Believe it or not, my musical existence started in the form of playing clarinet in the fifth grade. This certainly gave me an appreciation for classical music, but I just had a real problem with the musical director at the time. So, I quit and didn't do another thing (musically) until 1986 when I started teaching myself how to play the drums (see the full story on the home page).
Starting out was like anything else new-- you work at it and work at it, and wonder if you'll ever get any good at it. Of course, I didn't take the easy approach. Neil Peart had made a big impact on me a few years earlier, and one of my favorite records at the time was Rush, Moving Pictures. In addition, were two other favorites of mine in those days-- Accept, Restless and Wild and Metallica, Master of Puppets. As you can see, I decided to "start small" and learn these tunes note for note (well, insofar as I could anyway).
The band "thing" had started almost immediately after I started playing drums. This made playing with other musicians a very natural thing from the start. However, it wasn't the bass that I found myself "locking into" when I was playing (although it is said that drummers are supposed to listen primarily to the bass and vice-versa). Instead I found myself listening to the guitar for my inspiration. For me, the rhythm section is very important, but the guitar usually holds the majority of the melodic structure, the rhythms for the song, and about 50% of the emotional content (the other half being sent out by the vocalist). When I listened to my major influences at the time, it seemed like they were playing these drum parts that were accenting the whole band; and especially accompanying the vocals, as they passed through the song. This gave the drums a much more important role in the music than merely keeping time which made the drum parts into these really interesting lines that moved through the song; becoming an intergral part of the listening experience. This became, and is still, my philosophy of playing drums.
As I got more experienced, I also exposed myself to more styles of music. Dave Lombardo's playing with Slayer really gave me a whole new outlook on things like speed, fills, and percussion. Scott Rockenfield's work with Queensryche introduced me to an entirely different approach to portraying emotion through the drums; while the more straightforward drummers like Phil Rudd of AC/DC, Peter Criss of Kiss, and Dave Holland of Judas Priest kept me in touch with the importance of a good solid "back-beat." The band that I was in a the time (VYPER) played a lot of covers from these bands, so I always had these influences.
Little by little, the styles of playing and the music which I came to prefer started to emerge. One of the bands that took me in a whole new direction of thinking had to be Fates Warning. Steve Zimmerman's contribution to The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian had a big influence on what I wanted to do musically. When I heard Mark Zonder's playing style after he joined Fates Warning, I knew that I wanted to start getting more progressive in my own playing. Furthermore, when Mike Portnoy and Dream Theater came along . . . , well let's just say that "clinched it." I wanted to start getting more complex and really start to challenge myself!
So, after having played for four years, I thought it was time to take formal lessons. I figured I was kind of working backwards with this whole thing-- learning how to play a double-bass kit in a thrash band (ROADKILL), then taking lessons to learn my basic snare drum chops! Nevertheless, my training taught me these passed-over elements. Through four years of ensemble work under Dr. Joel Bluestone at Portland State University, I picked up classical and latin percussion; as well as a greatly improved music reading ability.
By the time I graduated (ironically, not with a music degree), I had also picked up a year of classical music theory, and wanted to put all this knowledge to use in writing my own music. Of course, I needed to record this material so that people could hear it and thus, from that point on, I started to teach myself audio engineering.
Over the next several months, my writing got better, the quality and quantity of my equipment improved, and an increasing number of people showed interest in my compositions. Eventually, I got an opportunity as to be a guest composer/scorer for the music in a local theater production. However, my first love of progressive music kept me writing, and with any luck, a CD of my best works will be available around the last part of 2001 (look for it, it will have my name on it . . . you can't miss it!!)
Now, when I was approached about embarking upon the DYOMINACH project, it felt like the right time to get another musical project going. I had built up a small recording studio, had several self-composed songs under my belt, and was generally a more well-rounded musician. I proposed that I would record all the basic tracks for the project at home (partly because I wanted the experience and partly because of the associated cost savings). After some deliberation on the format, we began the writing process. The rest is history.
