Staff/Show History

Nick

I grew up on a steady diet of classic rock, but aside from a handful of albums didn't get too interested in music as a youngster. In high school my friend Jeff (who you'll hear more about later) ended up winning tickets to a Def Leppard concert, and that's what really sparked my initial full blown interest in music. It wasn't long after that I purchased The Spirit of Radio, a Rush compilation, and my musical journey grew exponentially from there. I quickly became your normal Rush freak, and nearly a decade later I'm still the Rush freak I was then.

While Rush got me started down the path of prog, the discovery of Dream Theater, Iron Maiden and Queensryche led me down the path of metal. While my explorations in that side of things were mainly prog-metal, I was able to dabble in some of the other sub-genres as well. Over the years music became a major driving force in my life. My CD collection grew rapidly, I was going to shows regularly, and I even fumbled around a drum kit best I could. But that still wasn't enough...

Throughout 2007 my friend Jeff and I would listen to various internet radio shows, especially one hosted by a local, mutual friend, and the idea of internet radio appealed to us both. In January of 2008 we had the chance to try out hand at radio, and became the co-hosts of When Prog and Power Unite. The show was a way to share the music we loved, and we both enjoyed the writing aspect that was involved with reviews as well.

Jeff

What Rush was to me, Iron Maiden was to Jeff. No doubt the more metal of our duo Jeff represented the "power" of When Prog and Power Unite. Along with Maiden, Jeff's early influences included Queensryche, Savatage, and Edguy. Unlike me, Jeff is a talented musician, who plays guitar and is the primary song writer in his band MindMaze (formerly Necromance).

In March of 2011 Jeff announced he would have to step away from the broadcast portion of the show due to scheduling difficulties. Jeff would continue to submit reviews for several more months after leaving the broadcast.
 

Mason

Joining the staff in May of 2012, Mason is an expert in prog-metal, having had more years than I have to dive deep into the genre. Mason will be supplying reviews and helping with various other parts of When Prog and Power Unite. For a little on his background, I'll let him explain-

"I grew up on classic rock and 80s metal as a child of the 80s. As I moved into high school, I really started to discover to discover metal bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Tool, and Pantera, which were blasted in the gym as my fellow football players and I lifted weights in the off season. In college I discovered Dream Theater, and my world hasn't been the same since, going on to discover progressive metal and progressive rock, and more recently, some of the more extreme branches of metal. Over the past 14+ years I've branched into emerging fields of metal and rock, but I've always kept progressive metal close to my heart."