AniMaze X Featured on Wonderama

Heavy Metal (with a twist) Disney/Superhero band AniMaze X appeared live in Times Square to be featured on the iconic children’s show Wonderama. They sang “I’ve Been Working on The Railroad” and their super hit “Strawberry Fields Forever.” Arriving in brightly colored superhero masks, they were announced to the stage by Tribeca Record label owner SohoJohnny and gave a riveting performance.

AniMaze X is a project started by the members of best-selling D-Metal Stars / AniMetal USA. AniMaze X is focusing on a wider variety of music themes such as superheros, popular cartoons, Broadway musicals, movie soundtracks, as well as the D-Metal Stars “classics”. Live Metal performance with a theatrical style production.

Wonderama is a New York television tradition. They have been entertaining and engaging kids and families through original content and branded entertainment for over 40 years. They have been taping their entire upcoming season from Duffy Square in New York’s famed Times Square starting this month, in support of The Times Square Alliance and the New York Department of Health and Hospitals reopen NYC efforts.

Wonderama offers an authentic multicultural platform for families and features National Daytime EMMY nominated host David Osmond and co-hosts Coco and Breezy Dotson. Our established, award winning and Educational / Information (E/I) approved on-air talent will show that Times Square & New York City are open for business for partnerships, and that families should make it their next entertainment destination.

“Wonderama Live from Times Square – Reopen NYC” – will be a celebration of all that is New York City and Times Square airing on Wonderama’s nationally syndicated network and will show all the amazing things happening at Times Square and NYC, with each episode showing Times Square as “the” Family Destination in New York City.

The Reopen NYC original episodes will be broadcast on their 128 U.S. Broadcast Television affiliates reaching 90 million homes and will start airing nationally the week of September 6, 2021.

“Times Square is the crossroads of the world and it’s time to show everyone that New York is open for business. Wonderama talent, staff and crew fully support the great work of the Times Square Alliance and its tireless efforts in making Times Square the place to be in NYC.” stated Chuck Armstrong, CEO of Wonderama Entertainment.

I was able to speak with lead singer Mike Vescera after his performance regarding the band, their career, and the coolness of being on Wonderama…

So how cool was it to be on Wonderama?

It was awesome.

Did you watch it when you were a kid?

I did and then I just forgot about the show. Then my manager John Velasco mentioned it and it brought back memories of when I was a kid.

Your band is a metal band that plays kids songs, who’s idea was that?

It was pretty much mine. I had done the D-Metal/USA thing in Japan. From there I did the Disney stuff. It really worked well in Japan ,but it was Japanese anime. We did two records and we charted number one and number three.

So, we also did cartoons, and superhero stuff and we actually did Broadway songs.

Is there a favorite cartoon that you like to do?

Not really a favorite…I mean we did “Power Rangers”, that was fun. We did a combination of 3 different eras of the Power Rangers.

What do you hope to be doing in the next five years?

We hope to grow this and go on tour. We are hoping for some residencies in Vegas. We were going to do a tour last year but then the pandemic happened. But now we’re just watching this evolve and continuing with the creativeness. So far the kids love it, adults love it,…this girl from Rolling Stone contacted me because her husband loves Disney and she wound up doing a huge article on us. It got picked up and it spread like wildfire.

What’s your favorite song to perform right now?

“Strawberry Fields” is cool right now, I thought it was just a cool song and I heard different versions of it through the years. I just kind of picked it when we were looking for a single. I sent it to John and he just kind of liked it.

John Bruno (guitarist for AniMaze X)…what do you like best about the band?

John Bruno: Well it’s a lot of fun. Myself and Mike have been working on this project for years. We go back to AniMetal USA stuff and Mike just comes up with ideas and throws them against the wall. He comes up with 70s stuff, 80s stuff, cartoon songs. Mike did “Let it Go” for Disney and it stuck. However, that was the one song they didn’t let us record.

John Velasco (MD25 Entertainment CEO and manager of AniMaze X as well as top music publisher) what did you see in AniMaze X.

John Velasco: Fun!!!!

The official website for AniMaze X may be found at https://www.AniMazeX.com

The official website for Wonderama may be found at https://www.wonderamatv.com

Photo Credits: Billy Hess