I started playing guitar at age 13, in 1993, because of Kurt Cobain. He promptly blew his head off and I snowballed out of my grunge phase and began gathering bits of different musical styles in the way that a meatball rolling across the floor gathers dirt. Hell, since the early days, my parents (who met in musical theater) were always singing and playing records in the house. I started singing in choir at 9. Over the years, my Sagittarius spirit galloped through heavy metal, oldies, jazz, motown, classical, prog, hip hop and more, sifting clever bits along the way. Today my style is not easily summed up, yet it remains highly palatable. It feels inaccurate to label it simply alternative or indie, even though it is truly both. I love my hard rock, but I do push and pull a lot with non-linear arrangements, big dynamics, odd time signatures, and peaceful retreats. My lyrics have evolved into everything from glowing spirituality, to psychological alliteration, to personal vulnerability, to biting criticisms of the brash incompetence/derangement of government/corporations/parasites.

Music is not something I ever wanted to do as a job. it was always something ethereal, something I needed to be separate from the “real” world, so that I would never pervert the spiritual process of making music by intersecting it with the need to survive. I have suffered for my art, I have made odd and interesting decisions for my life based upon my need to feed myself novel experiences. Part of this is collecting philosophy for processing my experiences into art.

In my 20s, between bartending and creating comedy skits, I put out 4 albums and toured nationally with Eat Your Neighbors, where I laid the foundation for everything I am today. I owe those men a great debt of gratitude for staying the path with me for those years. When I left the group in 2011, I took a small break before forming Orange Horse. This was a delve down further into my love of odd time signatures, drastic dynamics and balls out rock. We put out 2 EPs. I also fronted the DC based band FaceKiller, which was a conglomerate of stoner rock, metal, and grunge. We put out a full length album as well. This was the first time I performed without an instrument in front of me. But life came calling and I had to cross the country for learning experiences.

When I moved to California in 2015, I needed a way to keep track of my musical journey. Instead of gigging and touring, I would focus on studio work and creating high level art: recordings that dig deep into the endless rabbit holes of curiosity brought on by my insatiable quest for knowledge. Not just rock, but bringing in true diversity from the full spectrum of what I listen to. I would craft the basics of songs, scratch them out on Garage Band or Logic Pro, and then find the right musicians to bring them to life. Sometimes all I had what a poorly recorded track of me humming or plucking out a melody, and those turned into moderately complex string arrangements, horns, or synths.

I hope Our Maddest Edges serves as motivation for other artists who feel confined by traditional genres and arrangements. You don’t have to stay married to a genre, or a group of players. You can create without borders, while still giving your music enough cohesion to bob your head to. I’m a huge fan of bands like Ween, QOTSA, and Electric Light Orchestra, who constantly keep their audience guessing while blending layers on layers. I’m also a huge fan of heavier music like Igorrr, Maximum the Hormone, and Mars Volta; with their oodles of talent and jagged, outside the box songwriting. From highly textured love songs to ridiculous little rippers, I want to paint pictures worth revisiting for years to come. Let’s reawaken the joy of listening to whole albums! It is a form of art appreciation that has been relegated to near obscurity.
In the coming years, I have a vision for an album that will be far beyond anything I have done, both musically and thematically, and beyond what a lot of people can comprehend. It is a concept album with its own mythology. A full orchestra will tie together 9-10 tracks of everything from jazz to heavy metal, from psychedelia to funk, from acoustic spiritual to progressive rock. Think Mars Volta’s debut “Deloused in the Comatorium” meets ELO’s 1974 epic “El Dorado” with sprinklings from Mutoid Man’s “Bleeder” and Ween’s “Quebec.” I’ll be hiring professional musicians and my personal friends as well as the most visionary engineers I can find.

I’m even trying to reach out to Jeff Lynne (ELO), Omar Rodriguez-Lopes (TMV) and several others in hopes of establishing some words of encouragement to pull off such a feat. I will also be trying to fully animate it. It will be an experience not soon forgotten.