Susan C. Bennett is the female vocalist, keyboard/key bass player, and the person responsible for booking Interactive!. She started playing music at the age of four, taking piano lessons for many years, then branched out into vocals in junior high and high school, where she was involved in musicals and choruses. After graduating from Brown University, she played professionally in clubs and hotels all over the country, and toured with Burt Bacharach and Roy Orbison as a backup singer. She does a lot of studio recording as both a singer and voice-over artist, and has worked for such companies as Coca Cola, Delta, BellSouth, McDonald’s, Goodyear, Club Med, and others. For more information on Susan C. Bennett, please click here. 

Rick Hinkle is Interactive!’s guitarist, vocalist, and musical director. The son of two musicians, Rick began his career at the age of eight, when he made a recording of “Dear Mr. Santa Claus!”  By age thirteen, he was playing professional gigs with his own band, The Corvelles, and others. Rick attended UGA and Emory University, then traveled with such bands as The Tams and The Vassar Clements Band. He also played with The Platters, Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Joe South, and Percy Sledge. Rick was the house guitarist for Melody Studios, and received a gold record for his guitar work on the hit, “Pac-Man Fever.” Rick continues to do a lot of studio work as a free lance guitar, bass, banjo, and mandolin player, and as the owner and manager of Audiocam Music. He also preforms as a duo with Susan Bennett. Rick is a composer and producer of original songs, commercials, and music for TV and film. One of his more recent credits is the original music for Turner South’s Natural South program.

Brian Stephens, the drummer and vocalist for Interactive!, began his music career playing brass instruments in his seventh grade marching band, then took up drums in high school. He began his professional career while at Meridian Community College, and continued after moving to Atlanta in 1995. He has played and recorded with such artists as The Platters, The Drifters, Wet Willie, and The Crystals. Brian owns his own recording studio, Sound Decision Studios, where he is the manager, chief engineer, and producer for several independent artists, as well as corporate clients like Warner Brothers Records, 20th Century Fox, and Verizon Wireless. Brian is also a respected music educator and journalist who has written articles for Modern Drummer and Performer magazine. He released his first drum instructional audio book, "Sticking It Out-The Anatomy of a Professional Drummer," in 2000, and currently has endorsement deals with Paiste, ProMark, Evans, and Planet Waves. For more information on Brian Stephens, visit his website at Brian Stephens.com.
    

Al Sheppard, saxophonist and leader of the Interactive! horn section, began playing at the age of ten. He continued studying and playing throughout high school and in the Air Force marching band. After the service, Al began playing professionally, and toured with such groups as Dick Clark’s Caravan of Stars, featuring The Righteous Brothers and The Rolling Stones. He has played in many of Atlanta’s clubs and hotels, and has appeared with such name acts as Rufus Thomas, The Four Seasons, Little Anthony and the Imperials, and Martha and the Vandellas. Al has recorded with the legendary Bill Lowery, many blues artists at Kala Studios, and was a featured soloist on the Chick Willis CD produced there. Al is also an accomplished arranger and copyist.  

Jim Gibson, Interactive!’s main keyboard player, is the son of a piano teacher. He began playing the piano at the age of four, and started playing professionally in clubs around Atlanta while still in his teens.  He also played extensively throughout France and Italy. Jim received his BA from Mercer University, and MA in English from Georgia State University, where he later served two years as a visiting professor in the music industry program. Jim has written four books on the music business, including "Playing for Pay," and "Getting Noticed," and also has a successful solo piano CD business on the Hickory Cove Music label. Jim has several CDs which are distributed nationally through museums, galleries, gift shops, and on his website: Hickory Cove Music.com

Lee King, Interactive!’s trumpet player, graduated from UGA with a BA in music education, and has been a teacher and band director in the Henry County School System for well over a decade.  Lee’s resume is amazingly diverse. He’s a writer, arranger, and conductor for Chick-Fil-A’s Moo Cow Band, and has performed with bands as divergent as Ruby Red’s Dixieland Band and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Lee has worked with such notables as Tony Bennett, Don Henley, Marvin Hamlisch, Bernadette Peters, and The Temptations, to name a few. He has played on numerous commercials, and continues to play in different clubs and venues around Atlanta. Lee plays Bb, C, D/Eb, and piccolo trumpets, as well as the flugelhorn.

Bob Lewis, the trombone and flute player, is a graduate of Berry College, where he majored in music. Since that time, Bob has recorded and performed with so many different artists, his resume’s a veritable “Who’s Who” of the music business! He’s recorded with Isaac Hayes, Matchbox Twenty, and The S.O.S. Band; toured with Lou Rawls, The Four Tops, and Tom Honees; and performed on stage with Harry Connick, Jr., Tony Bennett, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Ella Fitzgerald, Kenny Rogers, Mel Torme, and The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Bob is considered to be one of the best and busiest musicians in the city. He continues to perform in local clubs and hotels as well as with Interactive!