Joshua Perahia

Joshua is a Christian metal band that formed in 1980. The band re-formed under three names, but has remained centered on guitarist Joshua Perahia. Despite being based in Los Angeles, California, they are best known outside of the United States.
The band's first release was entitled The Hand Is Quicker Than The Eye, which referred to Perahia's well known guitar skills and hit songwriting ability. Released by Enigma Records in 1983, the single "November Is Going Away" was the band's biggest hit, achieving No. 1 status in Japan. Front man Perahia had a religious experience at a Hal Lindsey-lead bible study in 1983, and converted to Protestant Christianity from his Greek Orthodox upbringing.
Perahia put together a new band for Surrender which involved Jeff Fenholt. Surrender was released on RCA Records in 1985. Lyrically, the album marked a change in the band's style to lyrics which were evangelical and confrontational in nature. Rob Rock was involved with their third RCA Record album as Joshua, Intense Defense. In 1988, Intense Defense, which was produced by Dieter Dierks, was characterized by the editor of HM Magazine as being "probably the best AOR melodic metal album in the universe." It sold well worldwide, but not in the United States. Following Intense, Perahia reformed the band as Jaguar. Jaguar included Robert Basauri (Robyn Kyle) on vocals Joe Tafoya on drums and Bryan Fleming on Bass. The band changed members while entertaining record deals and never released material under this name.
In 1995, the group re-formed as M Pire. They released one album under this name, Chapter One, though it was never released in the US. The band then expanded its name, to Joshua Perahia. The addition of Joshua's last name was to avoid confusion for the Internet as so many bands began using the name Joshua. Perahia states "We went back (from MPire to Joshua) to re-fire.... re-ignite what we had before." The band found themselves without a permanent vocalist, and hired Alex Ligertwood of Santana to fill the spot on Something to Say. However, while in production the band recruited Jerry Gabriel and re-recorded the vocals. As a result, the album (except four tracks) contains the Gabriel lead vocals, and the Ligertwood vocals are available in the DVD release. One song, "The First and the Last" appeared on the Larry Buchanan directed movie The Copper Scroll of Mary Magdalene in 2004. Joshua then released his fourth album titled "Chapter One" in 1995 on Long Island Records. Joshua produced this release with the help of long time friend Denis Degher. In 2001, Joshua signed a recording contract with Ken Kreisel of M&K Records. Ken hired world famous producer Keith Olsen to handle the lavish production of "Something To Say". This album under the scrutiny of veteran producer Keith Olsen with International success from bands like Whitesnake, Foreigner, Fleetwood Mac, Kansas, The Scorpions, Heart, Rick Springfield, and Ozzy Osbourne had a profound effect on the direction of the album. In 2012, Joshua was asked to record another album by a financial backer. This album was called Resurrection. It was produced by world famous South Bay producer Wyn Davis of Dio, Dokken, Great White, Heaven and Hell, and Foreigner.
Members of Joshua have long been involved in various musical scenes. Surrender vocalist Jeff Fenholt was the former lead singer of the Broadway musical Jesus Christ Superstar. Beyond his involvement with Jesus Christ Superstar, Fenholt worked briefly with Tony Iommi and Driver and later made regular appearances on the Trinity Broadcasting Network. Frontman Robyn Kyle Basauri was later in the Christian metal band Die Happy and the Badlands offshoot Red Sea. Rob Rock had briefly been involved with Impellitteri, and would later return to the band. The Christian band Shout was formed in 1987 by three members of Joshua - Joseph Galletta, Loren Robinson, and Ken Tamplin, who also had a successful solo career.
Several members were also in metal bands, mostly based in the LA area. Mahlon Hawk formed Centerfold in 1987 with Kurt Wada. Steve Fontaine briefly replaced Peter Goalby in Uriah Heep, and Rich Ortz later provided vocals for Sixty Nine. Donnie Gougeon joined White Sister in 1985, and Emil Lech appeared on the final Sound Barrier album, Speed of Light (1986). He was also in the band Driver, which at one point also included Rob Rock and Greg Shultz.

R.I.P. Joshua Perahia: November 5, 1952 - October 14, 2024
R.I.P. Jeff Fenholt: September 15, 1950 - September 10, 2019