I've been a passionate and professional musician for over 30 years and an audio engineer for nearly as long. My primary focus is on writing and composition, specifically film scoring, but I love it all; performing, writing, teaching, production, engineering, and above all, experimenting and learning.
The following sections comprise several "mini-resumes", with highlights of my experiences in specific areas in the business of music, audio, and entertainment. A few items may repeat because they fit in several categories.
Some of this stuff has worked its way into IMDB. Check that out here: IMDB
I am a musical experimentalist. An outsider with a unique view of the world, I have both a lyrical mission and a musical mission.
Lyrically, I just want to play and have fun. I love words and language. There are no new stories, only new ways to tell them. I love using words to present those stories in ways that are new, unique, playful, and insightful. For those that want to get straight to the point, I may disappoint, but the language lover who lingers over every line will love my lyrics.
Musically, my mission is much different: to promote the new musical genre boundaries. I am here to serve those listeners (their numbers are legion) who don't give a rat's patootie about the old, traditional genre boundaries. I've played in a very broad range of musical styles, performing jazz, classical, rock, pop, R&B, blues, country, bluegrass, avant garde, and probably some others. I love aspects of every one of these genres, but this broad experience has taught me what my audience already knew: all these artificial boundaries really reduce to two very simple, easy to understand genres: "good music" and "bad music".
Although I prefer to focus my efforts writing in the first genre ("good music"), occasionally I write a piece in the second genre ("bad music"). At first, this may seem undesirable, but I feel better when I realize that writing the occasional piece of "bad music" makes me well versed in every genre!
I am not an artist who has "found his voice" and "has something to say". Unlike these artists, I will never use my "one voice" to say my "one thing" over and over in every song until you are bored to tears. Think of me more along the lines of Vaudeville or Ed Sullivan or Circus Contraption (total sidetrack: if you haven't seen Circus Contraption - many people haven't - they're the circus troup that makes Cirque du Soleil look like a reading of the dictionary). If you like meatloaf for every meal, you probably won't like me. If you like a little variety and a little risk; if you're the type to try grubs in Africa and kim chee in Korea, you might appreciate my music.
I am not "easy listening". I am sudoku, crossword, rubik's cube, a thoughtful, interactive experience. I expect my listener to do half the work and the listener that does is rewarded. I do apologize for those cases where I've made the listener do more than half the work; that's not intentional, just poor craftsmanship on my part. Maybe someday I'll write "music to relax by", but for now I write "music to listen thoughtfully to".
Rough comparisons and influences: Frank Zappa, They Might Be Giants, John Cage, Tom Waits, Krystof Penderecki, Edgard Varese, Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, Lynard Skynard, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Kronos Quartet.