1. Where did you grow up?
Paramus, NJ. I had the best guitar teacher, Lou Sabini, who introduced me to superb guitarists like Johnny Smith, Buddy Fite, Tal Farlow, and wrote out chord melodies to standards and gave me a solid foundation with Alfred’s, Melbay’s, and Leavitt books. He taught me how to listen and take parts off records so I figured out Steve Howe’s Mood For a Day when I was fourteen yrs old.
2. Who or what influenced you to get into songwriting, and creating music?
The Beatles in 1964, watching them on the Ed Sullivan Show at four years old, blew me away. Then James Taylor in 1974, knocked my socks off. I love Fleetwood Mac, Elton John, George Benson, Stevie Wonder, Carly Simon. I knew I needed a “dream machine” to hear all the parts that were in my head. I was playing with 2 cassette decks and bouncing tracks until my first multi track tape recorder, a Teac A 2340 4 tk machine when I was seventeen.
3. Does songwriting come easy to you? What is your process, do you start with a track, or write, then place the words to music?
It does. I usually start with a guitar idea, but I have written songs whistling melodies through the park, starting the dishwasher and hearing the drone of the machine, playing bits of piano, hearing a phrase and knowing it should be a title, writing a lyric and adding music to that, finding chords to a drum groove, building a sequencer full of sounds and randomly singing and keeping the melody and lyric that happens, and when I hear of ways I haven’t tried, I jump in and write from there. It’s cool to have a number of ways to warm up the creative muscles.
4. You are also a recording engineer. Do you ever drive yourself mad trying to get the best mix on your own song?
Absolutely. But I recently heard about puremix.net and subscribed and have actually been close to tears I was so happy to have finally found the info I’d been craving.
5. Where do you usually record?
Home Studio, PassaBrown Studios
6. Do you perform live often?
I’d like to do more. I was just playing the Bull Run in Shirley, MA with Bird Mancini, and Kate Chadbourne and we had a great show together. I do shows on stageit.com, coffeehouses, house concerts, small theaters, libraries.
7. Out of all your titles, if you had to pick one to best represent you, what would it be?
That’s a hard question because just like my favorite songs of favorite Artists, I love their performance, or I love the song, or I love the sounds, or the arrangement, production, or the mix knocks me out. So I love my own music for various reasons too. I’d have a different answer for a best mix, vs. fond lyric, or cool slide guitar solo, etc. Also because I grew up listening to all kinds of music on the same radio shows and The Beatles were always experimenting and writing in different styles, I follow my curiosity too. I desire to please my own ears and so there’s a variety and blending of styles and grooves.
8. Tell us about your latest project.
My EP, A Parallel Sunrise (an anagram of my name) features Kathy Burkly, Bird Mancini, Norman Zocher and Kate Chadbourne. I love these mixes because they are my latest, greatly influenced by Fab Dupont, John Paterno and Andrew Scheps. I’m so thankful to these Artists for sharing their knowledge on puremix.net.
9. What is your one single Beatles song to play live?
Here Comes The Sun
10. What can we expect from you in 2017?
More EPs, singles, shows, pictures, videos on youtube, collaborations, and fun.