Sananda Maitreya Biography

Artist, composer, arranger, producer, multi-instrumentalist, entrepreneur and Post Millennium Rocker, SANANDA MAITREYA was born in New York U.S.A. on March 15th 1962. He plays the basic instruments of Rock: drums, bass, guitar and keyboards; as well as a few others instruments besides and he can never remember a time when music wasn’t playing in his head. From the beginning of his professional career he has personally written arranged and produced all his music and has also collaborated with other top artists and producers.

Since his childhood he felt a very special connection with music, he had his light switched on at the age of 2 by the music of the Beatles and has been a fool for music ever since.

He was raised in America and during his high school years he was in the band “Modernaires” in Florida. In his youth he was trained as a boxer in Orlando and won the Florida Golden Gloves lightweight Championship in 1980. He served in the U.S. Army for 3 years, 1 spent in Germany where he also became the lead singer of the band ‘THE TOUCH’.

In 1987 his debut album “Introducing the Hardline”, gives him International success. Sananda wins a Grammy Award in 1988 as Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male.In June 1988 he is on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine and he is nominated “Top International Newcomer” at the British Awards. In the following years 3 studio albums are published: “Neither Fish Nor Flesh” in 1989, “Symphony or Damn” in 1993 and “Vibrator” in 1995.The albums have many famous songs including the soundtracks of various legendary Hollywood movies such as: ‘Beverly Hills Cop III’, ‘Prêt-à-Porter’, ‘The Promised Land’, ‘The Fan’, ‘Shake Rattle & Roll’, ‘Frankie & Johnny’. These songs also do appear in more recent films such as ‘Knocked Up’, ‘Funny People’, ‘Up In the Air’, ‘Yoga Hosers’, ‘Am Ende Legende’ etc.; as well as in TV series such as ‘Sex Education’, ‘Camping’, ‘Schooled’, ‘Tiny Dancers’ and Theatre Shows: ‘Alvin Ailey’s Lazarus’.Maitreya in this period also works as an actor, he has a role in 1988 in the movie “Clubland” and in 1999 he plays Jackie Wilson in the CBS TV series “Shake, Rattle & Roll”.
In 2000 he opens the Sidney Olympic Games performing as the lead singer of INXS. In 2001 his fifth album “WildCard!” is ready and marks his new life as an independent artist.

Since 1995, at the age of 33, he adopts the name Sananda Maitreya that for the artist represents a new starting point, in 2001 this becomes also his legal name.

Sananda Maitreya has been a internet presence since the late ‘90s and was one of the first major artist to add credibility to the current explosion and acceptance of the internet music communication and digital world. He believed all along that the Internet would be his path to true musical freedom, without in his words, “the usual gains and compromises”.

He presents his music as POST MILLENNIUM ROCK, its main elements are heart and soul, its nature is passion, courage and curiosity and it acknowledges no rules but the goal to lead the listener back to his heart, to provoke his mind and re-approach him to his true feelings. His vision of Post Millennium Rock is a music free of restrictions and marketing pressures. It is a music that combines all the genres that the artist loved since his childhood: opera, country, classical, jazz, blues, gospel, pop, reggae as well as Rock!

After the studio album “WildCard!” Sananda has released with his independent label TreeHouse Publishing a whole new catalogue: the double album “Angels & Vampires” in 2006/07, “Nigor Mortis” in 2009 ,“The Sphinx” in 2011, “Return To Zooathalon” in 2013, the double album “The Rise Of The Zugebrian Time Lords” in 2015. In 2017 he has released a monumental work called: “Prometheus & Pandora”, a triple album that encapsulates the 21st Century Human Condition and is a smorgasbord of conflicting emotions: there’s wit and wisdom, anger and contemplative sadness and each volume contains a version of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s I Don’t Know How To Love (Him) sanctioned by the song’s authors.

In most of his albums Sananda plays all instruments and all songs are written, produced, arranged, performed and conceived by the artist, except where indicated. The latest new double album “Pandora’s PlayHouse” has been released on March 15th, 2021.

On Dec 10th 2021 he has released the new video of the song HER KISS, filmed at Villa Arconati, in Italy. Both the song and its 2 Video Versions, have been honored with a bountiful cache of awards and salutations.

The Dolby Atmos and remastered edition of his iconic Album “Introducing The Hardline” has been digitally released on July 8th 2022.

In Jan 2023 he has released a documentary and a live album “Welcome To The MadHouse: The Costa Rica Sessions” who won Best Documentary Music Score at the 2023 Kiez Berlin Film Festival and Best Feature Documentary at the International Gold Awards 2023.

On 11 May 2024, he released his thirteenth studio album, The Pegasus Project: Pegasus & The Swan, a double album featuring over two hours of new music.

That summer, Sananda & his Live Band, The Sugar Plum Pharaohs, brought the music to European stages on the Pegasus & The Swan Live Tour. Performances from the tour were captured on The Pegasus Project Live, released on 1 January 2025. In the fall of 2025, Sananda & The Sugar Plum Pharaohs toured the United Kingdom, bringing together songs from his early albums and his extensive independent catalogue. The tour was subsequently documented through the live EP A Slice Of Shepherd’s Pie and the live album SMNUK’25!, both released in 2026. Another important milestone is Juvenilia The Columbia Years, a collection of vinyls which brings together his first four albums: Introducing the Hardline, Neither Fish Nor Flesh, Symphony or Damn and Vibrator, now all reissued under the name Sananda Maitreya. In October 2026, Sananda and The Sugar Plum Pharaohs return to European stages with The Damn The Consequences Tour, performing across Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Spain.

(last updated on Aug 1st 2026)