So, since so many people ask me how I got started in the music industry and who my influences are I thought I'd put some thoughts down on paper, uh, I mean, the web, as sort of my memoirs. I don't plan on dying anytime soon so I hope to not have this complete for a long time. Enjoy!
My first memory of really listening to music came I would think in the mid 70's when I was about 6-7 years old. My parents gave me a copy of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour album, on vinyl of course. I remember pretty much wearing that record out. Prior to that my only musical memory is of my Dad cranking John Denver and other folk types on the stereo downstairs on Saturday mornings while whipping up some pancakes. My Dad was an amateur musician who played saxophone and clarinet. I heard him play sax a few times and looking back, he was pretty decent. He also listened to Jim Croce, Carly Simon, Simon and Garfunkel and, ugh, Judy Collins. The others I could deal with, Judy... not so much. I particularly liked S&G, those harmonies are unbelievable. I don't remember my Mom ever having any say in the musical choices, or any desire to.
The VERY Beginning...
Phase II, MTV & New Wave
So, I basically wore out that Beatles album and then I guess I lost track of what was going on in the music world. The next thing I remember was starting to hear some British punk and the early examples of new wave in the late 70's. As that morphed into the early 80's I started to really listen. By this time I was 11-12 years old and starting to realize that I really enjoyed listening to music. MTV was born in 1981 and while we didn't get it in our house until some time later many friends had it and we were GLUED to it. It had a way of making us feel like we were hip, cool and connected to people all over the world. Obviously it was pretty much all new wave and hair metal at the time. I can recall distinctly many videos by Duran Duran, Def Leppard, Gary Numan, The Buggles, The Police, U2, so many cool acts. It was during this time that I used my own money to buy my very first album which was "Business As Usual" by Men At Work. They had videos on MTV which were kind of weird from an American POV. What the hell is vegemite anyway? So, by now I am pretty much becoming obsessed with MTV and music in general, specifically British new wave and Duran Duran. I was a "Durannie" before anyone else I can remember. So I saved up a few bucks and bought their self-titled debut album. I played that album so often it wore out in no time and had to buy another copy. I had to play it on my parent's stereo since I didn't have one of my own yet, I was only 12 I think. I ended up buying 3 copies of that album since I played 'em so often, much to Mom and Dad's chagrin. I was starting to realize that music meant more to me than just a form of entertainment. Those songs really spoke to me and I listened. Soon after DD put out that first album here in the states they followed up with "Rio" which blew my mind. The songs were so well crafted and sounded so good I was hooked. The related videos were very cool and very influential to me as far as hairstyles and clothing but I was way more into the songs and began to really listen as to how they were made. It was around this time that I began to read liner notes in earnest to see where things were produced, recorded and by whom. My interest in the technical side of things was really beginning to blossom. If I remember correctly it was about this time that I asked to start taking bass lessons since it was the basslines on the DD albums that my ear seemed to stay hooked on. John Taylor was, and still is a genius in my opinion. I found out later that he is very well respected in music circles among pros who understood how good and influential he is. My Dad agreed to get me lessons but pointed out that since the bass is primarily a monophonic instrument, it might be better to learn to play the keyboard first. His logic, always sound and thoughtful, was that since you can play basslines with your left hand and learn chords and music theory a lot better on the black and whites I would likely be a better all-around musician. He was of course correct but I wasn't thrilled. I really wanted to play bass. But I begrudgingly started keyboard lessons on a cheesy little Casio preset keyboard bought from one of those generic music stores they used to have in every mall. As it turns out I discovered that I have a pretty good ear and was able to pick out many of the parts I was hearing on my favorite albums. As I was now a keyboard player I listened more closely to those parts and discovered a whole new world that I had almost ignored previously. I soon began to develop a serious appreciation for keyboards, specifically the synthesizers that were so popular at the time and having a huge influence on the current music scene. Soon my walls were covered in ads from Roland and Sequential Circuits for their synths cut out from "Keyboard" magazine, to which I was now subscribed and absolutely hooked on. I also started getting into sequenced, electronic music in general, though I never lost my appreciation for the live aspect of music creation and performance. Even well known 'electronic' bands like OMD, Depeche Mode and Gary Numan/Tubeway Army had a significant live element to all their stuff. Around this time I was also starting to go to concerts, as many as I could. Where I grew up in Stony Brook we had a big university there and the student council brought in some seriously cool acts. I saw The Alarm , The Hooters, Paul Young, Billy Idol and many, many others. I didn't get to see Duran Duran live until 1984, when they played at Madison Square Garden. My mom got the tickets and took me into the city to the show. Amazing concert from what I remember. Also in '84 I went to Germany on a student exchange program. Being in Europe during this time was cool since because much of the new, cool, cutting edge music came from Europe they would have it in stores long before we could get it in the states. So we were all able to get our hands on some cool stuff that wasn't available to us back home. Among that stuff was an album called "Forever Young" by a band called Alphaville. These guys quickly became one of my absolute favorite artists. Their debut album was chock full of great synth arrangements and orchestrations. They took what was being done with synths at the time up a notch. A number of us brought that album back with us and soon afterward the song "Forever Young" was a mainstay at proms and being covered by other artists. Still to this day you can hear that song all over, like in the movie "Napoleon Dynamite."
Phase III, Clubs & More...
The next few years of Junior HS and Senior HS was more of a continuation of the previous few years more than anything. New bands emerged (The Cure, Nik Kershaw), new technology (Simmons Drums, the Fairlight CMI) and I absorbed every bit of it. When I was a senior in HS (or maybe a junior) I met a punky girl named Spike through a mutual friend. She was a bit older but way cool and she basically ruined any possibility of me having any spare cash from my job at the yacht club as a dishwasher/bus boy/waiter. Here's why: not only did she introduce me to all kinds of new music I had to buy she also took me to the first club I ever went to, Paris, NY - even though I was only 15 and obviously not technically allowed in. She knew the owner so he hooked me up. Holy shit, this place was cool. Paris, NY was a very hip, influential club that played all the newest and coolest stuff from all over the world. New wave, industrial, new beat, they played all of it...loudly. The very first song I heard walking in there was "Warm Leatherette" by The Normal. Hearing that song pour out of the big bins they had for speakers at an ear-crushing volume with all the lights going blew my mind. I ended up going to Paris every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for years, as often as I could. All the freaks in that place were so cool and despite what you'd think by looking at them, very approachable and friendly. I made lots of friends in there. I got to know the dj named Slave quite well. He recommended lots of stuff to buy, also damaging my disposable income. In the years to come Slave and I would become friends and formed an industrial/experimental music project called "Vampyre Circus" which lasted for some time, put forth quite a bit of cool music and was again, very influential in my growth as an engineer/producer.
