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I was born in Aurora, Colorado, although I grew up all over the country. I lived in Loveland, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; Beaverton, Oregon; North and South Dakota;even Wichita, Kansas, where I lived for four years. We ultimately moved to Seattle in the middle of fourth grade, where I was until my recent move to Los Angeles.
I sing and perform on Guitar, Bass, Piano/Keyboards and Drums.
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My influences include a wide variety of music: The Beatles, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Nelly, SRV, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Sting/The Police, Marvin Gaye, Stax Mowtown, Steely Dan, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Williams, Johan Sebastian Bach, Mussorgsky, Mendellson, Holst, Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Pantera, Jeff Buckley, The Doors, Jamiroquai, Rob Zombie, Sublime, Joe Satriani, Marty Freidman, Al Dimeola, Fatboy Slim, Beastie Boys, Dr Dre.
I was the featured local artist of the month on 103.7 ?The Mountain,? Seattle, WA, in September 2001, was a semifinalist in the Shure National Songwriting Contest 2002, and a featured artist in a VH1-sponsored promotion.
My goal is to make a great living doing what I love: continuingly challenge myself to explore my heart, the hearts of others, and express this through my music.
Music has made such a tremendous impact on my life. Its powers of healing, awakening, and emotional evocation are true magic. It has allowed me to express so many things about what I feel about our world, our society, my heart, and the emotional needs we all share. I want people to feel whatever they want about it. Just feel it for real.
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A Little Chronology:
My mom?s side of the family is very musical and I have been surrounded by it since birth. I?ve got some rather embarrassing tapes of me singing songs when I was 2 years old, so I?ve been singing all my life. My grandparents had a piano in their house and I would spend a lot of time playing around on it. I picked up a guitar when I was in junior high and I haven?t put it down since.
I took a couple of years of private instruction with Greg Wright at the Academy of Music. We studied various styles with an emphasis on Metal and, specifically, Metallica, because I totally worshipped them. He was a great teacher and showed me some very clever ways to demystify the fretboard. I would literally play all day and all night.
I had already begun to write my own material after about six months of playing, and I formed a band with some friends in school. We were called ?Devil?s Advocate?, and anyone who heard us would probably say, ?They sound like Metallica except that their drummer sucks.? That didn?t matter. We were still cool just because we had a band.
Then I got heavy into guitar slingers at this time. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett became my new professors. The faster, the better! I was on a quest to crush ?em all one day. I also studied players with more exotic phrasing such as Marty Freidman, Al Dimeola, and yes, there was a time when I thought Yngwie Malmsteen was the man. All the while I would continue to write songs. I wrote a lot of instrumental music; more than an album per year. From 1995-98, I recorded four full-length records in my house.
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I began writing songs with lyrics and hooky singable melodies backed by unique chord changes. I was getting more and more into jazz music. I loved the harmonic texture and the way melodies would weave in and out of the complex musical palette. I was also getting totally hooked on anything with syncopation: Funk, Hip Hop, Trip Hop.
I began to conceptualize a sound that had the melodic sensibilities of Pop, the rich background of Soul, the energy of Rock and the elastic groove of Funk and Hip Hop.
I also took years of professional voice lessons and this greatly enhanced my impact as an artist and as a performer. Singing was so deep for me it was like therapy.
I performed my music all over the west coast as anything from a solo act to an eight piece band.
Last year was spent entirely on writing and recording of new material.
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