BOSS announces Loop Station champ and to hold new competition

BOSS® recently held the first-ever Loop Station National Finals, the U.S. championship event in a global competition to find the world’s top BOSS loop performer. Around the world, BOSS is hosting similar events, which will culminate with the Loop Station World Championship at the House of Blues in Anaheim, CA, during the 2011 Winter NAMM Show.

On October 23, 2010, six musicians performed before a live audience and a panel of celebrity judges at the renowned Musicians Institute in Hollywood, California. The six were chosen from hundreds of video submissions received by BOSS during a three-month contest in the summer of 2010. Philip Stendek from St. Louis, Missouri, was the day’s big winner, and he will go on to represent the U.S. at the Loop Station World Championship in Anaheim.

The six all-star judges included The Police guitarist Andy Summers, solo fusion guitarist Frank Gambale, Guitar Player Editor-in-Chief Michael Molenda, The Tonight Show bassist Derrick Murdock, Guitar Institute director Jude Gold, and BOSS Corporation director Paul Youngblood.

Each finalist performed an original composition live, and included singing, playing various instruments, and creating live loops with one or more BOSS RC series Loop Station products. In addition to Stendek, the looping artists were Tony Smiley from Oregon; Brenna Fitzgerald from Pennsylvania; Micah Beverly from Arizona; Brian Kerr from Ohio; and Jason Olcese from Pennsylvania.

All the performers wowed the crowd and judges with their energy, creativity, and excellent musicianship. Most of all, they amazed everyone with their abilities to support their compositions by layering multiple musical parts together with BOSS Loop Stations to create enormous walls of sound.

Third place went to Tony Smiley, while second place went to Micah Beverly. Both runners-up received $2,000 in BOSS gear. In addition to earning a spot at the Loop Station World Championship, first place winner Philip Stendek took home $3,000 in BOSS gear.

Before the winners were announced, Frank Gambale and his band treated the assembled crowd to an exceptional musical performance.

At the close of the event, Andy Summers summed up all the performances and the judges’ feelings this way: “It was very entertaining and instructive to be here tonight, and it was great to see all this talent. It was brutal coming to this decision, because I think all these guys are real winners—they’re all great. I think we heard some really interesting music tonight, and it was very inspiring to see what you might do with these loopers.”

For more information on the National Finals and the upcoming Loop Station World Championship, please visit
BossUS.com/LoopStation.