Biography

Having grown up in New Jersey, I remember being 16 and going to my friend’s house. He was a fantastic drummer, and the rest of us would just stand and watch and listen in awe as he played along to a cd with headphones on. When I was there, I couldn’t control the stupid grin on my goofy adolescent face. I found my mind blown again and again by music as I grew up, intently dissecting my best friend’s older brother’s vinyl record collection, and making mix tapes that told the stories of our lives.. I followed my best intentions through college in Vermont, and then London and a year in Paris, studying art and architecture, through ten years in California, and then back to New York City. I played a bit as a child, but didn’t really pursue music until college, when I studied in Europe, meeting wacky characters from all over the world, learning songs from them and jamming all night in strange and interesting places. One day, my friends and I were walking down a narrow 15th century Paris street, and someone started singing. We all chimed in, and each of the four of us chose a different harmony on the chorus. When we stopped singing, we looked at each other, and I knew from that moment, music would be the skeleton upon which I would hang the flesh of my life’s experiences.
I moved out to California after graduating and, after a year working carving guitar bodies and campaigning for environmental causes in San Francisco; I immersed myself in the Santa Cruz music scene, playing reggae, blues, and experimental psychedelic funk rock. I eventually spent three years or so studying jazz improvisation and arranging at Cabrillo College, a community college with a passionate and tenacious faculty of Renaissance men and women. I played in a variety of bands and built a studio with my friends, where we recorded local talent and experimented, occasionally receiving visits from some of our heroes when the rolled through town. I recorded with Buddy Miles, and cameoed onstage with Bernie Worrell, sharing the guest spot with Buckethead, who showed me some riffs backstage as we waited to go on.
I returned to my East Coast roots to ply my trade as a songwriter, guitar player, producer, and recording engineer. I also mix live shows, and have worked with and met so many inspiring people that I am constantly working on a variety of projects spanning the musical spectrum. My foundation, though is songs, and as long as they keep coming to me, I’ll be somewhere singing and playing them on my guitar.