Story

I'm an Arizona native who has spent most of my life involved in music. I started banging on pots and pans around the age of 5, when I also began playing piano by ear. At the age of 13 I joined my first garage band and have been drumming in bands ever since. I’ve been fortunate to have studied with world-renown drummers Gregg Field and Dan Tomlinson and have played & recorded with various bands in L.A., Phoenix, and overseas including The Interpositives, Shake Brigade, The Slims, The Regulars, The Scones, Cadillac Angels, Art Dept., The Walkens, X-Offenders, The Earps, and Tramps and Thieves.

 

In 1986 I moved to Los Angeles to study Recording Arts at USC. While in school I held internships at Motown Records, A&M Records, Avatar Music Publishing/Productions, and KISS-FM Radio. After graduating I got my start in audio engineering at Barbra Streisand’s recording studio, B&J, where I worked on various Streisand albums and projects for clientele including Quincy Jones, Neil Diamond, Sony Records and MCA Music. I continued my education with classes at UCLA in Legal Aspects of Music and Publishing, and Music Production for Television and Film.

 

I returned to Phoenix at the end of 1992 while the local music scene was bustling. I played drums in various local bands throughout the 1990s, starting with The Slims, and contributing original songs and singing in The Regulars, always hoping for that elusive record deal. In 1995 I was hired at 20th Century Fox’s newly opened animation studio in Phoenix and worked there as a sound editor until its demise in June 2000. During that time I won a Golden Reel Award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors organization for dialogue editing on "Titan AE" in 2000, and a nomination for sound editing on "Bartok the Magnificent" in 1999.

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After Fox Animation closed, my career paths converged into HeadPop Inc. – a commercial recording studio/production company I founded to combine my musical talents and professional audio experience. At HeadPop I created original scores and sound design for television, film, radio, Internet, and gaming projects, and provided recording/editing/mixing services for corporate clients and independent musical artists. I also provided voiceover, drumming, MIDI programming, and original songwriting, and produced several albums for Camp Rainbow, a summer camp run by Phoenix Children’s Cancer Center where I volunteered as a counselor for 11 years. In 1996 my music for a local independent film, 122°, won Best Original Score at the Scottsdale Film Festival, and in 2006 I won a Commercial Emmy Award in 2006 for a Phoenix Mercury television spot. Some of this work is showcased on this site. 

 

In between running sessions at HeadPop I worked as an adjunct professor at Mesa and Scottsdale Community Colleges teaching classes on Digital Audio (Pro Tools) and Sound Design for Film. This was a rewarding experience, and a great source of connections for additional audio post-production work.

 

In the fall of 2006, I had a run in with the law and went away for a while. (I sold HeadPop, went to law school, and have been practicing law since 2009.) In 2021 I moved back to Los Angeles where I continue to write music and bang on pots and pans, and remain fascinated with the music genome project, functional MRI-based lie detection devices, the Porcaro shuffle, and Goethe’s command (via Frances McDormand) to “be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid.”

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Oh... and why Toast? Well, my first foray into business was "Toast Service," which I ran out of my bedroom as a child. I'd take toast orders from my brothers via a sign-up sheet on my door, run down to the kitchen, make the toast using ingredients I didn't pay for, and sell it to my two loyal customers at 100% profit. Cinnamon/sugar went for 25 cents a slice, which I saved up to buy records and drumsticks. What does that have to do with music? Nothing but the jam.

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Sic transit gloria.