Operator (band)

Operator
Origin	Los Angeles, California, United States
Genres	Post-grunge, alternative metal, hard rock
Years active	2003–present (on hiatus)
Labels	Atlantic
Members
Johnny Strong
Past members
Ricki Lixx Paul Phillips Wade Carpenter Dorman Pantfoeder

Operator is an American post-grunge band from Los Angeles, California, United States. The name Operator was used for a solo project created by Johnny Strong, an Actor/Musician/Martial Artist, who has appeared in movies such as Black Hawk Down , The Fast and the Furious, "Get Carter", and "The Glimmer Man".

History

The first Operator album, 2003's Can You Hear Me Now, was a self-released demo, and is very hard to find. But soon, it attracted the attention of Atlantic Records, which signed Operator in 2005.

Strong soon began recording Operator's Atlantic debut as a solo album playing the lead/rhythm guitar, Bass, Piano, backing and lead vocals. He eventually put together a band to play live; rhythm consisting of guitarist Paul Phillips (Puddle of Mudd), Lead guitarist Ricky Thomas, bassist Wade Carpenter, and drummer Dorman Pantfoeder completed the lineup. Thus aggregated, Operator's Atlantic debut, Soulcrusher, was released in the summer of 2007. The album has since sold over 110,000 copies and peaked #14 on the heatseekers chart and has produced three singles: Soulcrusher, Nothing to Lose, and Delicate.

According to Harddrive, Operator is on hiatus while vocalist Johnny Strong works on the film, Sinners & Saints. Strong has since disbanded the group, and recorded 8 songs with producer Bill Appleberry in Los Angeles. He put together a 36 song record consisting of the 8 tracks, as well as 28 unreleased songs, and released them under the title, The War of Art Johnny Strong/Operator in 2010. Strong went on to score the film Sinners & Saints, and the title track off "The War of Art", "Let You Go", was used in the film .

Discography

Albums

• Can You Hear Me Now (2003)
• Soulcrusher (2007)
• "The War of Art" (2010)

Singles

Year	Title	Chart peak positions		Album
		U.S. Modern rock	U.S. Mainstream rock
2007	"Soulcrusher"	29	8	Soulcrusher
2008	"Nothing to Lose"	-	23
	"Delicate"	-	-

Song appearances

• "Soulcrusher", featured on the soundtrack of Madden NFL 08 and MX vs. ATV: Untamed. It was featured as TNA Wrestling 2008 PPV event No Surrender's official theme song.
• "Nothing to Lose", featured on the soundtrack of Burnout Paradise The song was confirmed as TNA Wrestling 2008 PPV event Lockdown's official theme song.
• "The Only One", which is the theme song for the first season of the television series UFO Hunters.

Band members

• Johnny Strong – lead vocals (2003–present)
• Paul Phillips – rhythm guitar (2003–2008)
• Ricki Lixx – lead guitar (2003–2008)
• Wade Carpenter – bass guitar (2003–2008)
• Dorman Pantfoeder – drums (2003–2008) (ex-Love Arcade)

External links

• Official Johnny Strong website