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 |  BIOGRAPHY  Born in Los Angeles, California, David Minasian's career in the areas of filmmaking, music and literature has taken him all over the world. With nearly 200 film and television productions under his belt, David also happens to be a best selling author. However, this biography aims to focus primarily on his music oriented activities. While there were a few members of the prog world who knew of David having produced and directed a number of concert and documentary films for legendary English progressive rock band Camel, most were unaware of David's musical background until it was announced that he would be releasing an album of his own material titled Random Acts of Beauty in 2010.  David began classical piano training at the age of five and by the time he was fifteen was asked to turn professional. However his real interests lay in filmmaking and that is what he ultimately chose as a career path. After graduating with honors with a degree in film and television production, David began working freelance for a number of companies around LA as a producer, director, writer, editor, cinematographer and occasional soundtrack composer.  But after hearing the song The Land of Make Believe by The Moody Blues one day on the radio, his interest in progressive rock began to take hold and he started to record his own demos.  "I was intrigued by the combination of flutes, fuzzy guitars, soaring melodies, heavenly vocals, and strange sounding strings, which I later learned came from some kind of keyboard called a mellotron. The song was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. I immediately called up the radio station and asked them to play it again, which is what you did in those days. Seventh Sojourn became the first album I ever bought as a kid and its follow-up, Blue Jays, convinced me that I had to try my own hand at writing music. Those two albums also led me on a wonderful journey of discovery into the world of progressive music which included bands like Genesis, Yes, The Alan Parsons Project, Jethro Tull, Renaissance, Barclay James Harvest, Strawbs, Kayak and of course Camel."  Those tapes led to an offer of free studio time from pop act The Captain and Tennille at their state-of-the-art recording facility in the San Fernando Valley. Sessions yielded top quality masters, but no label interest resulted. Record companies in LA at that time were obsessed with disco, punk and New Wave. David's songs and image simply didn't fit in, and 'prog' was the last thing they wanted.  Undeterred, David embarked on the ambitious idea of recording his own album independently where he would serve as keyboardist, composer, producer and lead singer. The result was Tales of Heroes and Lovers, a lush symphonic rock album which had little to do with the current trends of the 80's.  With access to the latest film and editing facilities through his work, David was able to write, produce, and direct a music video for one of the album's tracks entitled It's Driving Me Crazy, which soon began receiving airplay on MTV.  The video brought David to the attention of legendary group Three Dog Night who asked him to write and direct the video for their latest song Shot In The Dark. The video was significant in that it would mark the last time the three primary members of the band would appear together - singer Chuck Negron would be asked to leave the band soon thereafter.  At the same time David began recording and playing live with a local band called Influence which featured guitarist Jeff Burton, son of Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Elvis Presley guitarist James Burton.  Meanwhile, David's album found its way to Spencer Proffer, the eccentric president of Pasha/CBS Records who was currently riding high as a result of his success with Quiet Riot. Rather than releasing the Tales of Heroes and Lovers album, David was asked to record a new one. Ex-Yes and Moody Blues keyboardist Patrick Moraz agreed to produce but would subsequently have to back out due to scheduling conflicts. With Pasha staffer Rand Bishop now in the producer's chair, David was teamed with talented Australian singer Chris Lloyds under the name Plan B. Although an album's worth of material was eventually recorded, the project was nevertheless shelved and Chris returned to Australia.  The early 90's, saw David join with new singer William Drews, and another independent album was released titled It's Not Too Late.  In 1996, David was asked to produce and direct a concert video, Coming of Age, and a documentary, Curriculum Vitae, for English progressive rock band Camel, one of his favorite bands. A friendship would soon develop between David and the band's leader Andrew Latimer. Over the next two decades, David would produce and direct a total of nine DVDs for Camel Productions including the releases The Opening Farewell and In From The Cold.  In 1998, David began working as a second unit director on the feature film The Joyriders starring Academy Award winner Martin Landau and Kris Kristofferson. David ended up composing the film's main theme song So Far From Home which became EMI's first single release from the soundtrack album.  In the Spring of 2009, David began thinking about the idea of recording a new album. And in June of that year, with the encouragement of Andrew Latimer, decided to go ahead.  The album Random Acts of Beauty features David on keyboards (grand piano, harpsichord, mellotron, moog, and orchestrations), 12 string acoustic guitars, bass, and a return to lead vocals - something he hadn't done since the Tales of Heroes album. Joining David is his 20 year old son Justin Minasian on electric lead and classical guitars along with very special guest Andrew Latimer of Camel who appears on the track Masquerade.  Prior to its release in October 2010 by ProgRock Records, Justin Hayward of The Moody Blues who served as David's initial inspiration for getting into prog rock, even commented on the album stating that "the guitar solo sound is fabulous and it's very Moody. I'm sure it will be a great album for David."  On October 5, 2010, Random Acts of Beauty was released worldwide to nearly universal acclaim. Lovers of symphonic rock were captivated by the album's soaring melodies, keyboard rich arrangements, and powerful lead guitar work. Camel fans in particular were delighted to hear Andrew Latimer back in action following an eight year absence. Within weeks, David found himself inundated with requests for interviews from various progressive rock publications from around the world.  Recording a follow up to Random Acts would prove to be a challenge with David's schedule becoming increasingly chaotic. David would travel to Japan to produce and direct an additional DVD for Camel, followed by three award-winning new concert and documentary DVD's for Justin Hayward, including a PBS television special.  By 2015, the Minasian/Hayward collaboration had reached a new level. The two would co-write the theme for an upcoming motion picture called The Wind of Heaven. An epic music video for the song, directed by David together with IM3 Global Entertainment CEO Trinity Houston, was filmed in Nashville during a break in the tour schedule of the Moody Blues. The beautifully photographed 8 minute video had its premiere on the big screen at a theater in Boston on May 9, 2016 before a gathering of Moody Blues and Justin Hayward fans with both Justin and David in attendance.  A fourth Justin Hayward DVD directed by David titled Live In Concert at the Capitol Theatre then followed, which included The Wind of Heaven music video as a bonus.  By the end of that summer, Eagle Rock/Universal had released a new Justin Hayward solo retrospective called All the Way which marked the first appearance of The Wind of Heaven song on CD. The response to the track was so overwhelming that Justin made the decision to name his tour after the song.  That same year, David began recording tracks for a new album entitled The Sound of Dreams, which would eventually include songwriting and performance contributions from newly inducted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Justin Hayward, and new friends (and fellow Prog Rock legends) Steve Hackett of Genesis, Annie Haslam of Renaissance, Billy Sherwood of Yes and PJ Olsson of The Alan Parsons Live Project. The ambitious project would take four years to complete!  By the time 2019 rolled around, David had been signed to Golden Robot Records, headed up by Mark Alexander-Erber and Derek Shulman, former Gentle Giant frontman and CEO of Polygram Records. Plans were immediately drafted to release David's new star-studded album followed by a remixed/remastered version of Random Acts of Beauty.  Meanwhile, legendary Producer, Engineer and Songwriter Alan Parsons had entered the picture. David and Trinity were asked to film three of his band's concerts in Europe culminating with a performance in Tel Aviv with an 80 piece orchestra. Footage from that show was used for NASA's 50th anniversary tribute to the Apollo 11 moon landing in the form of a music video for Alan's song One Note Symphony, produced and directed by Trinity and David. Shortly thereafter, two more concerts featuring Justin Hayward were filmed in New York and Florida.  Then on May 18, 2020, the first single from The Sound of Dreams, a remake of So Far From Home featuring vocals by Grammy Winner PJ Olsson was released along with a dramatic music video directed by Trinity Houston. This was followed by a second single, The Sound of Dreams (Third Movement) co-written with and featuring Steve Hackett.  Finally, on September 11, 2020, The Sound of Dreams was released worldwide to tremendous acclaim. And on November 26, 2021, a 'Best of' collection called Random Dreams consisting of all new remixes was issued on vinyl. It would mark only the second time David would venture into vinyl - the first being his Tales of Heroes and Lovers album back in 1984!  On June 23, 2022, Frontiers Records released the second single from Alan Parsons' latest album From the New World. The song titled I Won't Be Led Astray was written by David together with Elton John keyboardist Kim Bullard and Alan, and featured Parsons alumni David Pack, formerly of Ambrosia, on lead vocals along with blues legend Joe Bonamassa on guitar. A dazzling music video for the song, directed and produced by David and Trinity, accompanied the release.  David plans to begin recording a new album very soon (and hopes it doesn't take another 10 years). 
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