As a multi-talented musician, instrumentalist and vocalist, Nikki Ferarri is also well known for his bass playing and has recorded with over 6 world renown drummers and many famous record producers . Winner of several awards, including the BMA Boston Music Awards as “Bass Player of the Year” his latest achievements have landed him landed him nominations four years in a row in Los Angeles for the Rock City Music Awards “The Rockies” where his previous band was awarded “Outstanding Hard Rock Band ” in December of 2005 and most recently in in December 2006 were he was awarded the coveted music award for best “Male Solo Artist of the Year”
Today Nikki’s musical career has taken on some new twists and turns. He has stepped out front and has become a solo artist showcasing his stage energy and incredible vocal skill.
After recently recording his solo album in Europe he has surrounded himself with top music industry professionals as well as very talented group of World reknown producers who are now involved and working on the production of his New Band “Tagging Dragons” with a new album targeted for a strategic release in just a few short months and a ten month national tour is currently being planned and organized. As well as establishing a World-wide fan base, Nikki Ferrari is well known as being a great team player and for being well received by music industry professionals everywhere
Manuel Gerardo Ruiz Rodríguez – Musician/Drummer “Tagging Dragons”
27 year old Gerardo Ruiz of Mexico City started out on drums at the early age of 3 and began taking formal drum lessons at age 15 with some of the best drum instructors available at that time in Mexico.
At the early age of only 16 in 2006 he travelled to Modern Drummer Festival in New Jersey with his father and watched some of the best drummers on the planet perform . It was during that festival he was awarded the opportunity to attend Rock and Roll Fantasy Camp in New York.
In September 2007 he was flown to New York to perfom drums along side Paul Stanley From Kiss, Scott Ian from Anthrax, Glenn Hughes from Deep Purple and other music super stars. During that time they all recorded an original song at Sirius Studios New York City. His performance performing with Paul Stanley (KISS) at BB Kings in NYC was also filmed and released to DVD.
In October of 2007 Gerardo was featured in Modern Drummer Magazine in an article regarding his participation in Rock n Roll Fantasy camp. In 2011 Gerardo recorded an album called : “+idea” with his band Sartorius and in 2012 it was Nominated in the category “Best Metal Album of the Year” at the Imas Awards ( the best independent music in Mexico) . His nomination was alongside some of the best Metal International Bands in the country like Here Comes the Kraken, Agora, etc. In 2014 Gerrado recorded an album with Melodic Death Metal band “Revenant” titled “Ill Intended Premonitions”. The album was nominated in 2015 as “Best Metal Album Of The Year” in Latin America” for the Headbangers Latin America Awards. The album recieved multiple reviews from around the Globe.
Gerardo Ruiz, Brian Tierney & Nikki Ferarri at NAMM 2019
Gerardo traveled to California in 2011 and studied with some of the best Metal drummers in the world at the Sick Drummer Camp working with great drummers such as: Dirk Verbeuren (Megadeth, Soilwork ), Gene Hoglan ( Testament, Slayer, Opeth,etc ) Derek Roddy ( Hate Eternal, Dream Theater Auditions, etc) and others. Gerardo was featured in 2018 in the USA Revolutionary Innovative Music industry Company Alesis. Gerardo has also been published many times on the Alesis Media Sites ( Facebook, Instagram ) demoing and playing their Alesis Strike Pro Drums.
Gerardo has an well established International Fan Base and has travelled extensively throught out the World which has laned him in Countries such as Slovenia, France, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Germany, Romania, Czech Republic, Belgium, Holland, Ireland, Sweden, Hungary, Austria, England, Vaticano, Canada and Iceland. In 2014 Gerardo graduated from ITESM with top honors as a major in Communications and Digital Media attending one of the best Universities in Mexico.
He currently is in the United States and goes into pre-production with multi-awarding winning musician/vocalist Nikki Ferrari in Montecito, California in their new band “Tagging Dragons” and have summer tours planned throughout Europe and the United States with the release of their new album.
Source: Nikki Ferarri – Tagging Dragons
Watch our Interview with Nikki, Gerardo and Rachel Lorin at NAMM 2019 below: