Me? Hmmm.. Lets see. I was born. I grew up. At one point I decided to play guitar. It was in doing this that I finally found something to do with myself. See, I always thought I was going to be an astronaut or a race car driver. Isn't that what every little boy aims to be?
I remember when I was a kid, seeing a guitar and thinking how complex it was and being uninterested. I enjoyed music, but, I was a lazy child and lazy children don't play instruments. Well, this one didn't anyway. When I was in middle school, creative arts were a requirement. I had always been a horrible artist(still am) and I didn't want to learn about colors, straight lines, layers, depth and blah blah blah.. (Honestly, I wish I had. Drawing is one of the things I wish i could do. I am envious of anyone who can draw).
Flash forward 10 years and I'm in a pawn shop with $60 and a dream. (HA.. Yeah.. Sounds exciting. Actually I didn't know what I was doing there) Soooo… I left with a guitar. A guitar in which they knocked off $30 because it was missing a string. (Never knew guitars in pawn shops had strings made of gold.) After this adventure in said pawn shop, I went and moved up north to Long Beach. Or, perhaps I was already there. I don't remember much. A lot of drunken nights practicing the same 3 chords from an old Neil Diamond songbook. The book had a full chord chart on the back and I must say I never did learn any of the songs. In this time of solitude I like to call it, a friend had taught me some music which in turn I added some lyrics and we turned into a song. Our first song. Unfortunately I also learned that music can really tear people apart. That song would bring the downfall to a great friendship.
In that time I started writing more. Learned what "Drop D" tuning was and eventually started playing anywhere people would listen. Mind you I only had 3 songs to my name but at the time I didn't care. I was just so excited to get out and play for people. Over the next couple years my song library grew. My group of friends grew and I was growing not only as a person but as a musician. I formed a couple bands (Diamond Mind,Brotherhood Of Sound)and tried out different styles of music. Tried screaming a little into a mic. Felt good. Released a lot of tension. Although it was fun, the aggressive style of music wasn't my thing. Took away too much of what I wanted to accomplish. I always wanted to sing chill music. Relaxing.. some would call boring. Oh well… Perhaps it's boring love bull pucky but I don't care. Artists are supposed to compose their creativity in whatever fashion they seem fit. Chill acoustic music seems to fit for me. Why attempt to be something else?
Now, as the age of "30" was rapidly approaching, I wanted to do something for myself that I hadn't been able to do. I wanted to actually sit down and put together a collection of songs and release an album. I had tried for years and was never satisfied with anything I did. So, with a little help from Damon @ Bodigm Studios. I sat down and recorded "30 Trips Around The Sun". A nice collection of acoustic songs. Kind've like a birthday present to myself. Now I won't say the album is perfect, but I will say I completed it. I've given it to people and they've enjoyed it. That to me has been an accomplishment. I can't say I've conquered anything but, it's a long road. I'll get there someday…….