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Phil Hronas' Biography:

Phil was born  in Pittsburgh PA in May of 1957 and raised in Ambridge PA; a small town north of his birthplace. He is a second generation Greek-American on his father's side and Mexican-American on his mother's side.

He comes from a very musically talented family. His dad, mother, and brother were all able to play more than one instrument and music has been a part of his life since infancy.

Phil got his first drumset (a toy set) at the age of two ("a Christmas present from my Godmother and Godfather"). One day as the story goes his dad was downstairs playing the piano and Phil pulled his drums up next to him and started playing along. His dad would switch time signatures 4/4 to 3/4 and Phil would keep the beat. His dad was amazed and asked mom to come downstairs to listen. Everything just snowballed from there. Dad's band would come over the house to practice (they'd play the old 30's and 40's standards) and Phil would have his drum set up next to their drummer and spend all night jamming with the old guy's.

One day in February 1962 a band called "The Beatles" played on the Ed Sullivan show and everything changed. Phil went from listening to Lawrence Welk to watching American Bandstand, Shindig, and Hullabaloo just to catch a glimpse of the rock bands of the day (The Turtles, Lovin' Spoonful, The Animals, etc.)

Phil started playing in bands at the age of six and this continued up through his teenage years. His early influences were The Beatles (of course), Black Sabbath, Alice Cooper, Led Zeppelin, Uriah Heep, Grand Funk, ZZ-Top, and King Crimson. The bands he played in would do a variety of cover tunes from these bands. As Phil got older he started getting into bands such as Rush, Judas Priest, Boston, Styx, and Kansas.

He did stray from the drums for a time by dabbling in guitar (age 10) but his natural inclination was for the drums. He spent his youth playing trombone in concert band during middle school and in high school was allowed by the band director to play drums during football/parade season and trombone during concert season. "I had a blast." 

In 1974, Phil joined the United States Marine Corps. with a guarantee that he would attend field music school upon graduation from boot camp. He attended school and received orders to report to Washington D.C. where he spent the next four years of his active duty service as a snare drummer/percussionist with the "Commandant's Own" United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. The picture on the left (that's him in the middle playing the snare drum) is of Members of the US Marine Drum & Bugle Corps participating in a "Tattoo Ceremony" held at Fort McHenry, Baltimore Maryland on June 30, 1976. Participating as a member of this elite unit was a great honor for Phil and an experience that he'll never forget. "All I did was play drums, write music, and read music  8 hours a day 7 days a week. "

Phil was discharged from the Marines in November of 1978 with dreams of becoming a "Rock Star". He moved his family (wife and two daughters) back to Houston where he pursued that dream with various cover bands and original acts playing clubs in southeast Texas and sending off demo tapes to record companies. By the time 1982 rolled around he still hadn't gone anywhere with the music and in between time his son was born, he remarried (to a Texas gal), and started raising  four step-daughters. Phil realized that he must pursue some other avenue of income as the music was just not panning out as he anticipated. 

Phil did quit music for awhile (maybe two years at the most and started playing again) and went to college while working at Shell Chemical Company. One day in 1996 he met Dan Carlson and they started talking about music. Dan invited Phil to come over to the DarDans rehearsal and jam with the band. He started jamming and each week went back to jam again and again.  They finally asked him to join the band in April of 1997 and the rest is history. 

25 years later, "God has blessed me abundantly;"  "I'm still married to the same wonderful woman (Louise), our children (April, Kendra, Kandace, Kara, Paula, Elin, and Jason) are grown and we have 13 grandchildren (Jennifer, Saige, Brittany, Allen, Andrew, McKenna, Logan, Skylar, Taylor, Harley, Xaviar, Zachery, and Alexis)."  "I finished college, have a great career with Shell, and am playing Rock-n-Roll music with the Finest Classic Rock Band in Houston!!!"

Life is Good. 

FAVORITE QUOTE:

"The real accomplishment (in life) is the art of being a warrior, which is the only way to balance the terror of being a man with the wonder of being a man." - Carlos Castaneda