I got my first guitar when I was 11, but while I wanted to play Def Leppard and Iron Maiden, my guitar teacher wanted me to learn Bob Seger and Alabama songs, so I didn’t stick with it. A few years later my family moved to a new state, and when everything else was in boxes, the one thing I could get to was my guitar — so I started fiddling again on the five chords I remembered, gradually learning to play Metallica and Sabbath songs by ear on a cheesy Sears catalog electric with a built-in speaker powered by a 9-volt battery.
From the late 80s to the mid-2000s I was in a number of punk and metal bands. In the 90s I played in Brain Spamage with bassist/singer Thomas Hyatt, who is now in the band Crimson Eyed Orchestra with my high school pal Bob Duncan, and drummer Don Blum, who went on to stardom with the Von Bondies. I also played in a series of punk bands with my friend Kevin Sobieski, including Squeaky Fetus, Fudd, Brown Hornet (recordings of which may yet exist somewhere in the archives of Aaron Dilloway), and finally Ramshackle, which got as far as playing a few shows at The Old Miami and setting up a myspace page which apparently still exists (though sadly the songs do not).
These days, after accidentally falling in with the Above the Bridge songwriters retreat a couple years back in Curtis, MI, I’m writing and playing songs again and looking to get back out to playing them where people can hear.