Since 2003, in addition to various journeys across northern North America, I've been mostly playing music in Austin, TX.  As I mentioned in my Bio, music has been a part of my life since I was a child.  I love to listen, play, record, and create music of virtually any kind.  This page is a log of my musical experiences.  I hope you enjoy it.

Drumming

I started playing the drums in the fifth grade.  I learned to play by playing along to Beatles records for countless hours as a kid.  I think I learned every Beatles song there is.  Ringo is still one of my favorite drummers.  I played in the marching band in high-school and studied percussion under George Frock for a year in college.  I've played drums for numerous bands/artists in Austin including Magnolia, Pink Nasty, Dickie Lee Erwin, Gary Newcomb, The Breathers, Ramsay Midwood, The Meshbanes, Jenifer Jackson, Chris Brecht, and Trey Brown.

I'm currently playing with Jenifer Jackson, The Gary Newcomb Trio, Dickie Lee Erwin, The Breathers, Chris Brecht, and Trey Brown.

Recordings:

• Poppin' Johnny - Dickie Lee Erwin (2005) - drums
• I'm Still Curious - The Breathers (2006) - drums
• Is It Safe Here Tomorrow - Freddy Cruz (2006) - drums, guitars, bass
• The Gary Newcomb Trio - The Gary Newcomb Trio (2007) - drums
• Smoke a Risin' - Trey Brown (2007) - drums, percussion
• Crooked Highway - The Lonesome Heroes (2008) - drums

Recording

I first played around with tape recorders when I was 7 years old when my grandmother showed me how to use her portable cassette recorder.  I think it broke while I was using it, so I took it apart (I used to take everything apart) and fixed it and learned how it all worked.  My dad had some old Radio Shack mics and a nice cassette deck he taught me how to use.  I started recording myself playing drums in high school and as I learned to play guitar and piano, I yearned to record entire songs and play all the parts. 

Thanks to my uncle who loaned me his Sony 4-channel stereo mixer (circa 1960's), and his HiFi Pioneer 1/4" 2-track reel-to-reel, I had the means to do overdubs.  I'd record a stereo take onto the reel-to-reel, then play that back and mix it with another stereo take onto my dad's cassette deck.  Then I'd flip the process and add another take going from the cassette to the reel-to-reel.  Of course, the tape hiss became unbearable pretty fast, but it was a great exercise and I learned a whole lot about tape machines, audio circuits, microphones, tape-delay and of course recording live performances.  I wore those old tapes out listening to them.  In general, I had blast and that's all I wanted to do in those day.  Thanks to Mom and Dad for letting me have wires running all over the living room at times and never complaining!

Around my senior year in high school, my dad bought a casio keyboard and a sequencer to run on our Atari ST computer.  Once I realized what it could do, I virtually took it over (sorry, Dad!), and pushed it to its very limits.  He lost interest in it and when I went to college in 1988, he let me take it all with me, including my uncle's mixer and reel-to-reel recorder.  I got into electronic music then and spent countless hours creating and recording beats and songs - in fact, I think I may have skipped more than one class to work on a new exciting tune!  A friend loaned me a Peavey mixing console that had a spring reverb and I thought I had hit the big time.

I wasn't ever really able to set my drums up during my college years so I turned to electronic music for an outlet.  I mastered the intricacies of programming drums, bass, keys, horns, and special effects.  I would add vocals only occasionally.  I learned a lot about music production while creating electronic music.  The elements of music production were all there, composition, arrangement, mixing, special effects.  It was a great learning experience.

While working in Memphis (1998), I made enough money to buy some professional mics, gear and a semi-pro 8-track reel-to-reel recorder.   I recorded some songs for friends and started to understand the finer elements of audio recording, such as room acoustics and mic placement.  I also got into digital recording and learned more about the use of effects or maybe more importantly the importance of getting a good signal to start with so I didn't need to use effects.  I was a weekend warrior for a while until I got too busy with my job.  I put it all on the back burner for a few years while I finished my job and traveled.

When I returned to Austin in 2003, I first lived in a small apartment and was only able to setup my monitors and my PC.  In 2005, I moved into a small house and setup one of the rooms as a recording room.  I didn't have much space at all, but I made the most of it and ended recording two albums there.  That got me into the idea of trying to start a small business of it.  I've since moved to my new place on the farm, where I have a much bigger space and spent considerable time and resources sound-proofing and treating a mid-sized room for acoustic isolation and pleasing acoustics for recording.

My good friend and neighbor, Dickie Lee, and I are gearing up to record his next album here.  We share a 3,000 sq. ft. duplex and we plan on making use of a good bit of that space to do this project.  We're also experimenting with a 16 analogue track reel-to-reel recorder.  This will be my biggest project undertaking so far.  I'm looking forward to getting underway.

THIS PAGE UNDER CONSTRUCTION - BEAR WITH ME - THANKS!