Ray Riendeau
Ray is best know for his recording/touring with Rob Halford (Judas Priest), guitarist Gary Hoey, Machines Of Loving Grace and as the current bassist for JAMES LABRIE, singer of the band Dream Theater. With James LaBrie, Ray has recorded two releases, Static Impulse and most recently Impermanent Resonance.
Ray is also a solo artist with 5 solo instrumental CDs, the most recent being ATMOSPHERES.
His newest project STAR MONARCHY features many top artists in hard rock/metal and was released in 2012.
Ray is endorsed by ZON Basses , AGUILAR Amplification, MONO cases, TSUNAMI cables, Essential Sound Products, GruvGEAR, Darkglass Electronics and Nambla Cases. He has been featured in many publications such as Bass Player, Bass Frontiers & Bassics to name a few. Ray is also a staff writer for Bass Musician Magazine and is a columnist for Talkbass.com’s “ask a pro” section. Ray was the cover story for the October 2010 issue of Bass Musician Magazine.
2010 brought the release of Rays latest solo CD “ATMOSPHERES” which features an impressive lists of guests including Alex Machacek, Nat Janoff, Marco Sfogli, Jeff Kollman , Ron Jarzombek, Greg Koch, Derek Taylor, Lalle Larrsson, Alex Argento, Matt Guillory to name a few. The CD has received rave reviews from fans and critics alike.
In recent years Ray has been concentrating on his endeavors as a session player working from his home studio. He has played on many CD, demo & preproduction tracks. Some of the artists include Shinedown, Jason Mraz, Theory Of A Deadman, Carrie Underwood, Dia Frampton (The Voice), Gavin DeGraw, David Cook (American Idol), Zac Maloy, 3 Doors Down, Jon McLaughlin, Forever The Sickest Kids, Cavo, Kenny Wayne Sheppard, Charlie Sexton, South Jorden, Adelitas Way, Joel Jorgenson, Whitney Duncan & Cady Groves.
As a clinician, Ray has performed and demonstrated his concepts to students throughout the United States & Europe at events such as NAMM Bass BAsh 2010 with Hadrien Feraud, Evan Marien & Damian Erskine, Bass Day - LA, The 2009 Arizona Bass Players Festival with jazz great John Clayton, The National Guitar Summer Workshop, The San Francisco Bass Weekend, The School of Bass in AZ, 3 Mile High Bass Camps with (1) Chuck Rainey, (2) Damian Erskine and (3) with Doug Johns, Bass Day New York 2001 which also featured Victor Wooten, Steve Bailey, Matt Garrison, Mike Pope and Christian McBride. As a part of the ZON Ultimate Bass Concert in Berkley CA, Ray performed with Michael Manring, Todd Johnson and Damian Erskine.
In past years Ray was known for his work with singer Rob Halford (Judas Priest). As a member of the band Halford, Ray recorded two studio cds, one double live CD, and toured around the world, most notably playing to a sold out crowd at Madison Square Garden - NYC and Co-headlining Brazil’s Rock in Rio festival with Iron Maiden playing to a crowd of over 250,000 (released as a DVD in 2008).
Ray was also a recording / touring artist for Machines of Loving Grace, a band who was featured on the movie soundtrack “The Crow” which sold over 1,000,000 copies. His credits with the band include “Gilt” and the soundtrack for the movie “Hackers.”
Riendeau assisted in the research and development of Sunn bass amps and the Fender Bassman series combo amps for Fender Musical Instruments. Ray has also been a Fender clinician and authored an instructional DVD for Fender as well that is included in all bass packs sold all over the world.
