Audio
Alchemy
History
In the Beginning There Was Noise
This is a picture of my first instrument. I'm not sure where this little piece of destiny came from, but what I AM sure of is that I spent hours - and I mean HUNDREDS of hours - pounding away on this thing. I wrote songs about my dog. I wrote songs about the carpet. I wrote songs about writing songs. And they were all pretty much the same 3 or 4 notes. Although I'm sure the teachers and philosophers among us would posit some esoteric argument justifying the auditory pain inflicted during the early stages of creativity, I'm also pretty sure that the immediate result was driving my parents clinically insane. And possibly the dog too.
Take That Sergei
Eventually somebody either took mercy on my parents or my mom and dad threw the toy piano in the fire. It was replaced by this little plastic jewel, probably because it was significantly quieter than its recently missing acoustic cousin. Believe it or not, the Casio VL-1 contained one of the very first electronic sequencers build into a portable device. It was simplistic. It had zero helpful editing functions. Forget quantizing. I loved it.
And I used it to painstakingly, note-by-note, sequence the main melodic theme from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. I was six.
Enter Violin, Stage Right
Maybe my parents thought I needed to work on my social skills because when I started first grade I was encouraged to join the orchestra. To my disappointment there was no piano section and I was forced to select another instrument. I landed on the violin, probably because my dad had played violin when he was around my age, evidence of which was still lurking in the back of a closet at his mother's house. And so into the fray I went, armed with my father's violin and a head full of the the collected works of two centuries of Russian composers. But the composer inside my head would eventually reemerge with a vengeance.
Rise of the Machines
After a number of years of faithful dedication to the violin, it became apparent that I desperately needed a keyboard to continue progressing as a composer. In many ways the 49 key Yamaha that came next was a step down from the Casio. The Yamaha didn't have a sequencer. It didn't have nearly as many cool-sounding preset rhythms: Bossanova, Samba, Rhumba...(really??). But what it DID have was a pair of "RCA out" jacks, which I immediately put to use by running them into the "Record/Input" on the back of my boom box with the built in cassette recorder. This was my first recording studio.
It Tolls for Thee
Some high school kids play sports. Some hang out in the parking lot and smoke things. Some blow stuff up in chemistry class. I played music. In the school orchestra, in the pit for musicals, as part of string quartets for weddings and events.
​
But the highlight was playing with the Wesley Bell Ringers. For many years this group was considered to be one of the premier bell choirs in the country and for four years I spent six weeks of my summer touring through a total of 49 states, playing music. What a fabulous thing to be able to do. And it was a BLAST.
In Sequence
What can I say about the fabulousness that was the Ensoniq EPS 16 Plus? This keyboard literally changed my life. Since I couldn't (and still can't) afford to hire an entire orchestra to perform my compositions, this was the first time I was able to create multiple instrumental tracks and have them sound half decent. I spent more time with this keyboard than I can even remember and managed to crank out over 300 minutes of music using nothing more than this solid machine. If it had been a woman I'm pretty sure I would have slept with it. (Ok, who am I kidding. At this point in my life I would have slept with the Casio from four sections ago...)
Living a Dual Life
By the time I started college at the University of Utah I was completely dedicated to becoming a composer. Unfortunately my father was completely dedicated to talking me out of it. So, like countless other college students, I lived a double life, dividing my time between writing music at night and doing my best to ignore my business classes during the day. At least I managed to sneak in some graduate level classes on Audio Engineering and Experimental Composition, the latter of which I realize now would have been far more enjoyable and comprehensible had I shown up to class in the same condition as my professor.
That's Jazzy
Following graduation I quickly discovered that someone with my qualifications would have no trouble finding a top-flight job in either the food service or housekeeping industries. So I became a server, which allowed me to continue working on music and provided enough flexibility to book the occasional piano gig. I played jazz clubs, coffee shops, weddings and fundraisers. But the first show I ever actually sold tickets to was at "Cup of Joe" in downtown Salt Lake City. It raised enough money to produce my first album, Perspectives. I still owe a huge debt of gratitude to everyone who showed up that night to support me because it would prove to be the catalyst for everything that followed.
City of Angels
I don't have enough adjectives to describe my time in LA. For three years I had the privilege of learning from, working with, conducting and recording some of the world's most accomplished musicians. I attended UCLA full-time during which I composed over 30 pieces of music for a range of instruments and genres. I worked 3 jobs. I played piano in a restaurant, rocked out with Josh Green, networked, served food and drink to famous people and snuck leftovers to the less fortunate artists who hung out around the restaurant. It was, hands down, the most amazing time of my life. The knowledge and experience I gained is vast, incomparable and invaluable.