My career in music began as a fascination with recording – not just the simple act of pushing a record button, but the process of documenting a performance and listening back to that performance. It was like magic to me. That was back in Virginia in 1985 – and as soon as I started playing guitar and making noise with my friends it was all I wanted to do.
It was almost as if the songs we made were excuses to record -- instead of focusing mostly on practicing, writing, and performing in anticipation of recording. We called ourselves Nosferatu.
We were into some gritty stuff back then – heavy, scary, hardcore music. And by 1987 the band was gigging regularly and playing clubs up and down the eastern seaboard. We lucked out by getting booked as support for national touring acts like Danzig, Testament, Overkill, Agnostic Front, CroMags, Fugazi and Bad Brains.
Our big “15 minutes of fame” came when James Hetfield of Metallica wore our homemade band t-shirt on their “Nothing Else Matters” video.
We all thought we had made it. But it was not to be.
After getting my fill experiencing crazed punk shows, I settled into teaching guitar full time and shifted my focus into writing, improvising, and yes, recording everything. I opened myself up to other styles of music and I experimented heavily with improvised music – unique performances that had to be recorded for posterity. My passion for recording went to an entirely new level.
In 1989 I rented a recording space in an old barn and began recording local bands on tape machines. It was the time of my life. I felt like recoding was my calling. So, in the fall of 1994 I moved to Chicago with aspirations of gaining more experience with original music and recording. I landed a job at a busy recording studio on the north side where I found myself constantly blown away by masters of improvisation and pure musicianship.
Back then, making an album consisted mostly of capturing a performance and the “production” was really hands off.
I fully immersed myself in Chicago, working with symphony orchestras, jazz ensembles, choirs, gospel groups, and rock bands. I installed a studio in my house allowing me to record day and night. The recordings I was making were exciting, and as a result I committed myself to focus on my own musicianship and improvising and writing my own material.
After 10 amazing years in Chicago, I found a new studio opportunity an hour and a half north in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There, I began my career composing and producing for television and licensing. It was a job that perfectly combined all my musical skills – writing, recording, engineering, and producing. A strange kind of freedom emerged and, while I did hire some musicians to play parts for me, the idea of self-production suited me very well. I mastered modern production techniques. Eventually, my abilities to produce album quality tones improved. Having deadlines provided a fast paced “get it done by Friday” mentality and I got faster and more efficient at recording.
In less than a decade, I published thousands of songs in numerous genres for national and international music licensing companies. I worked with top notch musicians like Rihanna and Kenny Aronoff, which raised the bar for me. The experience helped me hone my music production chops even further.
While the idea of capturing performances is still incredibly important, in Milwaukee I learned how to make recordings that involved all the modern techniques of digital manipulation. I became more successful at “farming tones” and could arrive at great results even faster. I realized that I now had a way to make a powerful contribution to an artist seeking to realize their vision through sonics.
I shifted from working for a company to freelancing in 2014 and have continued to produce works for licensing companies. I have a desire to work with artists again, becoming a collaborator in the rewarding and challenging creative process of making music.
Above all else, I’ve remained focused on the craft of capturing and creating tones and my best days are when I feel I’ve succeeded with presenting a sound I hear in my head the way I want others to hear it.
And finding and capturing that perfect sound is something I’ve been chasing – and continue to chase -- for over 35 years.