Bio, Sort Of

I hate writing bios. I’ll likely never be able sum myself up with a back-story and complementary mystique. I’m just a working guy, making music on a computer, trying to record when the downstairs neighbors are out, trying to mix on headphones (don’t do it), hoping the phone doesn’t ring during a take.

For what it’s worth, my dad was always playing tapes of 60’s music, and I liked most of it, but occasionally I’d get floored by something like the intro to Good Vibrations or the changes in Bernadette. I didn’t realize anyone felt otherwise until the only two songs on the radio were Rock Me Amadeus and That’s What Friends Are For. All my friends thought I was lame for digging on Dionne Warwick so much. In my mind though, it wasn’t the type of thing one had a choice about.

Preoccupations

The strange fact that we're here. The universe in its entirety (Cosmology) along with size, origin, nature, and future.

Strange Loops as conceived by Douglas Hofstadter. Which I would sum up (perhaps inaccurately) as the bizarre effect of an observer gaining the ability to observe itself.

Prime numbers and any relationship they might have with either cosmology or strange loops.

Design, graphic design, typography, classical design. The Golden Ratio (and the Fibonacci sequence) and its disarming perfection.

Influences

Perennial

Counting Crows, Coldplay, Radiohead, Richard Buckner, Billy Bragg

Foundational

The Royal Guardsmen, The Beach Boys, Lovin’ Spoonful, Jim Croce, Simon & Garfunkle, Chicago, Peter Paul & Mary

Formative

R.E.M., The Smiths, Toad the Wet Sprocket, The Cure, The Connells, Tracy Chapman, Jimi

Supplemental

Al Green, Otis Redding, Levi Stubbs, Marvin Gaye, Brian McKnight, Anthony Hamilton

Peripheral

AM Cassandre, Van Gogh, Roman Loranc, Adolph Gottlieb, Sigmar Polke, Pollock

Ingenious

Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Can, Miles Davis, Leonard Cohen, Deltron, Blind Willie Johnson, Talking Heads, Keith Jarrett