1989 | 1992 | 1994 | 1995 | 1999 | 2003 | 2004

In fall of 1989 I started taking piano lessons. I wanted to play the trumpet, but I don't know if I ever told my parents this or not. So I took piano lessons. Not reluctantly, like many kids, but not enthusiastically either. At any rate, I had a good teacher, so I started learning fundamental music theory right away, as well as how to play. This would continue to come in handy in my future!
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In 1992, I left elementary school to attend middle school. With that transition, I also stopped taking piano lessons and joined the school band to learn to play trumpet. Still, I don't know if I had ever revealed that desire to my parents, but they asked if I was interested in band, which I was, so that's what happened. Already, knowing theory and how to read was paying off! By 8th grade, I was one of the three best trumpet players at the school. There's no real way to measure the three of us against each other I guess. It doesn't matter anyway.
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Eighth grade (1994-1995) gave me my first real introduction to sound production. All my life, I have been interested in electronics, circuits, and such, so in fall of 1994, someone offered me a "tour" of my church's sound system. I gladly accepted. After a few training weeks behind the board, I was mixing sound for my church every Sunday or two. This lasted through my departure for college in 1999. Through this experience, I learned a lot about mixing, sound processing, and audio signals. By the time I had left, I was the sound operator who had been working the longest, and I had seen the system undergo several changes, so I learned about the interaction of different components through these changes. Also in eighth grade, I learned my first guitar chords through volunteer lunch-time group lessons at my middle school. It was not very challenging or anything, but it did get me started on the guitar. Also (unrelated) in eighth grade, September of 1994 is when I first signed up for Internet service. This would soon lead to my interest in Web/HTML programming (I was already a computer junkee). Finally, eighth grade is also the year I started delving deeply into the work of the Beatles.
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In 1995, I graduated from middle school and started attending high school. Here, I continued my trumpet training and earned a good seat in my concert band and respect from the upper classmen, who would provide additional lessons through example over my high school career. I also continued running the sound at church. These two activities resulted in my recording several demo tapes for my bandmates over my four years of high school. Unfortunately, I did not archive copies of these tapes for my own records. There is one in particular that I would love to track down. For three of my high school years (not freshman year), I was involved in the jazz band, so I learned all about a different style of music this way. This was what got me listening to KCSM instead of KKSF! These high school experiences lead me to say that I am a "classically trained and jazz experienced" trumpet player. It was also during high school (sophomore year) that I co-wrote the Band Dictionary and then wrote it as HTML. It was my biggest Web publication to date. In high school, my appreciation of popular music grew substantially. I finally moved on from the oldies station to listen to classic rock and "discovered" a wealth of "new" artists this way. I also started listening to some contemporary music, but felt like most of it was not worthwhile. Looking back, I see that I was right! I was interested by some bands, like U2 (I kept hearing several songs from the Joshua Tree), Weezer (they often played Say It Ain't So), and Radiohead (Creep and Karma Police). I also liked telling myself that I could play the guitar, even though I couldn't really even change between the chords I knew. Nevertheless, I decided to start my songwriting career and "wrote" several songs, one of which I have now recorded.
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In 1999, I graduated high school and headed to college at UCSB. Here, I did not join the band (the music program isn't stellar, plus I did not have much time due to what I thought would be a tight engineering schedule), so I ended up really learning to play the guitar. I mean, it was sitting in my dorm room, asking to be played! I had some worship songs I wanted to learn, so I started that way. Soon, I started playing with my Bible study and attending practices for my fellowship's praise band. Through these two ways my freshman year, I learned a lot about playing the guitar. On some of my trips home for holidays, I would record my friends at my old church. This is the manner in which Leaving Mediocrity and Ignorant Youth's Demo EP were recorded. (Ignorant Youth was over Christmas break, and Leaving Mediocrity was sometime in the spring, like near Easter.) I was put in charge of sound operations for my fellowship's large, quarterly public events, called "The Soundcheck." These events were held in IV Theater and included a live band, speakers, skits, and videos. Needless to say, there was a lot involved! I had to collect all the equipment we were to use from various sources (some we owned, much we borrowed, and a little we rented). I always ended up renting a 24-channel mixer from Luner's in Santa Barbara. Some samples of those recordings are available on the Soundcheck page. I think I have others on tapes burried somewhere in some box. I've moved around so much that it'll take a while to find these! Anyway, the point is that I continued doing live mixing for all sorts of sound through these events my first two years of college. The summer after my freshman year, I had a job and nothing immediate to spend the money on, so I bought an electric guitar. I also bought a bass from a friend who was getting rid of it. I think that summer, I made some analog multi-track recordings of me playing acoustic guitar and bass. Sophomore year, I started getting into the rotation with my praise band, playing electric guitar. So I bought an amp over Thanksgiving break and started collecting effects pedals. Dave Haq mentored me a lot that year, and I learned a lot about effects from him. Generally, I do not like a lot of effects, but I have a lot at my disposal and try to use them only fittingly. For the entirety of my junior, senior, and super-senior years (my 5th year was only one quarter), I continued playing guitar (and sometimes bass) for the praise band. Usually electric, sometimes acoustic. Another result of playing guitar in college was that I met other guitarists. Born was a desire to learn to play other peoples' songs so that I could jam with friends. Learning how to play the likes of the Beatles, U2, and others definately helped my playing ability and my ear for arranging, something that has always interested me. Also in college, through my friends, I gained an appreciation for more obscure music. This includes the likes of Radiohead (after OK Computer), Sigur Ros, the Pixies, St. Germain, John Coltrane's Ascension, DJ Shadow, and the Velvet Underground, who are now one of my biggest influences.
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2003 was the year I started multi-track recording my own material on the computer. Well, technically, I started in 2002, but it was the last week of the year, so I'm not gonna count it. I had to stay in Isla Vista for most of Christmas break to work, so over that break, I finally got some multi-track software for the computer. With a nearly-empty house, I started recording. My first project, A New Start, was completed in only one day: New Years Day, 2003 (though that was not the first take). Occasionally throughout 2003, I got more chances to work on projects. But, as I prefered to work alone (with an empty house), I did not get many such opportunities. I did record a few songs. I also recorded the Love Hurts soundtrack with Brendan Getzell in May of 2003. However, this was the real start of my songwriting and recording experiences, and the start of One Hour Home.
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In December of 2003, I graduated from UCSB and moved to Homewood, CA to work at Squaw Valley USA ski resort. Being finally (mostly) alone, I started doing a lot more recording. I worked on a lot of projects that I had derived in Santa Barbara, as well as writing more frequently. Most of the songs on the upcoming One Hour Home were recorded in Homewood. During the summer of '04 I traveled to Europe. Upon arriving back in the States, I moved in to my old house in San Jose, where the remainder of One Hour Home was recorded, including some material that was written in or following Europe.
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