I grew up in the ghetto part of the OC, Santa Ana, producing music since the age of 10. I started out playing drums but that was only because all my friends already had guitars. I really wanted to rock the guitar but I was the poorest of all my friends and the last to buy an instrument, so I was stuck being in the background bangin on the drums. But even though I was the drummer in every band I was in during my teen years, I was the one producing the music, writing and arranging most of the songs, and engineering all of it, it was clear to me and to all my band mates that I was born to write and produce music. My early material was very evil being influenced by Slayer, Metallica and the German thrash scene of the 80’s but by my late teens it started to evolve and morph into something undeniably unique. The beats were slowing down and synth started oozing in, which was taboo for thrash metal in the late 80’s. My goth vibes started invading my songwriting along with deep/dark keyboards and industrial synthetic drums. Then I began to produce hip hop and really experiment with my music, my wings were slowly spreading. Mixing the best parts of my favorite musical genre’s became my new vision. Sticking to writing one style of music gave me a sever case of claustrophobia. Eventually I grew out of my OC ties and decided to make the big move an hour north to rock city USA, Hollywood California at the age of 21. “I’m going to Hollywood to be a rockstar mom” I said as my mother shook her head in disappointment. “Why cant you just go to college?!?!?!” I also decided to give up the drums and start playing guitar full time, my true passion. That’s when my musical direction took it’s first major right turn. Instead of writing rap music for my rap project and metal music for my metal project and so on, I combined the hip hop I was producing and mixed in my metal, goth, and alternative influences as well and formed the band Blackened Kill Symphony. BKS was basically the Linkin Park formula but with Metallica’s complex arrangements meaning most songs were in the 7 minute range, not the radio friendly 3 minute songs. No band on the planet had our mix of frequencies back then, I thought it was just a matter of time before BKS hit the big time. That’s when a new leaf was turned. I was 24 and BKS was in full swing and the last thing I wanted to be was a fat rockstar, so I joined the local gym. That lasted 10 minutes. I learned really quick that I hated lifting weights, but I had to do something. I needed to figure out what I could do to keep myself from being a fat pig on stage. So I decided to give the martial arts a try. After all, I thought to myself, I was always a huge Bruce Lee fan so maybe there was a chance I wouldn’t get bored of punching and kicking shit. Well I ended up doing karate and it worked out great and I immediately became a martial arts fanatic. Now there was little chance that I would end up like fat Elvis, my life became a perfect balance of music and martial arts. I was on the fast track to my green belt when I saw the UFC for the first time and was introduced to Brazilian jiu jitsu in devastating fashion. UFC legend Royce Gracie destroyed everyone of all styles in a cage on pay per view with amazing jiu jitsu techniques, even my precious karate representatives went down in flames by the hands of Royce. Initially I was crushed by the complete destruction of my karate heroes but eventually I wised up, jumped ship and joined my local jiu jitsu academy to learn this wicked art of strangulation and joint destruction. A jiu jitsu maniac was born. I was so obsessed with jiu jitsu that I decided to cut my hair all off. It was down to my waist and I thought I would never ever chop it but it was just way too easy for people to grab on it and pull it, so it had to go. Long story short, after 9 years of choking people out to look good rockin out, my jiu jitsu blew up way bigger than my music. I did not plan it that way, music was always number one to me, it was a complete accident, but don’t get me wrong, I love teaching people how to scientifically take someone out with chokes and joint locks and make a great living at it too. What happened was I choked out a legend in the jiu jitsu world, which led to writing 3 jiu jitsu books, filming 2 dvds, and opening jiu jitsu academies world wide. Now I’m using all the money and fame I garnered from my martial arts adventures and using it to blow my music up, my original mission. I am currently producing 4 bands for my label thetwister Records. They are Temple of Mir, compella and the twister, Arc Ascending, and Face Down. All bands are different versions of the same songs, in other words, I will write one song and make 4 different mixes for each band, 2 different alternative rock versions, a hip hop version and a deep dark dance version. Check out my music videos, there’s a very good chance you’ll like at least one version, enjoy!
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