Drums/Percussion/Vocals/Keyboards
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Allen hails from Enfield, Connecticut, and began playing drums in 1977.
He spent most of his time performing with school marching, concert,
orchestra, and jazz bands. He even had a short stint with a Scottish Kiltie band
out of Springfield, Massachusetts, but decided it wasn't quite for him ;-). In his
junior year, Allen was also awarded an 'outstanding musicianship' scholarship for
jazz performance from Berklee College of Music.
This was balanced by playing drums in the local rock band, Sweet Deceiver, playing
the likes of Dio, Dokken, Ratt, Motley Crue,
Iron Maiden, etc.) This band later morphed into 'Twice Shy', in which Allen began playing
synthesizer. Allen's drumming influences from this time include Stewart Copeland, Neil Peart,
and Tommy Aldridge. After High School, Allen joined the United States Air Force as an electronics technician, specializing in Air Traffic Control Radar. During basic training (San Antonio, Texas) Allen was asked to join the Drum & Bugle Corps, and as a result painfully endured the remainder of basic training in a coed Flight, performing for local events, and never pulling any kitchen duty. Allen was then sent to Biloxi, Mississippi, for technical school. Once again, Allen joined the Drum & Bugle Corps, which allowed him to skip school and perform in Mardi Gras parades. Additionally, He also became the lead singer of a rock band which played locally, and which helped to counteract the realities of military life. After completing school, Allen was sent to his first-and-last permanent duty station, Kelly AFB, San Antonio, TX. In between work assignments that brought him to Belgium, Germany, etc., Allen played in various rock and r&b bands, including progressive metal band, King's Ransom, which released a limited availability EP, entitled 'Curator's of the Realm'. Before leaving the military, Allen was accepted to attend Musician's Institute in Hollywood, California. After leaving the military, and instead of living in his truck and going to MI, Allen got married and spent the next 5 years living happily in Great Britain and Germany. During this time he performed in Northern England (Leeds/Bradford) as lead singer/bassist for an original American/British rock band. It was during this period that Allen got exposed to the European techno/rave scene which coincidently happened to be in full swing. This didn't stop him from responding to an advert in London's NME magazine about Spinal Tap needing a drummer. Thankfully, he was never called to spontaniously combust or have a fatal gardening accident. While living in Germany, Allen got a tip that Ozzy Osbourne was also looking for musicians. Thankfully, this didn't work out either, and may have been attributed to Allen's non-bat diet. In 1995, Allen relocated to Maryland. He then ended up playing drums with Iluvatar for their 1997 US, South American and Canadian concert performances in support of their _Sideshow_ CD. Allen joined The Dark Aether Project in 1999. Most Recently Allen has formed Time Voyage Music, LLC,  a company specialising in music production, music publishing, and as an independent record label. Allen's solo synth-based projects include: Tempustry - a synergy of the electronic, ambient, progressive, and new age genres. Dr Tempus - techno/trance attack. Allen also puts his military electronics background to good use by repairing & servicing vintage analog synthesizers, including those from Roland, Yamaha, Oberheim, Moog, Sequential Circuits, etc.
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Photography by Jeff Kushner