I was born in New Orleans and raised in New York. I attended high school for the performing arts and studied music at University in Florida; I worked in Reading, England and now live in York (North Yorkshire, UK). I don’t know how it happens or why it happens - but as a musician and songwriter, I try to take a bit of everywhere I live with me.
My father spent 30 years as a marketing executive for the major record labels Epic & Columbia, so in my eyes I had a lot to live up to . . . I went to a performing arts high school where I studied classical guitar and classical piano. While I enjoyed my classical training, my heart has always been with the electric guitar. My first main influences were the flashy guitar leads of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani, mixed of course with Randy Rhodes and Eddie Van Hallen. These were my guitar heroes, and I spent countless hours every day learning and memorizing as many of their famous guitar lines as I could. In school I did well with the classical guitar; I wasn’t the best, but I practiced damned hard and earned whatever skills I got.
When I was 16, I had already spent several years silently obsessing over the piano. Thanks to having a piano in my bedroom (and hours of practice), I was one of the few students in my school ever to be allowed to change primary instruments during their senior year in high school. So I decided to play piano – I practiced 6 hours a day every day and on that, was accepted into the Conservatory at Purchase College, N.Y.
I was 17 years old when I left for college, and this is when I first started to write songs. I had dabbled in composition early in high school by writing and arranging short pieces for string quartet and trio but nothing with substance and nothing that really meant much to me. After my first semester at college, I realized that I didn’t enjoy classical piano as much as I thought I would – so I decided to move back to Florida and finish my degree in music composition with piano as my instrument of choice.
I was 18 when I moved back to Florida, and this is when my life as a professional musician began to take shape. A good friend of mine who I had met in high school helped me find my way into a MoTown/Funk band as a keyboard player. I cut my teeth and had to put up with seasoned players kicking me around for playing “stiff”, but I eventually found my groove, was able to hold my own and developed some good funk chops.
At the same time, I had started teaching at a local music store. This gave me further insight into playing guitar & piano and into being a well rounded musician. Students would ask me to teach them everything from Metallica, James Brown and the Beatles to Carol King, Third Eye Blind and the Temptations.
A few years later I had my first studio experience. This was at Hurricane Pass studios in Dunedin, Florida with Dan O’Brien, a professional producer who lived a few doors down from my father. Dan frequently worked with Roger Nichols, an award winning producer who worked extensively with Steely Dan and John Denver. Nichols’ clients have ranged from the Beach Boys to Stevie Wonder to Frank Zappa, and the list goes on. Dan recorded my first single song demo recording of a song; it was titled, 19 Years.
After seeing how much fun it was to record a song, I decided to put an entire album together – so I asked Wes, a friend of mine, for help. I met Wes Garren while teaching at the music store. Wes is a producer and has a very hip style about him. He was quirky and eccentric but very sharp and knew exactly what sound I was looking for. After 10 months of staying up till six a.m., mixing drums and listening back to piano and guitar tracks, my ten song album was done. Special thanks now to Wes and my good buddy and musical partner, Chris Carbonaro. Chris is a great friend and I’ve known him forever; I write a song then play it for Chris and he comes back with the exact drum part I was thinking. You never know just how important drums are until you work with a drummer as flawless as Chris.
In 2003 I was fortunate enough to work with Frankie LaRocca, a former A&R man with Epic/Columbia records. Frankie discovered a group called the Spin Doctors and produced their hit album Pocket full of Kryptonite… and he also produced three of my songs. Frankie was a very cool guy and unfortunately passed away in 2005. We recorded at Sonic Boom Studios in New Jersey; Sonic Boom is headed up and run by Anthony Krizan, the guitarist from the Spin Doctors and a professional writer. Anthony has written for Lenny Kravitz, John Waite and Nick Taylor to name a few.
Working with Frankie and Anthony gave me an excellent product and an experience I would never forget.
Not long after this I was recruited to compose an orchestral score to a full length feature film which eventually got distribution in the U.S. I also worked with filmmakers to write music for some local TV commercials and I ended up acting in a film which debuted at a national U.S. film festival.
In December 2009 I made it through to the grand finals of a nation wide UK competition for songwriters (http://www.openmicuk.co.uk/) where I teamed up with Lisa Crawford, a phenomenal soul & gospel vocalist from Leeds, UK. Lisa and I passed over 8000 other contestants and came very close to walking away with a management contract.
Earlier this year I worked with Ann Hudson, another excellent singer with a great pop voice. Ann and I entered Live and Unsigned 2010, another UK music competition where I was put in touch with some important people. I am currently in the process of licensing some of my material to Ryan Creegan, a brilliant new artist signed to All Round Music, an independant UK Label. I am also currently writing the music to a new web drama written and directed by Richard Bliss, an independant US filmmaker, of Wu Film Works. The web drama, titled The Pickman Incident, will be available to view online later this year.
I am currently head of music at Pocklington Montessori School in East Riding of Yorkshire and am working hard at finding the right publishing company to represent me and help get my music out to the right performers and producers.
We all know that the path to your dreams is never easy – but as a wise man once said:
“Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey”.