the Band

I started playing guitar at the age of 12 - that year I stumbled across a picture of the Beatles in my parents ’1964 Year in Review’ encyclopedia, and I had this powerful reaction…I remember feeling excited at discovering something that I knew from the picture was important, and yet disappointed when I realized I had missed something by being born a decade too late. I asked for an acoustic guitar and started taking guitar lessons in middle school while learning as many Beatles songs as I could in the evenings. 

A couple years later, my guitar teacher asked me if I wanted to join the jazz band and play bass guitar. This was a very strange request, as I had no real interest in playing bass, didn’t really know how to read music well much less understand “jazz” and, most importantly, did not own a bass guitar. I remember walking into the band room one afternoon and seeing the bass guitar case that belonged to the kid who was currently playing bass - looking around quickly to make sure I was alone, I popped the case open to take a look. My first thought was astonishment at how BIG the strings were… he had an Ibanez bass, dark chocolate brown in color, and all I could think about was how expensive and cool it looked. I quickly ran my fingers over the strings and then closed it up, fearing I would get caught. But, I resolved on that day to somehow, someway, learn how to play bass.

I spent the next few years learning how to write songs - my first attempt was a rewrite of a classic Burger King jingle, and I wrote a lot of songs I would charitable classify as “weird”. I had a growing desire to learn how to record songs - my dad had a two-track reel to reel machine that was fun to play with, but I knew multitrack recording was the key to unlocking how to make a “real” record. I took an electronic music course in community college that let students work on an 8-track recorder, and that sparked a burning desire to get my own multi-track recorder, which I did in 1985, our beloved Fostex X-15.

I met Kevin the same year, 1985, right before I left to attend college at the University of Oregon. That year, all I could think about was writing and recording songs, and I would come back on the weekends to stay up with Kevin all night in his apartment and record songs on that little 4-track. We were learning the craft of songwriting, and I was learning how to play bass - thankfully Kevin stuck with me as I burdened him with bizarre bass lines and even more bizarre drum programming. We learned a lot from each other.

In 1989 I moved to Portland and started taking a vocational music program at Portland Community College. The following year I answered an ad for a bass player and met Daryl. After introducing him to Kevin, we formed Signal Corps and played various open mic nights in Portland for the next couple of years. After taking a long vacation, here we are today, ready to make some new music.

My drumming journey began in the 6th grade with my desire to play trumpet. My mom was supportive of my desire to learn music but she was also wise and knew that kids at this age are interested in all sorts of things that they don’t always stick with. And a trumpet was expensive. She suggested I start with learning the snare drum (the school provided the drums and percussion equipment) and then if I still showed interest, we could look into getting me a trumpet. So I started out with a pair of sticks and a drum pad and began learning rudiments like flams, paradiddles, and double-stroke rolls.

Around this same time, I was becoming exposed to modern music through my older friends, one in particular who had a drum set in his bedroom and one day I heard him playing through his open window. He invited me inside and I watched, along with his girlfriend, as he played along to some popular songs and I thought this was pretty cool. The raw power and intensity of the sound left an immediate impression. So did the fact that his girlfriend seemed to be really into his drumming as well.

Eventually, I got my first used set of drums at 14 and began years of playing along to records of my favorite drummers; Neil Peart, Phil Collins, Stewart Copeland just to name a few. I didn’t really begin taking drumming seriously as a potential career though until the late 80s. In 1989 I enrolled in the Summer Session at the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA. Without any formal lessons, it was soon apparent I had picked up a lot of bad playing habits. I spent almost as much time unlearning things as I did learning new things.

I returned home to Portland and began looking for musicians to put together a band. I met a keyboardist and soon after, Jim and Kevin and eventually Signal Corps was formed. We produced a full length CD and played the local clubs before eventually disbanding. I continued to play with various other groups, making money where I could doing covers, studio work, teaching lessons and even playing on a music production library for advertisers and radio stations.

I walked away in 2000 to pursue a more “normal” life, find some stability, pay off a lot of debt and try to otherwise give myself a shot at some future security - always with the intent to come back to music in a few years. But a few years became 20 and it took tragedy in the passing of my drumming hero, Rush’s Neil Peart, to prompt a reunion of my friends Jim and Kevin (also Rush fans) and the decision to work together again. 20 years is a long time away but in many respects it almost feels as though I never really left. The music was always tucked away somewhere inside me.

Here’s to second chances and new frontiers.