Balance was an early 1980s American

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a loosely defined subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the garage, psychedelic and blues rock movements. Some of the earliest hard ...

band. based out of

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, United States, and fronted by Peppy Castro, formerly of

Blues Magoos The Blues Magoos are an American rock group from The Bronx, a borough of New York City, United States. They were at the forefront of the psychedelic music trend, beginning in 1966. They are best known for the hit song " (We Ain't Got) Nothin' Ye ...

. They are best known for their top 40 1981 hit, "Breaking Away".

Biography

In addition to Castro, original members included

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 ...

Bob Kulick Robert Joel Kulick (January 16, 1950 – May 28, 2020) was an American guitarist and record producer, who worked with numerous acts such as Kiss, W.A.S.P., Alice Cooper, Lou Reed, Meat Loaf and Michael Bolton. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, ...

and

arranger In music, an arrangement is a musical adaptation of an existing composition. Differences from the original composition may include reharmonization, melodic paraphrasing, orchestration, or formal development. Arranging differs from orches ...

keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instr ...

Doug Katsaros Doug Katsaros is an American keyboardist, arranger, composer, and conductor. Biography In 1978 he played on Paul Stanley's debut album, followed by working on albums by Richie Havens, Michael Bolton, Arc Angel, Bon Jovi and his band Balance ...

. The trio recorded their self-titled debut album with session musicians, one of whom, drummer

Andy Newmark Andrew Newmark (born July 14, 1950)

also co-wrote one of the songs on the album and was apparently an official member of the band at one point. Newmark was later replaced by Gregg Gerson, who departed soon thereafter to play with

Billy Idol William Michael Albert Broad (born 30 November 1955), known professionally as Billy Idol, is a British-American singer, songwriter, and musician. He first achieved fame in the 1970s emerging from the London punk rock scene as the lead singer o ...

. Prior to recording their follow-up album, Balance added the rhythm section of

drummer A drummer is a percussionist who creates music using drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one mem ...

Chuck Burgi Charles Arnold Burgi III (, born August 15, 1952, Montclair, New Jersey) is an American drummer. He has performed with many rock bands and musicians, ranging from local New Jersey/New York-area artists to international groups, throughout his pr ...

(ex-

Brand X Brand X were a jazz fusion band formed in London in 1974. They were active until 1980, followed by a reformation between 1992 and 1999, and were active following a 2016 reunion until 2021. Members have included John Goodsall (guitar), Percy J ...

) and

bassist A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboar ...

Dennis Feldman (ex-Speedway Blvd.) to the lineup. The group's most noteworthy release was 1981's "Breaking Away" from their eponymous debut album which reached No. 133 on the ''Billboard'' 200. The song peaked at No. 22 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 singles chart. The album's follow-up single, "Falling in Love", peaked at No. 58. The band failed to ever reach the Hot 100 charts again. In early 1982, Balance entered The Power Station in New York, now

Avatar Studios Power Station at BerkleeNYC, formerly known as Avatar Studios (1996–2017) and Power Station, is a recording studio at 441 West 53rd Street between Ninth and Tenth avenues in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood in Manhattan, New York City. The bui ...

, to produce their sophomore album, ''In For The Count'', with Tony Bongiovi, a cousin of

Jon Bon Jovi John Francis Bongiovi Jr. (born March 2, 1962), known professionally as Jon Bon Jovi, is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He is best known as the founder and frontman of the rock band Bon Jovi, which was formed in 1983. He ...

, engineering and co-producing. After a massive house cleaning on so-called 'Black Friday', when 200 staffers at CBS, Epic and Portrait were let go, Balance would lose their supporters at the label and ''In For The Count'' became a direct casualty of the turnover. Although things looked bleak at home, the band experienced one last hurrah when they were asked to write a song for a major Japanese commercial to launch the new

Daihatsu Charade The Daihatsu Charade is a supermini car produced by the Japanese manufacturer Daihatsu from 1977 to 2000. It is considered by Daihatsu as a "large compact" or "supermini" car, to differentiate it from the smaller ''kei car'' compacts in its line- ...

. The resulting song was "Ride the Wave" which was also commercially released through Polydor, with album leftover "She's Alone Tonight" on the B-side. Balance played a short tour of Japan before calling it quits due to lack of interest from their label and management company. Castro, Katsaros, Burgi, and Feldman (along with Bob Kulick's younger brother,

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

) reunited briefly when they appeared on

Michael Bolton Michael Bolotin
, The Jewish Historical Society of New Haven, 1998. (born February 26, 1953), known professio ...

's 1985 album, ''

Everybody's Crazy ''Everybody's Crazy'' is the fourth studio album by American recording artist Michael Bolton. The album was released in 1985 by Columbia Records. The lead guitarist on the album is Bruce Kulick, later of KISS fame. The title track was a minor hit ...

''. Kulick and Feldman, the latter adopting the name Dennis St. James and handling lead vocals, would re-team again in the band Skull whose sole album, ''No Bones About It'', was released in 1991; Bruce Kulick and Chuck Burgi guested on various tracks. In the wake of the 2006 re-issue of ''In For the Count'', Italian label

Frontiers Records Frontiers Music – formerly Frontiers Records – is an Italian record label, predominantly producing hard rock. It was founded in 1996 by Serafino Perugino and is based in Naples. History In 1996, Serafino Perugino started working in the m ...

inquired about a possible new Balance album. ''Equilibrium'' was released in 2009 and features original core members Kulick, Castro and Katsaros, along with drummer Brett Chassen, who also co-produced with Kulick, as well as guest spots from Bruce Kulick on bass and Jesse Castro on drums. In 2014, the band reunited for its first live shows in 31 years for a short three-date tour in Sweden. Peppy Castro, Bob Kulick and Doug Katsaros were joined by Dan Larsson on bass and Jonas Wikström on drums. Sweden Rock Magazine gave the band a rave review of their gig at the Rockland Club in Sala, Sweden, on August 26, 2014. On October 6, 2015, Peppy Castro was interviewed by Swedish Radio about the continued and renewed interest in the band, such as fans of the band recently setting up a Facebook page wanting the band to play at Sweden Rock Festival in 2016. Bob Kulick died on May 28, 2020, at age 70.

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

* 1981 ''Breaking Away'' b/w ''It's So Strange'' (Portrait, 24-02177) #22 US * 1981 ''Falling in Love'' b/w ''Fly Through the Night'' (Portrait, 02608) #58 US * 1981 ''American Dream'' b/w ''I'm Through Loving You'' (Portrait, 24-02826) * 1982 ''Slow Motion'' b/w ''Undercover Man'' (Portrait AE7 1501) * 1982 ''Slow Motion'' b/w ''Is It Over'' (Portrait, 24-03083) * 1982 ''In for the Count'' b/w ''Slow Motion'' (Portrait/Epic Holland, PRTA 3185) * 1983 ''Ride the Wave'' b/w ''She's Alone Tonight'' (Polydor Japan, 7DX 2027)

Re-issues

* 1992 ''Balance'' (Portrait/Sony Music Austria, 4694422) * 1992 ''In for the Count'' (Portrait/Sony Music Austria, 85787) * 1996 ''Balance'' / ''In for the Count'' (Renaissance, RMED00104) * 2006 ''In for the Count'' (Rock Candy, CANDY024)* includes the Japan only ''Ride the Wave'' 7" as bonus tracks * 2010 ''Balance'' (Rock Candy, CANDY066)

References

{{Authority control Hard rock musical groups from New York (state) Musical groups from New York City Frontiers Records artists