Press from Frontiers Records 21-October-00: Into The Light is the new project band of famed American guitarist / composer Tim Donahue together with singer Kelly Hansen of Hurricane, Unruly Child and Stuart Smith fame. Tim Donahue's early musical influences were Jimi Hendrix and composer Claude Debussy, while his most recent influences include everything from jazz to rock to Eastern music. Donahue's songwriting talents and unique guitar style have become benchmarks of his work, most notable being Donahue's progressive hard rock, which combines unforgettable melodies and stylish guitar playing. Donahue's innovative guitar approach is as much a part of his music as his songwriting talent. After playing guitar for a number of years, Tim began to hear a different guitar sound in his head. In a GUITAR MAGAZINE interview he says, "I was playing blues, rock and just about anything else you can imagine, but that sound was missing!" Tim could only find that elusive sound by building his first fretless guitar himself. After earning a scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music, Donahue entered with his new instrument and turned quite a few heads.
Today, Donahue is probably the world's only master of fretless guitar. After graduating from Berklee, Donahue moved to Japan, where he performed live and composed his first solo album "FIFTH SEASON", nominated by JAZZIZ MAGAZINE in the Top 5 Jazz Albums of 1986. Soon afterward, Donahue's musical needs changed drastically, leading to the creation of his most innovative instument - the fretless electric harp guitar. To realize the full potential of these harp guitars, Tim developed totally new, previously unheard of playing techniques - at times he sounds like 2-3 people playing at once. Tim's solo career then took off as he has graced 4 solo albums, a major motion picture soundtrack, 2 solo videos aired on VH-1 in the USA, countless television programs and commercials in Japan, and most recently Fernandes Guitars' Sustainer promotion video (with Eddie Van Halen, Steve Hackett and Zakk Wylde). Tim Donahue signed with Nippon Crown Records in 1994 and released the solo fretless harp guitar CD "STILL DREAMING". The album caught the attention of Shochiku Productions, who then enlisted Tim to score the movie soundtrack for "MARKS NO YAMA", a complicated psycho-thriller and best selling Japanese novel. Later on Tim's music came full circle, back to what he loves most: progressive hard rock. 1997 saw Tim team up with legendary producer Eddie Kramer (of Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin & KISS fame) and vocal great Paul Rodgers (Free, Bad Co.) to record "VOICES IN THE WIND", a powerful melodic rock album released worldwide. Tim is back now with his new project called INTO THE LIGHT. On the self titled debut album Donahue is featured on all instruments (also handling production duties) while Kelly Hansen provides his talent and skills on lead and background vocals.