Badlees Biography
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Three freshmen entered Mansfield University in Mansfield, PA in September 1981. One was a Music Merchandising major who also
played saxophone, named Terry Selders. Next was Jeff Feltenberger, a talented singer and musician, who entered Mansfield as a Vocal
Performance major. The third freshman was Ron Simasek from McAdoo, PA, who was already a seasoned drummer, playing in various
bands through his teenage years. Ron entered Mansfield as a Music Education major.
Jeff and Ron were roommates and, along with Terry, they soon formed a camaraderie centered on their love of music and the common
goal to succeed in the industry. Over the next four years, they performed in several pickup bands along with other Mansfield
students with names like The Leaky Sneakers while another was called Secret Service.
Upon graduating from Mansfield in 1985, Terry, Jeff, and Ron initially went their separate ways. Jeff entered the teaching
profession and soon reunited with his high school band, Martial Law. Ron moved to Florida, pursuing entertainment opportunities
in and around Disney World. Terry went to New York City and entered the music business as the manager of INS Recording Studios.
Not satisfied with his progress in Florida, Ron soon joined Terry in New York and he soon formed a band with a couple of
guys from Brooklyn named Flip and Jeff Jolly, called Kaos, which played original material that was a hybrid of Stevie Ray Vaughn
and Tom Petty.
After about three years of teaching and playing with different incarnations of Martial Law on the side, Jeff Feltenberger
felt it was time to make the next move and record some of his original songs in a professional studio. He contacted Terry Selders
about recording in his studio, but unfortunately, INS was beyond the modest recording budget, so Terry suggested they use the
smaller, 16-track studio next door and he was impressed with the demos Jeff's band ultimately recorded there. At the time Terry
was in the process of forming an independent record label along with Bill Grabowski and, after hearing the demos, felt that Jeff's
music would be a good fit for the first project of this new enterprise.
Along with Jeff, the act still included his brother Steve Feltenberger on bass and Clint Barrick on lead guitar, but at
the time they did not have a permanent drummer. So Jeff and Terry turned to their old classmate, Ron Simasek, to fill this void.
But Ron was hesitant to leave Kaos, he had bonded well with his band mates and was really enjoying the music they were performing
and the crowds they were drawing. However, after much deliberation and prodding, Ron ultimately decided to return to Pennsylvania
and join the band of his college roommate. The project was given a new name, a name suggested by Ron’s girlfriend at the time –
Bad Lee White.
About 20 miles to the southeast of Mansfield, is the equally remote small town of Canton, PA. Here, a high school
football standout was garnering curiosity from recruiters of several prestigious universities. Though named after his grandfather,
George Alexander, everyone knew him by his middle name, Bret. During the 1982 season, Bret Alexander was awarded the
Twin Tiers Defensive Player of the Year.
Bret's talents attracted not only the traditional football powerhouses, such as legendary coach Bear Bryant’s Alabama
Crimson Tide, but also the academic powerhouses, such as The University of Pennsylvania and Brown University.
Ultimately, he chose to stay close to home and attend Bucknell University in the central PA town of Lewisburg.
While at Bucknell, Bret took an audio engineering course at Susquehanna Sound, a working studio in the nearby town of
Northumberland. He thoroughly enjoyed the course and later signed up for a full internship at the studio. The studio was operated
by Bill Grabowski, a veteran of the famed Powerhouse Studio in New York City, who had co-written a few songs for national artists,
and Scott Berger who would later become the road manager for the Badlees. Here, under the direction of Bill and Scott, Bret
discovered his passion and talent for the art of sound engineering.
After graduating from Bucknell, Bret Alexander returned home to Canton where he formed a band named Masque. However,
Bret soon found it difficult to find suitable work in the small town and would need to send resumes to the larger metropolitan
areas with more opportunity.
One morning Bret was on his way to an interview in Harrisburg, and decided to stop in at Susquehanna Sound on the way
to say hello and confer with his former colleagues. As it turned out, the studio’s owner had just been hired by pop superstar
Whitney Houston to design a private home studio along with many of Susquehanna’s producers. Bret was offered the opportunity to
fill-in for the already booked sessions and he accepted on the spot, never arriving at his interview in Harrisburg.
Bret excelled as an engineer and he quickly took charge of the choice projects that came through the doors of
Susquehanna Sound. In 1988, one of these projects was from the newly formed A-Street Music of Terry Selders and Bill Grabowski to
record the debut album of a band called Bad Lee White.
Badlees Biography
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