My Story, the short version

My front door opened to a life of main street and back and fourth, listening to usually hard core rap and country music. When I left for college I entered into a world of parties and weightlifting. One day I decided to pick up my roommates guitar and learn a song. Then I wrote my first song and recorded it in my bedroom. It sounded like crap, but it was really fun! Now I live on an island in the Puget Sound, and I still have a recording studio in my bedroom, which mostly consists of things I’ve purchased on ebay. I love all kinds of music and I want to always experiment with different sounds, so who knows where I’ll end up on the shelf.

My first cd “Orange”, started with a guitar and an 8 track. It has a lot of Jazz, Swing and some Latin, some Folk and some great instrumental. I remember trying to get a photo for the cover, worked all day and nothing. Stopped at a tavern for a pint, took two pictures of the bar in the bar, and just like that I had my cover.

My second album is a “Live” album. The recording comes from a show I put together with my good buddy, at a college I used to go to in Montana. We were sponsored by a winery that gave us many bottles. He was the host, I was the talent. By the end of the show my friend was slurring his thank-you’s into the mic, but the recording came out great! James Hinkley and Mark Hutchinson accompanied me with cello’ and coronet.

Then I was asked to do the music for a film called “The Standard”, a film written and directed by my good friend Jordan Albertsen. I didn’t even have the gear to do this when I said yes, but I took it as an opportunity and bought a whole bunch of shit. It was the first slice of me recording and producing my own music from riff to cd.

The third album was with my rock band “Spies from China”. My ears just wanted distortion and a loud cymbal, so I put together a power trio and we just rocked it! I lived in a converted chicken coop that was perfect for rehearsals. My good friend Jeff played the bass, and Holton, who was always late for practice, played drums.

My most recent project is the cd “Maze”. It was just released on March 14th, and took about 2 years to complete. It started when someone paid me to give a songwriting workshop at a library. I was a little nervous at first, but just got into the groove when I was put on the spot. The first song came out sounding so cool that I took it into the studio and put it down on tracks. A total of 8 different libraries paid me to give songwriting workshops, all of which are part of this album. The remainder of the tunes come from writing songs with my students. Most musicians have day jobs, luckily for me, my day job is teaching kids to rock out.

What I intend to keep doing with my life is record music and make good art. I want to work with others that are passionate about what they do and like to get things done. I need to create and learn and experiment and find identity without living in a cage. I think that all of us should.

Thank you for listening…