Hello, and thanks for checking out my website.
Music has been in my life ever since I can remember anything, really. Before I was old enough to go to school, I learned how to use my mom's stereo, and I would listen to all kinds of music all day long... ALWAYS VERY LOUD. Sometimes if I really liked a song, I would play it over and over again, driving everyone crazy. My mom eventually moved the stereo into my room, where I could shut the door and not bother everyone so much.
My grandfather and my uncle played in bands, and could play all kinds of instruments. I would watch them play, and I would always grab the guitar. My uncle noticed this and gave me an acoustic guitar, but it was too big for me to play. So, I pretended to jam, made up silly songs, and eventually broke the guitar, treating it more like a toy than an instrument. Of course, I wanted another guitar after that, but my parents waited a little, until I was old enough to respect and learn on the instrument, rather than pretend and break it.
I pretty much taught myself how to sing and play guitar. Before I was 10, my parents booked me for guitar lessons, but I hated them and quit. Still, I would practice to the music I played on the stereo in my room, and I started to write my own songs. Finding my own voice singing, and on the guitar, was most important to me. Though I was always influenced by other musicians, I wanted to sound like myself and not be a copycat (meow).
As the teen years rolled in, I started meeting friends at school who played music too. Sometimes we would skip school altogether just to go someplace else to jam. When we could, we would get together anywhere. Houses, garages, basements, parks, mountain tops, the woods, the river; it seemed like all we wanted to do was party and play music.
When I turned 16 and was old enough to drive, I started going to coffee shops to play my songs. I met a lot of musicians at those places who were trying to do the same thing as me (play our own songs). I loved playing the coffee shops, and had a great time hanging out there, but it wasn't enough for me. Sometimes I would sneak into bars to play open mics, and I noticed right away that playing at a bar, was a lot different than playing at a coffee shop. People wanted to live it up at the bar. They wanted to drink and dance all night, and they expected you to play songs that they yelled out and requested. If you could play the song they wanted to hear, they might buy you a beer, and you'd get hired to play some gigs.
By the time I was 21, I was playing in bands at the local bars. Sometimes I would be in several bands at the same time. I didn't care what type of music I played, because I just wanted the experience of playing different music to different crowds of people. Festivals, carnivals, picnics, parties, bars, clubs, weddings, dances, benefits, biker rallies; I've got some good stories to tell.
Recording music also became another fascination for me, and I started hanging out in recording studios as much as I could. My first experiences recording were mostly demos made with bands for press kits, session work for projects that needed a guitar player, or arrangements for a song. It wasn't until Queen Anne's Revenge that some of my own music would be released to the public on disc. Ozone Riders and Street Machine are other bands that I recorded with, and I've played lots of shows with all three bands. These days, I find myself in a recording studio just about every week, doing some kind of project of my own, or with other musicians. Who says you can't have a good time in a recording studio and have fun making music?
After doing several projects, I decided to get back to my own music. “See You At The Stage Door” was my first release as a solo artist. It was recorded with one microphone hanging from the ceiling, at Captain Kidd's Arr Bar, and was a great time to remember. After I released “See You At The Stage Door,” I decided to do this website. Matt Yankovich is "the man" I got to design it, and if it were not for him, it might not be here. You can check his other work out at www.dragonwolfdesign.com.
For my next project, I decdied to record my songs at Paul Wasser's Gargoyle Recording Studios. Named "Ocean Waves," it's a fantasy album about my love for the sea, and living a life as one with it. This album was made with several of my friends, and released in the Summer of 2013.
After Ocean Waves was recorded, I decided to put a band together with Kevin Snyder, focusing on orginal music. He's a close friend of mine who writes his own music under the name, "Moonlight Tide." We booked a show, but had no bass player. Eddie Zimmermann, who is another close friend of mine, writes his own music and offered to fill in on bass (Thanks Eddie). We played our first show together under the name KEG, which stands for Kevin, Eddie and Greg. We are still currently recording and playing shows together under this name and released a demo CD in 2015.
I also released my third solo album in the Summer of 2015, called "High On The Mountain." It's an upbeat-dose of Honky Tonk songs I wrote and recorded at Gargoyle Recording Studios. I currently have three other solo records in mind for the future. Which one will come out next? Who knows. Time will tell.
Thanks for visiting my website. Take care, stay well and hope to see you soon.