BIOGRAPHY
Well
get to the meat of it all first and then a little bit of a timeline:
As
you may know I'm a bassist and have been playing for over 20 years. I've done extensive traveling and touring
since the age of 18, performing nationally and internationally.
You
name the gig and I've probably done one like it (from the odd to the fantastic)
and I cant say they've all gone that well but they were all an experience. From covers to originals, jazz, blues,
fusion, R&B, rock, Latin, pop, and yes I've done polkas too - LOL. You could say I've been around the block as
far as gigs go. I've been a hired gun,
bandleader, band director, band member, engineer and producer - I'm ohh so
tired!
I'm
an author of five instructional method books and a DVD for Hal Leonard Corporation. I've worked for them as a transcriber, editor
and proofreader I also helped revise their style manual. I don't really know how many books I've
worked on for them though it has to be around 2,000 at best guess. It's been a wonderful gig because it's
afforded me the opportunity to take gigs and travel yet maintain a steady
stream of income in my downtime.
I've
appeared on recordings by national recording artist Aeon Spoke, Cynic, Inda
Eaton, Jack Grassel, Jeff Schroedl,
and Kirk Tatnall to name a few you
can see the list of some of the ones on my media page.
I've
studied in Milwaukee and attended Berklee College
of music in Boston
for a short period of time.
Now for a little bit of a
timeline (more detail)
I started bass at the age of
14, during that time we were in the 1980s so naturally or un-naturally I
gravitated towards the wonderful 80s metal scene. Metal evolved into all the shrapnel record
artists and some progressive metal.
Id have to say my earlier
influences were David T. Chastain's bassist David Harbour,
Stuart Ham, Randy Coven and Yngwie Malmsteen.
At the age of 16 I joined a cover band and started playing some Rush, Kansas and many other
bands I will not mention. A month after
I graduated high school I went on the road with this band traveling the Midwest. Wed
travel on Sunday and play a club Monday through Saturday; oh I miss the days of
eating at McDonald's and getting paid a hundred dollars a week.
I did that for a year and
moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I started working at a local
music store and the word fusion and jazz was a sweet melody to my ears. That's when I got into Alan Holdsworth,
Tribal Tech, Brand X, Vital Information, Steve Coleman, and Miles Davis and so
on and so forth. I was also attending a
local music school while working at the music store (many basses I tried, many
basses I owned). Jack Grassel was the
head of the music department at Milwaukee
Area Technical
College and I can't say
enough about the impact he had on me. At
that time I'd say my major influences were Jimmy Johnson and some more Jimmy
Johnson. I started playing with a fabulous guitar player named Kirk Tatnall and did an album with him. That was one of my greatest educations where
the rubber hit the road.
Then an offer came in to audition
for band named Cynic in Miami. At that time I was big into progressive metal
bands like Dream Theater and Fates Warning along with fusion. I had never listened to death metal. Even though I wouldn't categorize Cynic as
completely death metal. This was the
first time I ever auditioned and it didn't quite work out. They were pressured to be ready for the
studio and I was coming in last minute replacing somebody else. I ended up really connecting with Paul Masvidal
and Jason Gobel though Sean and I didn't connect musically at first, so they
decided to go with the bass player I was to replace for the studio but in the
end they hired Sean Malone to play on the album. They offered me the tour after the album was
out and then the connection happened. Maybe the pressure was off for all of us.
After the tour I decided to
go to Berklee College of music. This is when I really worked on my playing
the guys in Cynic got me into Level 42 and loads of other great music. I'd have to say my influences at this time
were Gary Willis, Mark King, Victor Wooten, Tony Franklin and Jimmy Johnson
(again). Berklee was a great experience
and shortly after the guys from Cynic called me to join in preparation for the
new album. Now this is a long story that
I won't get into though I will say the band changed direction considerably and
there was some label issues that we tried to work around and in the end we
spent about three half years and had a few demos.
I decided to come back to Milwaukee and join the
gigging pool of musicians and play any gigs that came my way. Prior to this time I didnt have a wide
variety of experience, just a bunch of controlled environments that I played
in&the days of learning 40 tunes in a day or two was just starting. Prior to
coming back I started working for Hal Leonard so I did gigs and worked for Hal.
For the past 10 years I've
been gigging, practicing, working on my engineering and producing skills. I've played with so many great musicians and
averaged over 200 gigs a year. Let me see, how do I sum of the last 10
years?
Let me start with the gigs.
I've done a lot of traveling
with a singer-songwriter named Inda Eaton, I was her band director for some
time, this was a really fun gig that I continue to do. It was through Inda that I ended up mixing a
song for Julie Andrews. This is an LOL
moment... One can never know what will
happen in this business... From playing
death metal to mixing and playing bass on a song for Julie Andrews (sound of
music).
Other fun gigs I've had over
the years was playing with my friend Steve Peplin in a band called The Soul
Dealers. Some fusion projects with my
friends Alan Arbor and Ray Tevich. Many
gigs with Kirk Tatnall some blues
some jazz gigs - let me rephrase that many blues gigs and many scotches/whiskeys.
(Ohh the days when I drank) this was a band called Group Therapy. Since cover
music is what Milwaukee
knows I started a band called Atomic Willis for a while... though after too
many complaints of our vast and long solos and jamming the band chose to
disband versus the old sellout thing.
Another great band is my girlfriend's band Barbara Stephan. Many great
gigs, many musician changes and allot of stretching musically. We reformed her
band with the name Peppermink, she's a great musician and writer. Many a sub
jobs&many other gigs&great times and music with my friends Mrs. Fun& Producing
Zachary Wades album, producing my friend Joe Rodrigue's album. Doing some great gigs with Del Bennett who
I'm doing an album with at this present moment.
Many steady fusion gigs with Mike DeRose. Playing bass on many projects, books,
commercials, albums and so on. And many
other projects I've done that I haven't mentioned due to running on endlessly.
With Hal Leonard I've
written several books and have an instructional DVD out. I've played on various books and recorded all
my audio CDs that go with the books I've written. More recently I've played on Oteil Burbidges
DVD when he was in town. Transcribing
bass greats like Stanley Clarke, Gary Willis, Jaco, Victor Bailey, and Marcus
Miller has been a great learning lesson and a great time specially working with
Willis. Now I'd have to say my main
influences as far as bass goes is Marcus Miller, Oteil, Willis, Pino Pallidino,
Alain Caron, Dominique DiPiazza and Pat Martino (guitar). But bigger than that
I would have to say my main influences are the people that inspire me to change
and grow as a human and the many musicians I play with. To me, at this point in my life, I think
playing is not who you are it is something you do. Music is an expression of my life's
experiences.
