Bio
I began studying music in elementary school. I started on the flute, then jumped from saxophone to tuba to trombone. In high school I decided that I wanted to play rock music, so I bought a horrible red electric bass and formed my first band, Repulsions and Afflictions, with a couple of friends. Fortunately, we never recorded any of our basement sessions....
I’ve been writing music since college, and I’ve been studying composition, songwriting, and music theory for many years. Most recently, I studied jazz theory, orchestration and film scoring at the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program.
I currently play bass, guitar, and keyboards, along with trombone, ukulele, miscellaneous percussion, and household objects. I’ve played bass in numerous bands since high school, including What Fell?, the Goat-Footed Senators, the diary of Anne Frank String Quartet, 80 Bones, the Penelopies, the Fireproof Beauties, and with Seattle blues guitarist James Howard. I’m currently playing bass with singer/songwriter Tiger Zane.
In 2004 I wrote a set of two ebooks about Apple’s GarageBand program. Take Control of Making Music with GarageBand was about song construction and composition using loops, and Take Control of Recording with GarageBand covered basic recording techniques. They were published by Take Control Books.
I studied studio art in high school and college, and I still paint from time to time. Most recently I did some penguin paintings which were a lot of fun. It’s a nice change of pace from music, and it helps me to keep the audio portion of my mind clear.
In a former life I was a web and print designer. I still occasionally do some design work, but it’s rare these days.
Photo by Heather Fassio