Records, distributed worldwide by Universal Music Group. ''Absolute Dissent'' is Killing Joke's first studio ...

Album. A Six song he co-wrote, "Circles (Better Than Mine)", was used in the ''

WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009 ''WWE SmackDown vs. Raw 2009'' (sometimes subtitled with ''featuring ECW'') is a professional wrestling video game Video game developer, developed by Yuke's and video game publisher, published by THQ for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, PlayStat ...

'' video game.

Discography

Malfunction

* ''Fuse'' (1995)

Six

* ''When the Beauty's Gone'' (2001) * ''The Price of Faith'' (2004) * ''Between the Warning and the War'' (2007)

The Heathens

* ''Beach Blanket Beatdown!'' (2006) * ''Splittin' Lanes, Takin' Names'' (2013)

Studio credits

* Jason Walker – "Set It Free" (2005) – guitar

References

External links

*
Alfunction
on the Fender website {{authority control American heavy metal guitarists American punk rock guitarists Living people 1972 births American male guitarists Guitarists from California 21st-century American guitarists 21st-century American male musicians