History
It was the summer of 1992, when I got involved in my first real band. It started with me and a friend of mine, Neil (who played keyboards), getting together for a bit of a jam session. He'd sequence some drums on his keyboard and we'd both have have fun trading ideas between his synth and my guitar. And then, a musical explosion happened. Six months later we had various song ideas in the works, we'd found a female singer through a bulletin board ad a local music store, and we'd started doing some serious recording in Neil's home studio, the fruits of which were several real song demos. You'd categorize these songs as being in the "Synth-pop + Guitar" genre, if there is such a thing. And because of some networking that Neil had done, one of our instrumentals actually made it on to a local Portland area radio station for a one-time play real early one morning! That was a milestone. Well, things didn't quite work out with the vocalist... She ended up heading back to Norway after becoming pregnant with her first child, and that was the end of our little trio.
Fast forward to 1995 and I was doing a few music studio projects, one of which was some guitar work for the soundtrack of a college play in Chicago, the other was complete opening & closing credit songs for a local independent movie being produced right here in Portland. It wasn't lucrative, but it was a fun experience for sure.
After that my music "career" was on somewhat of an extended hiatus -- it became just a hobby. Sometimes I'd be working on some solo compositions in my own home studio (a.k.a. "The Music Room"), but mostly the guitar was just something I'd pick up every now and then.
Fast forward to 2006, and I moved from Aloha out to Hillsboro to our brand new house, one with a much more serious space for my home office / music studio. I'd decided at that time that music was going to become a more serious hobby as I'd gotten sick of seeing all the equipment I'd built up over the years just sitting there doing nothing.
The creation of Portland Band #1: "Yesterday's Pill"
Well, it did certainly become more of a serious hobby, but it wasn't until the middle of 2009 that things started to really go crazy. I started jamming with a friend & coworker of mine, also a fellow guitarist, who's wife had a keen interest in the drums. They had a tiny little drumset, and we'd get together almost every week to just have a bit of fun. Her enthusiasm and talent exploded after just a few drum lessons, and they found themselves buying her an incredible upgrade to their drumset. And we all decided to take this little hobby even more seriously -- we became a band!. And now our drummer is much more than that. She's an awesome singer and an amazing lyricist.
The level of musical creativity in our little trio has been fantastic! Lots of original songs that span at least three distinct musical genres. Where this goes we're not quite sure yet. One thing's for sure: We're not going to stop creating music!
The creation of Portland Band #2: "This, Not This!"
Meanwhile, yet another coworker & friend of mine, Frank, was playing bass in his own band, "Against Musical Advice", whom I'd seen play a few times. Their guitarist left the band, and they found themselves on pause for a while after their other two vocalists decided also to call it quits. Frank & Dave (the drummer) decided they were going to reform a new band with one or two new guitarists and a new front-person vocalist.
Of course, what does Frank do? Yeah, you guessed it. He invites me to come over and jam with him and Dave for one evening, just to see if we all like playing music with each other. Now, I'm already involved with "The Rifters", but he convinces me to just come over, see how things feel, and consider joining their band as a guitarist as a side project. The time commitment wouldn't be large, and it could be yet another avenue for me to gain some serious experience, have a lot of fun, and only make things go more smoothly with my other band gets to the point of being performance ready. Sure, why not? Can I straddle two bands successfully? Well it has been about eight months, and so far so good! :)
Our quest for a second guitarist and a new vocalist hit a couple of speed bumps along the way, but we finally found the right people: Phil as the guitarist, and eventually Tia, our new singer.
We're playing originals written by Dave, Frank, Phil, and myself, comprising both our solo work and some collaborations. We've thrown in a couple of cover songs as well and we now have a full two hour set. Our debut on the live scene will be Sept. 1st, 2010, at the Mt. Tabor Theater.
So there you have it. Two different band efforts going on in my life, both of which I'm very excited about! What is that they say? "When it rains, it pours." Yep, that pretty much sums up my musical life right now.
Fast forward to 1995 and I was doing a few music studio projects, one of which was some guitar work for the soundtrack of a college play in Chicago, the other was complete opening & closing credit songs for a local independent movie being produced right here in Portland. It wasn't lucrative, but it was a fun experience for sure.
After that my music "career" was on somewhat of an extended hiatus -- it became just a hobby. Sometimes I'd be working on some solo compositions in my own home studio (a.k.a. "The Music Room"), but mostly the guitar was just something I'd pick up every now and then.
Fast forward to 2006, and I moved from Aloha out to Hillsboro to our brand new house, one with a much more serious space for my home office / music studio. I'd decided at that time that music was going to become a more serious hobby as I'd gotten sick of seeing all the equipment I'd built up over the years just sitting there doing nothing.
The creation of Portland Band #1: "Yesterday's Pill"
Well, it did certainly become more of a serious hobby, but it wasn't until the middle of 2009 that things started to really go crazy. I started jamming with a friend & coworker of mine, also a fellow guitarist, who's wife had a keen interest in the drums. They had a tiny little drumset, and we'd get together almost every week to just have a bit of fun. Her enthusiasm and talent exploded after just a few drum lessons, and they found themselves buying her an incredible upgrade to their drumset. And we all decided to take this little hobby even more seriously -- we became a band!. And now our drummer is much more than that. She's an awesome singer and an amazing lyricist.
The level of musical creativity in our little trio has been fantastic! Lots of original songs that span at least three distinct musical genres. Where this goes we're not quite sure yet. One thing's for sure: We're not going to stop creating music!
The creation of Portland Band #2: "This, Not This!"
Meanwhile, yet another coworker & friend of mine, Frank, was playing bass in his own band, "Against Musical Advice", whom I'd seen play a few times. Their guitarist left the band, and they found themselves on pause for a while after their other two vocalists decided also to call it quits. Frank & Dave (the drummer) decided they were going to reform a new band with one or two new guitarists and a new front-person vocalist.
Of course, what does Frank do? Yeah, you guessed it. He invites me to come over and jam with him and Dave for one evening, just to see if we all like playing music with each other. Now, I'm already involved with "The Rifters", but he convinces me to just come over, see how things feel, and consider joining their band as a guitarist as a side project. The time commitment wouldn't be large, and it could be yet another avenue for me to gain some serious experience, have a lot of fun, and only make things go more smoothly with my other band gets to the point of being performance ready. Sure, why not? Can I straddle two bands successfully? Well it has been about eight months, and so far so good! :)
Our quest for a second guitarist and a new vocalist hit a couple of speed bumps along the way, but we finally found the right people: Phil as the guitarist, and eventually Tia, our new singer.
We're playing originals written by Dave, Frank, Phil, and myself, comprising both our solo work and some collaborations. We've thrown in a couple of cover songs as well and we now have a full two hour set. Our debut on the live scene will be Sept. 1st, 2010, at the Mt. Tabor Theater.
So there you have it. Two different band efforts going on in my life, both of which I'm very excited about! What is that they say? "When it rains, it pours." Yep, that pretty much sums up my musical life right now.
Influences
How does one describe all that has influenced them from the first time they started enjoying music up until the present day? My musical tastes from when I was a child, on through my teens, and into adulthood have constantly been evolving. Even things that fall into the "used to love but now I can't even stand" category still have influenced me. But if I were to try put a list together of bands and individual guitarists that I greatly respect and like to listen to relatively recently, it might look something like the following:
Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Gilmour, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dave Weiner, Andy Timmons, Devin Townsend, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Foo Fighters, Extreme, Tool, John Mayer, Audioslave & Soundgarden.
Red Hot Chili Peppers, David Gilmour, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dave Weiner, Andy Timmons, Devin Townsend, Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, Eric Johnson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Foo Fighters, Extreme, Tool, John Mayer, Audioslave & Soundgarden.