Highway 25

Band Members Bio

Highway 25 was formed in early 2023 by musicians who had many years of stage experience and one strong common connection: The love of playing recognizable classic rock, Pop and R&B “stadium hits”. From the mid 60’s on, so many well-known and loved rock, pop, and soul songs were recorded. The band members decided to focus on being really good at recreating the energy of a live performance of the original groups. We are proud to bring our act to your stage. Here is a brief bio of each of our members:

Paula Mattioli, Lead Vocals: Paula has been a professional singer since she was 16 years old. With her identical twin sister they formed the band Gypsy Queen. After honing their skills and talents touring the east coast and and opening for major acts like Cheap Trick, Alice Cooper, Marylin Manson, Missing Persons and many more, they caught the attention of producer Jack Douglas (Aerosmith, John Lennon, Cheap Trick) They recorded their first LP and toured Europe- even performing 4 nights in Leningrad stadium (St. Petersburg) Russia a few months before the wall came tumbling down!   During the 90’s the twins were offered another record deal in California. This is where their band Cellmates came to life. The LP “Between two Fires” was produced by Thom Panunzio (Bruce Springsteen,Tom Petty). During their time in California the twins also did a show with sir George Martin for the 25th anniversary of Sgt. Pepper’s at the Palace Theatre with Boston’s singer Brad Delp and Graham Bonnet. Paula also worked with producer Kieth Olsen (Ozzy, Fleetwood Mac) on a project for 38 Special and ELP.  She later joined forces with Michael Sembello, Jennifer Batten and Jeff Paris in the group The Immigrants. Paula has also given her voice to movie and Television promos, animation and jingles.
  After the unexpected death of her identical twin and with a heavy heart she reunited with her Gypsy Queen band mates to write and record 3 more LPs.  She also sang  in the bands Mother Mercy and Mrs. Robinson in California. Paula has performed in many unique venues from a bull fighting ring in Columbia  to the White House!!  
Currently she resides in South Carolina and is using her pro talent fronting Highway 25

Denise Parri, Keyboards and vocals: Denise is a visual artist who grew up imitating her grandmother’s player piano would eventually grace the olde piano bar scene in the late 70's. She was overheard jamming to some Jerry Lee when asked to play with a local group; Third Rail. This gave her a taste of group collaboration  and music communication. Both audio & visual arts provided the income to raise her two amazing children as a single mom. Music soon became her therapeutic outlet  spanning at least 30 years to date. She played back up jambe, keyboard & vocals for “Second Hand Smoke.”Later enjoyed back up vocals for “Black Velvet & the All Stars”.  Denise performed for 12 years with a CT Shoreline band,  "The Reactions" on keyboard,  lead & back up vocals.  Soon she met Clark Bender with a long history of Lead guitar joining musical interests forming the "Black Sheep", the house band at the New Haven Harbor Warehouse.  Later forming "The Benders", a 15 year adventure with Denise as Lead vocalist playing Connecticut festivals & venues. A yearly appearance was enjoyed with the, Aging Rock Stars Ball & Wounded Warrior project. She recently recorded backing tracks on keys for Tbone Smith, who asked her to "play that honky-tonk" for his up coming Southern Rock Album presently being released.  Living in South Carolina fate would pair her with the incredibly talented Paula Mattioli who quickly became like family,  prompting this new journey on Highway 25!  Her personal philosophy is "you have to play at least as hard as you work!" 

Dominick Frisella, Drums/Vocals: Dominick comes from a professional music family in the New York City area, where he followed his father’s career path by playing drums starting at the early age of 3. Growing up in the East Coast music scene he had the opportunity to play in back up bands for some early great rock n’ rollers (Chuck Berry, Bo Didley, and others) and continued to hone his skills over the years, focusing on classic rock songs. Dominick is an enthusiastic player, and his talents shine bright in Highway 25

Thomas Hannon: Bass/Vocals  Thomas began playing acoustic guitar at an early age and then discovered Led Zeppelin. He is a multi-instrumentalist, playing bass, keyboards, and guitar. He holds the bass guitar role in Highway 25 and is a strong lead vocalist that harmonizes perfectly with Casey.  Aside from his substantial bass chops, his outstanding lead vocal ability adds to the talent combination that makes Highway 25 stand out from the typical cover band. You’ll see …. or we should say: “You’ll hear it!”

Scott Gillespie: Guitar/Vocals  The original founding member of Highway 25 Scott is a multi-instrumentalist that has been playing guitar since he was 12 years old. From early garage band beginnings in high school and then college, he has formed several successful bands over the years. Moving to the Greenville area in 2014 he continued his search for the best possible bandmates to create a high-energy group which resulted in the formation of Highway 25. His love of the power of the best songs from Rock, R&B, Soul and Country is obvious with his stage enthusiasm.

We love what we do. We have the very best professional equipment. You will see and hear that, starting from the opening song and through our diverse collection of Stadium Hits that we will bring you.