I have always loved listening to music and I have quite a wide range of things that I like to listen to. That is probably because my father was into all sorts of progressive and cutting edge music in the late 70s, and there was lots of great stuff floating around. I can still remember hearing Kraftwerk's "Autobahn" album for the first time around 1974 when I was a boy living in Denver. That day is still indelibly marked on my memory - there wasn't many all electronic albums like that at the time, and it was really different & new and I liked it. And a few years later, I heard Manuel Göttsching of Ashra playing electric guitar on the album called "Blackouts" and really liked that ambient music style. I also liked hearing those things that pushed the envelope and how music made me feel when I listened to it. All of these things set the stage for what was to come with developing my own musical personality later on.

Now this is a super condensed version of my story, but it all started in 1987 when I was on my own at 19 years old. Having no experience with playing musical instruments prior to that, I had no idea about how to play music or anything at all about music theory. Just buying that cheap Fender Squier Strat and low end solid state Peavey amp was a big sacrifice at the time. Because of the hand to mouth conditions I had to live in at the time, there was no money for lessons, and I had to devise my own method for teaching myself how to play the guitar. I never learned how to read music, or even tab - I never really wanted to learn stuff from tab anyway. From the very beginning, I always wanted to create my own original music. I have always wanted to know what made guitar players tick, what motivated them and what their approach to the instrument was, NOT to copy them. Interestingly, I have taken a very similar path to my main guitar hero, Allan Holdsworth, but I did not know this until recently. Unfortunately, I never had the same kinds of opportunities that Allan did have.

After a few years of noodling around, I started to learn more about the guitar and music theory. In the meantime, I was having great fun with all of the various effects available to me. And in those formative years, I developed my own distinct style and sound. Around 1992, I acquired a Yamaha MT-44 four-track recorder and started experimenting with recording and attempting to make something musical after learning that one one my guitar heroes did most of the recording parts on his first three album on his own - I thought that maybe I could do the same since I really had no choice. That 4-track recorder was one of the biggest learning tools I had at the time, and I learned a lot of what I know today from goofing around with that 4-track recorder. It was during this period that I also taught myself how to play bass guitar. During this time, I was in a highly experimental phase and recorded some stuff that is really out there.

Up to this point, I hadn't really played in any bands because I didn't really feel like I knew enough or was talented enough for that. I was in one folk rock band around 1995 with all original music, but we weren't going anywhere so I moved on. All during this time, I was a faithful churchgoer, and I eventually ended up on the music teams wherever I went. Some of these churches were into doing spontaneous music and melody, and this is where I really sharpened my skills at improvisation. I eventually met my soon to be wife at one of these churches and we got married and had two children. During that period of about five years, I didn't really do any recording, but instead spent most of my time doing DIY guitar stuff and my DIY website grew out of that. Part of the reason why I stopped doing recording was because I had no outlet or anyone to share my music with. I did figure out who I was a musician and what my motivations were while I had my downtime - I always was and will always be primarily an improvising musician. I am much more at home in the studio than with live performance. I am hoping to change that, however, and to get a rest from being a one man band. So far, I just haven't been able to cross paths with other local musicians who are interested in doing what I do.

Then, in 2006, I discovered the MySpace music pages of some of my musician friends and when I created my own MySpace Music Page page in 2006 that became an outlet for me - in fact, it was and remains my only outlet at this time. I honestly didn't think anyone would care for my music or even notice me, but I have been pleasantly surprised by the reaction I have received. Over the last two years I have met many great musicians and have even colloborated with a few of them. I was even in the Guitar player magazine "Editor Boys Big Eight" (featured MySpace guitar players) in Aug. 2007, which was a real surprise to me. It is funny how some of my friends who are musicians have even went so far as to call me a "closet virtuoso", and I have received some recognition, yet I have not done any kind of professional recordings of my own nor played professionally. However, the path I chose to take is one that is not often traveled, but it is what I choose. I wouldn't be happy any other way! With a renewed hope for the future, I strain forward to what may lay ahead.






"Only the elite musician wishes not to imitate. Originality - and finding your own voice are the only beacons the elite musician follows." - Jeff Berlin