Todd Youth

Biography

Youth grew up in New York City and started playing as young as 12 years old (hence the name Youth) in several New York City hardcore bands. He made his playing debut with Agnostic Front in 1983 but did not play on any recordings. Youth also played for New York City act Warzone until around 1986. He joined Murphy's Law (another New York City band) that year, recording on various works with them, including three full-length albums. Youth performed with Murphy's Law until 1995.

After leaving Murphy's Law, and he recorded a single with a band named The Homewreckers in 1996. Around this time Youth evolved his style from hardcore to implementing some of his 70s punk influences, such as New York Dolls, Dead Boys and The Heartbreakers, thus he joined famous New York City glam punk band D Generation, replacing Richard Bacchus on guitar. He was with D Generation from 1996 to 1998 and recorded on their final album "Through The Darkness", Youth co-wrote one of the tracks "Sunday Secret Saints" with Jesse Malin.

Chrome Locust was formed by Youth along with former D Generation members Michael Wildwood and Vásquez member Jim Heneghan in 1998, the band proved to be short-lived lasting only a year before splitting up however, they managed to record and release a self-titled album on Tee Pee Records.

Playing with Danzig and Samhain

During the summer of 1999, he successfully auditioned for Danzig; he joined up as the guitarist. Coincidentally, former D Generation bandmate Howie Pyro joined Danzig at the same time. The same year Glenn Danzig had reformed his horror punk band Samhain, guitarist Damien decided not to join the band for their reunion tour, thus Todd was asked to replace him.

He only had 3 months to practice and learn the Samhain and Danzig sets. Although not an "original" member of Samhain, fans welcomed him to the lineup, some even mistaking him for Damien. The band AFI had toured with Samhain during 1999, and their frontman Davey Havok was a longtime fan, so in 2000 Youth, along with Samhain members London May and Steve Zing masterminded horror punk band Son of Sam,.

. This featured Davey Havok on vocals and on their album Songs from the Earth guest appearances from Glenn Danzig himself, the project was however only meant to be a one time thing.

Back with the band Danzig, Youth recorded two albums; a live one, and "I Luciferi" which was released in 2002, it featured Glenn Danzig, Howie Pyro and future Queens of the Stone Age drummer Joey Castillo. Todd eventually left the group in 2003.

Todd Youth rejoined Danzig in 2007 for the Halloween Tour and also appeared on the release The Lost Tracks of Danzig. He left Danzig to join Glenn Campbell's band.

Recent times

Youth also played with Motörhead in May 2003, filling in for three dates on Motörhead's tour of the United States, as Phil Campbell's mother had died and he was unable to continue on tour.

Since 2004, Todd has led Los Angeles rockers The Chelsea Smiles, this in some ways marks a return to the style of music Youth played with D Generation with the band implementing similar influences, such as; The Stooges, New York Dolls, MC5 and Chuck Berry. They released a debut EP; "Nowhere Ride" in 2005. The debut full-length Chelsea Smiles album, "Thirty Six Hours Later" was released in November 2006, its European release date is early December of the same year.

The Chelsea Smiles were personally invited by Social D to open for them in 2006. The Chelsea Smiles later went on to tour Europe in 2007.

In 2008 Todd reformed the band Son Of Sam. This released reunited Todd Youth and Steve Zing, but did not have Davey Havok on vocals. As with the first Son Of Sam release, all music was written by Todd.

2008 and 2009 also saw Todd joining singer Glen Campbell's band. Todd recorded 3 songs on Glen's comeback record "Meet Glen Campbell". Todd has done various TV show appearances (Jimmy Kimmel, The Tonight Show) and toured the U.K. in support of the release.

2009 - The Chelsea Smiles will release a new, self-titled release. The band is doing a 2½ week U.K. tour with horror punk artist Wednesday 13 in support of the release. At the end of 2009 the Chelsea Smiles decided the end had come for the band as it came with too much baggage but changed the name to the Royal Highness.

Todd began writing with Wednesday 13 with plans to record an album under the band name Gunfire 76. The band had more of a rock sound than Wednesday 13. They planned to enter the studio on July 1, 2009 to begin recording with his new band, Gunfire 76. In January 2010, Todd became the touring guitarist with ex-Kiss guitarist Ace Frehley. At the end of 2010, Todd toured with Jesse Malin and the St. Mark's Social. In 2010, the first single "American Dream" was released on One Voice by Capricorn, a band formed by Todd, Phil Caivano (of Monster Magnet) and Karl Rosqvist (of The Chelsea Smiles and Michael Monroe).

Discography

This discography documents the recordings Todd Youth has played on during his time with the various bands that he has been a part of, throughout his musical career.

With Murphy's Law

With The Homewreckers

With D Generation

With Chrome Locust

With Son of Sam

With Danzig

With The Chelsea Smiles

With Glen Campbell

With Cheap Trick

Filmography