Biography

Marc Bonilla is a journeyman rock guitarist and session musician based in Los Angeles, CA. After moving down from the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1980s and working as a teacher at the Guitar Institute of Technology, he first gained attention as a touring member of the band Toy Matinee in 1991, leading to his signing to Reprise Records as a solo artist and releasing two albums, EE Ticket (June 1991) and American Matador (1993). He was a member of the short-lived successor band to Toy Matinee, 3rd Matinee, appearing on the group's only album, Meanwhile (1994). He worked with former Deep Purple singer Glenn Hughes (who had appeared on American Matador) on Hughes' solo album Addiction (1997), co-writing many of its songs, and appeared on and wrote a song for the 1999 follow-up The Way It Is. In 2000, he appeared on and wrote music for comedian Bobby Gaylor's album Fuzzatonic Scream. He was a member of California Transit Authority, a band founded by former Chicago drummer Danny Seraphine, and appeared on the group's album Full Circle (2006). His work with keyboardist Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake & Palmer included the 2009 album Keith Emerson Band Featuring Marc Bonilla. Bonilla has also worked extensively as a performer and composer in television and motion pictures, including the feature films American Heart (1992), Diggstown (1992), Terminal Velocity (1994), Caught Up (1998), Inferno (1999), Road Kill (1999), The Replacements (2000), Mother Ghost (2002), The Eavesdropper (2004), White Rainbow (2005), and Mad Money (2008). In television, he earned a Daytime Emmy Award nomination in 2001 for Outstanding Main Title Theme Music for the series Big Apple. ~ William Ruhlmann, Rovi