[2] His distinctive signature as a Keyboardist is his inventive use of keyboard layers, which frequently combine New-age music elements with retro, progressive rock textures.
[7] He also grew up listening to his parents' tape recordings, as well as progressive rock bands like Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and others, which fuelled his enthusiasm for this sort of music.
He aspired to work as a mechanic in the French Air and Space Force since he had always admired aircraft, however his eyesight and inner ear difficulties made him unsuitable for a pilot's career.
[8] Even though Lalu had started listening to Iron Maiden while he was in school, and then around the end of college, Megadeth and Sepultura, the real "shock" happened the day he received a gift from one of his high-school friends: Dream Theater's Images and Words album.
He was astonished because he had never conceived that metal music with huge guitars and double bass drums, could be combined with the progressive rock sound that he loved.
His first full-length album Oniric Metal featured guitarist Joop Wolters on guitars, Ryan Van Poederooyen of The Devin Townsend Band on drums, Russel Bergquist of Annihilator on bass, and Martin LeMar of Mekong Delta on vocals.
The main band on Atomic Ark consisted of returning vocalist Martin LeMar, bassist Michael Lepond of Symphony X, guitarist Simone Mularoni of DGM, and drummer Virgil Donati of Planet X.
Produced by Lalu himself, mixed and mastered by Simone Mularoni at Domination Studio,[5] Live at P60 was officially released on 29 June 2015 through Bandcamp exclusively.
Frontiers Records, impressed with the result upon hearing the album thanks to Alessandro Del Vecchio, promptly made contact with the French composer.
[2] To this end, Lalu's main lineup changed to: Damian Wilson of Headspace, Jelly Cardarelli of Adagio on drums, and Joop Wolters on guitars as well as bass this time.
It also included appearances by Tony Franklin, Steve Walsh formerly of Kansas, and Simon Phillips formerly of Toto in the bonus-track version of the title track.
[22] Yukinori Otani of Young Guitar Magazine gave Paint the Sky a bold metaphor "What if Jesus did progressive metal?".
On the lookout for a keyboard player and composer for his new band, A-Z, Mark Zonder contacted Vivien Lalu via a common friend in the beginning of 2020.
In the band's introduction video, Steve Vai's bass player Philip Bynoe humorously dubbed Lalu and Wolters the "Songwriter guys".