How long have you been playing music?
I started playing guitar when I was eight. My uncle taught me some of the basics: how to read music, basic chords, etc. I began music lessons on the guitar with a professional teacher (Sandy Jackentell) when I was about 11. I stayed with Sandy till I was about 16. I have studied off and on over the years with some great teachers. I studied guitar and music theory with The Peabody Institute’s Lawrence Hoffman, Sanjay Mishra (known for his Blue Incantation collaboration with The Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia), and Herman Meyer of the Washington Conservatory of Music.
When and how did you first become interested in music?
My aunt Marion had a old upright piano in the basement. When I was about seven or eight, I would go downstairs and bang away on it. I was fascinated by the sounds, the vibrations, the way it made me feel when I got lucky and I happened upon a chord that sounded beautiful. Oddly enough, I never took piano lessons. It was that original piano playing coupled with watching my uncle Bob picking away in his stiff methodical way at his guitar (he was Mensa smart but had absolutely no rhythm) that interested me in music. Every Saturday night Uncle Bob would get out his record collection, and we would listen to Jazz from the 20s, 30s and 40s. When I was 12 he took me to see Carlos Montoya (the great Flamenco guitarist) and I was hooked on guitar.
What are your musical influences?
I grew up listening to jazz with my Uncle Bob, so I always loved it. My grand father (whom I lived with when I was young) listened to classical, and then as a teenager in the 70s I fell into to rock. Into my early twenties I was listening to Carlos Santana, Jeff Beck, Al Dimeola, George Benson, Jim Hall, etc. Certainly John Gorka is an influence – I think he is one of the best songwriters out there today.
What else do you do besides play music?
I write for myself. I have poems and verse, short stories, ideas for stories, lots of bits and pieces scattered over dozens of notebooks. I also dabble in digital photography, after taking thousands of pictures I have few that I think are interesting. I would like to one day take photo courses to learn better how to capture what I see and how to manage light in a creative way. I ride motorcycles with my wife Joan. We usually take two weeks off in the summer and ride upstate to New York and Vermont to escape life and the city grind.
Tell the story behind your favorite song you have written. Why did you write or decide to play that song? What is special about that song?
My favorite song is usually the one(s) I am working on at the moment. I don’t really become attached to one song more than another…or maybe I just let them go and move on. I think Circle Of Clowns was an interesting song to me. I wanted to write about a serious topic – but I wanted it to have a good groove, good melody and still have a strong message. The day we went into the studio it really started taking shape: it had a drive and was delivering the message they way I wanted. I knew we had delivered the message they way I had wished.
What makes this kind of music “good” to you?
I think it is the ability to go in different directions. I really do not write in any one genre or for any specific audience – and that is a “feeling of freedom” in itself. I usually have a song sketched out and know where I want it to go. Nothing is really “scripted” – which gives the other musicians room to bring their own feelings, ideas and musical sense to the recording. A lot of what happened on the project was in “real-time.” If I can take people in to different directions, moods, and feelings then I feel I am doing something good.
What are your three “stranded on a desert island” album choices?
It would be difficult to pick just an album – but if I was lost at sea I would have to have some Miles Davis, Glenn Gould and Billie Holiday.
