Canadian rocker Aldo Nova announces his new band lineup, which features Aldo Nova on guitars and vocals, Jack Frost, (ex-Seven Witches, Savatage) on guitars and vocals, Tim Gaines (ex-Stryper, Of Gods And Monsters) on bass and vocals, Billy Carmassi (Aldo Nova band 1982 to 2020) on drums, and a keyboard player, whose name cannot be disclosed yet. But he also has an amazing pedigree, is extremely well known and is a monster player. His identity will be revealed when they begin touring, as soon as the COVID lockdowns are lifted and things get back to normal.

In Aldo’s words, “Between me, Tim Gaines and Billy Carmassi, we were already quite a unit, but when Jack Frost joined the band, it was as if he was the detonator that made us an Atomic Bomb of a band.” He also says that, “When Jack joined the band, I felt a completely new energy, and when Billy and Tim met him digitally, they both agreed that he was our guy and we're eager to go out and literally destroy, which is the mindset that we, as a band, have when we will play live.”

Nova also announced his plans to do a large, full-scale production virtual live show in 2021, and when he says large scale production, he means a full lighting rig over a large stage with one of the leading lighting designers in Canada, Pierre E. Roy, with video directed and edited by Christian Jacques who did Aldo’s videos for, “I’m A Survivor”, “When All Is Said And Done” and his “Monkey On Your Back", live band-livestream COVID-19 session.

Nova doesn’t really think that the drive-in shows that everybody claims to be the only way to play live is a good thing for his fans. In his words, "Who wants to go see a band with five people crammed in a car, listening to the show on their FM radios, and not being able to see anything? It's certainly not the solution, nor the future of rock. Anyway, I’m from Canada where the winters are brutal, so it’ll never work in Canada, nor will it work in the Northern States, so half of your fans can’t see you play when you’re on tour."

Nova plans on doing his virtual live show with a 3 and ½ hour set, playing his albums in their entirety and in the sequence of the album, so as he says. "While most bands play their shows then walk off without playing their hits, and waiting for the audience to cheer and clap til they come back to do their hit," which he calls the “cheap shot”, he does things in an entirely different way because as he says, "We on the other hand, we’ll start the show with 'Fantasy' because it’s the first track on side one of the first album." He intends to play songs from all his albums, even six songs from his rare and obscure instrumental album, Nova’s Dream, which is considered to be one of his best albums, and ending finally with his new Rock Opera, The Life And Times of Eddie Gage.

Also, his virtual show is modeled after Dana White’s UFC fight cards, which is, you pay one price of admission and you can have as many people watching it as you want, as he puts it, "Turn it into a party or a family night, sitting in front of your big screen TV with the sound system as loud as you want, with everybody having a front-row seat, get a beer, play air guitar, dance, and jokingly he says when we play 'Ball And Chain', you can even make out."

Watch out because 2021 is going to be a year full of surprises with new cutting edge ways to entertain fans from Aldo Nova.

(Photo by Sylvia Bechard)