I started playing clarinet in 5th grade. That only lasted a few months. I then got a drum set and played with some forming bands for a few years. Meanwhile, I bought a cheap keyboard and started writing little tunes for my indie game projects. Taking these original instrumental songs, I learned how to write / make MIDI music. I turned about 50 ideas into MIDI tracks.
I played concert drums and drum set throughout Middle School and High School bands (marching bands, concert bands and even jazz band). Aside from school I was also playing with local bands "Mad Kamel", "12 Tone" (now "
PWM"), and a number of church groups and youth groups. Into the later years of High School, I picked up an old electric guitar and started writing some songs of my own. I tried out various recording programs so I could get my new ideas down before I forgot them. I recorded a lot of songs just for fun that I later turned into the albums "
Seed" and "
Walls", as well as many others, which are now long lost.
12 Tone @ Battle of the Bands, 2003(?). Me, Wayne, Brian, Joey
:
2004 - 2005 Around 2004, I quit playing drums for bands and churches. I had a passion and felt a calling to pursue my own path as an artist. I took the next 6 months doing the best job that I could, recording an album with a cheap guitar, cheap mics, and my old PC. I recorded the "
Through the Storm" album, of which I sold a handful of copies at a local retail store. I played a couple of these songs at a the "Crash" competition in Tucson, since I happened to be filling in on drums with my friend's old band there.
After finishing "
Through the Storm", I began playing drums and then electric guitar with a rock band, "Alter Red". This opportunity gave me a little bit of experience with rock music and a lot of inspiration to make my own. I started working on the album"
In the Background" immediately, which I continued working on until mid-2005. Prior to that, I had met
Jess Dailey, a recording artist who was enrolled in a Georgia college, and in the process of writing and recording original songs herself.
Long story short: we fell in love moved to her hometown in Florida, in July of '05.
Playing in my room, "The Launch Pad"
:
2005 - 2007 Sadly, the house I was living in was broken into and my studio laptop and external hard drive were both stolen. I lost months of progress on "
In the Background", which I was hoping to finish that year. My dad had an unfinished version of the tracks that I had burnt to a CD for him, months prior (He was my studio bassist for this project). Ripping these tracks from this practice CD, I decided to call the album done, even though the stolen versions of the tracks were so much more complete. I was moving on to a music journey with my soon-to-be-wife and I didn't care to live in past music endeavors anyway.
The first year in FL started working out great. Jess and I were practicing music and playing shows across Sebring, off and on. She bought/ learned to play a bass guitar and we were growing as a group, no longer as just two solo artists. The last day of 2005, we got married and from then, got progressively more and more into ministry. In the summer of 2006, we got in over our heads. I started playing worship for Youth for Christ clubs, IMPAK group, GBC church services and a college group, with worship sets that totaled at 8 times every week.
A year of the repetition of this worship music and forcing a spiritual-leader-type mentality upon myself really took a tole. I had a good time doing it, getting lots of experience with different crowds and having venues to work on strengthening my voice. At the same time, it wasn't where I wanted to be. I saw it only as a divine stepping stone, not my calling.
We took a visit back to AZ after a year of ministry to see my family and friends there. I missed the atmosphere... the creative vibes, the memories of jamming and recording among motivated musicians. Jess and I left the lifestyle that consumed us back in Florida. The full-time worship leader thing was a good thing, but it wasn't OUR thing. We moved back to AZ at the end of 2007 to get a fresh start.
Playing for Santa, December 2005
:
2007 - 2009 I had recorded a lot of songs in FL. After finding a job and getting settled in AZ, I decided to put out a solo album "
Build and Burn" representing my favorites from the songs I wrote and recorded in FL. With so many new songs being written, I never quite went back and finished this one. (
yet)
My wife and I started playing at a church again,
TMCC. For the life of me, I
don't
remember why. I guess we didn't want to "loose it", so we decided to
"use it"... use our musical ability for something. The idea was to
keep working on our collaborative music under the name "Featherwate".
The problem, or so we suppose, was the complications of buying a house, playing
at TMCC, having jobs, yadda, yadda. Getting our lives together took the foreground for at least a year.
My brother Andrew ("D.Cure") was in town early fall of '08. We did a fun little 3-track rap/rock jam, called "
Long for Next" in the week or two that he was down.
At the end of 2008, Jess and I threw together "
The Source", an album of worship songs that I had written in FL while I was living that whole worship-musician-lifestyle.
In Jan 2009, I started working on yet another "side-project" of romantic cover songs for Jess' 24th birthday. This was completed in mid March and I was ready to get back to being serious with "our" music.
Currently My goal is to write 100 new songs in the next few months. Hopefully, from this effort Jess and I will have a handful of songs that we both will think are really fitting and succefully showcase who we are as musicians. I have about 6 so far (March 19).
When
I was a teenager, inspired by C.S. Lewis' Narnia, and the
series, I started writing stories with the intent to make a
game series out of them someday. Over 10 years... still slowly workin' at it. Check the
area for updates.