Unlike some who choose to pursue music as a career,
I wasn't one of those kids who grew up in a musical household, unfortunately. My grandmother didn't sing opera or teach piano or violin. It didn't run in my family going back generations. it wasn't in my family at all, on either side. There were creative genes in my family though, on my mother's side, which is the Italian side. My uncle Bob started painting in early adulthood, and sometime later became quite fascinated with photography. My grandmother, who never thought she had any talent, took up painting in her 60's (at my uncle's suggestion) and it turned out she was somewhat of a natural at it.
I had the creative bug from the moment my feet hit the ground. When I was 4 I would sit and draw for hours. I loved to make up songs and sing, but I was also shy about it, cause no one else in the family sang. When I was 7 I started writing stories. I would rarely finish them, but I was really good at starting them! When I was a kid I had a really bad habit of starting projects, and later getting restless and putting them aside, and starting new projects without finishing the previous ones.
I took interest in computer programming as a hobby from ages 12-18, but during my teens, like many others my age, I was seduced by rock and roll. I had always loved to sing, but it was kind of a repressed thing with me for certain reasons when I was growing up. And I never felt comfortable singing at home when my parents were home. I came out of that shell eventually, and eventually I realized I do have a gift. At some point, I became quite fascinated with musical compositon, and that was my main focus for a good number of years. I have notebooks full of papers with harmonic experiments and theories to test...every song I write is in some way a new composition experiment.
My musical history really started with the Beatles album Abbey Road. It was my first favorite album. I was 4 years old. I would listen to it every morning when I woke up..and over and over again throughout the day. It was 1973 then. I remember putting on a Led Zeppelin record that my mom had laying around, around that time, too, and it kind of freaked me out and I turned it off!
When I was about 6 years old, my Dad and I wrote a song together. It was probably the silliest thing you'd ever hear in your life, but my Dad loved it. He was playing acoustic guitar and I wrote lyrics and sang. He saved the tape. I heard it once when I was a teenager. It was a trip! Unfortunately, my Dad and I never had a chance to do it again. He gave up being interested in guitar and music soon after that to build an accounting firm. I didn't see him too much for a number of years after that, because I was in New York, and he had moved to California.
I knew I wanted to write music from when I was really little too, but it would be many years before I had the right environment and opportunity. The only instrument I learned to play as a kid was the clarinet, which was in 5th grade. Not by choice – it was what I got stuck with. I had wanted to play the trumpet. I was able to sight read pretty well though. Now I don't at all but i have my own kind of notation I use for my compositons.
When I was 6 my Dad gave me a guitar and I broke all the strings within a day I think. I had a little bit of a discipline problem back then.
When I moved out to California in 1980, a dude named Pat Cronin turned me on to all the Gods of Metal: Judas Priest, Van Halen, Scorpions, Black Sabbath, Ozzy, Nazareth, Queensryche…Iron Maiden. I was 11 years old. He was like 3 years older than me and a total valley dude. He turned me from this dorky little poindexter with a New York accent, into a long haired valley stoner with an L.A. accent. I started saying words like "Shine, totally, whatever, bitchen." It was like a rock n roll makeover. When we got home from school on most days we'd go into his room and he'd set up a bunch of schoolbooks that he'd use as drums..and we'd put on a record, and he'd be hitting the books with real drumsticks, and I'd be air guitaring with this huge hockey stick…and we'd both be singing. God I'm sure were a sight to behold. I bet even Hanson blew us away. Lol. The weird thing is that this guy hated Led Zeppelin. He used to say "Zeppelin sucks" to people, and I'd be like "yeah Zeppelin sucks!" and then a few years later, I was like, wait a minute, no they don't! When I got to eighth grade, the rock out sessions got a bit more intense. Me and some other friends (one of them is "cg" on my friends list) would slam some tequila or whiskey and put on Def Leppard's High and Dry album, or Motley Crue and we'd just rock until we puked. I would give anything to see a video of that now.
In my senior year I sang with a band in the talent show at my high school, El Camino. We were expected to win but didn't. Glen Sobel (the now well known drummer, who happens to be on here)…was also in the competition, and it was his group, the group of drummers called Off Beat, that won, which they deserved to.
When I was 19 I got an apartment with my friend Rick and finally I was able to sing anytime I wanted (Rick was a total rocker). I started singing Queensryche and Zeppelin every day after work. I almost hooked up with a band soon after that but then got cold feet and changed my mind. I did that the next year with someone else too. We jammed one time, and they loved my work, and I never went back again. It was this ambivalence toward having a music career...loving it on the one hand, but fearing it, or having too many "issues" to deal with, on the other, that held me back for so long (more on that later).
The karaoke years began in 1995 and lasted until about 2000. Lots of beer, and then later vodka, and uh...well, a few other things. (As Robert Plant once said..."a little celebration went a touch too far") I finally became a performer, though, during that time. The dark side of the karaoke thing, however, was always wanting to be drunk when I sang. I had never been that way before. I finally completely got over that one late last year.
I also had a serious issue with certain supplements I was taking affecting my voice during the earlier years. I just completely sucked sometimes and I couldn't figure out why. I wonder how many other people have had that happen and don't know the reason! I myself am more sensitive to supplements/medications than the average person, but all singers really need to be aware of the connection. It's well established that medications alter the voice but I've never heard it said that vitamin and other supplements also do. There is an issue with certain foods as well. I'll share all that wisdom in a blog sometime, for those of you who also happen to be singers out there.
On the writing side of it, I didn't start composing until I was 20 years old. I bought a Roland Digital Piano, and I took a piano class. I didn't really like the method of playing that's taught, so I kind of faked my way through it (I needed the class for college electives anyway), and then proceeded to teach myself how to play the way I wanted to. Lol. I took a basic music theory class also but no other music classes after that. I came up with my own composing methods and have been developing those ideas in notebooks for over 14 years. My unique style of playing comes from that self-taught approach (Eddie Van Halen did a similar thing). I'm a mostly right brained person but I also have a very logical and mathematical mind. So the mathematical and structural aspect of music fascinates me to no end. But as far as rhythms go, it's all completely intuitive. Nothing is ever programmed in the music I record. I play everything live.
Another thing I had to work through was to go from being a composer to being a songwriter. There's a big difference, because in being a songwriter I had to really put all of myself out there, which was a little frightening to do at first. But if you love something enough, you can always find your way.
This page is dedicated to my greatest friend in the universe, Jesus Christ, who is the source of my gifts, to Elizabeth, and to all the other people that i love.
Thanks everybody for listening!
Peace.
