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 i
started playing guitar for fun in 1983, a sophomore
in high school. i hooked up with some classmates and
recorded a few songs. those are here, under the infiniti
link. after high school i occasionally recorded
and those are posted here too. i got a 4-track in
1988 and an obsession began. between then and around
'94 i wrote and recorded constantly, culminating with
200+ songs. most are original; few are covers. pretty
much all are messy at best.
i found myself loving
the process of songwriting - writing the
chords, putting them down, writing lyrics and melodies
and organically adding all the parts until the song
was done, to me. i wasn't concerned with how the song
might sound to others, just how naturally
it grew, a perspective i picked up from listening
to david byrne and many other progressive new wavers
of the eighties. so i have never had a style. i think
most songs stand alone. many are not even songs, technically
speaking, but at times just pieces, broken or otherwise.
the
best part of the process was deciding enough was enough
and then listening back. i was writing for myself.
in and shortly after
college, between 1988 and 1993, i played in a few
bands and even had an acoustic act. some of those
live recordings are here. somehow i placed third in
a songwriting contest at southern illinois university
(the
beatnik song). but by the mid-nineties my
prodigious ethic was replaced by apathy and my recording
ceased but for a few efforts. a few friends and i
embarked on an evan williams-fueled recording comedy
project called pine
canyon.
in 1999 i decided to
record again, with the addition of a computer and
recording software. those songs, from bluegreen '99,
were all written and recorded in a two-week span.
i did not record again until i was married in 2003.
those songs make up the rialto
squares.
since then the only
recording i've done has been for my son, joão
pedro, after his birth in 2007, using a digital multi-track
recorder. that's here.
i've recently been tasked by an educational organization
i work for to write and record an album of kansas-themed
songs for school children. i still jam, most recently
with the bad back blues band, a local blues-rock
group in which i play bass and sing backup. regarding
my own stuff, i have a slew of ideas i'll put down
- someday.
i'm still having fun.
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