Hello, I am an outsider. I was always part of a group of people that had a different perception on life and the world. I had a desire to express my alienation, sharing a difference of opinion that did not always agree with the norm. Some view it as pessimism. I view it as realism.
I remember going through my parent’s record collection and uncovering artwork from Graham Nash’s ‘Wild Tales’. I was provoked by its dark cover and the strange psychedelic drawing by Joni Mitchell. Plenty of other albums were in their collection, and I heard more from my mother’s side of the family…this included The Beatles, Chicago, The Doors, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, and many others. Through my cousin, I discovered Styx and plenty of other ‘classic rock’ bands…but the one that really struck a nerve with me was Rush. I remember listening to Hemispheres and Moving Pictures through headphones and being fascinated by the fact that nothing seemed to sound like what they were playing. When I became an awkward, rebellious teenager, I was heavily impacted by early Metallica.
Having a bad stage fright experience in grade school while reciting a poem, I was intimidated by the idea of getting in front of people to recite or perform anything. Eventually, I was encouraged to take guitar lessons. As a ‘southpaw’, I remember my instructor not wanting to teach left-handed guitar playing, so I was forced to learn right-handed. Several years existed between the time I stopped taking lessons and the time I started teaching myself, which was around the age of thirteen. When asked by high school friends to join bands, I always felt a certain distance from it due to my early fears. Out of high school, I finally built enough nerve on a jam night to play Rush’s Red Barchetta in a bar with Jagged Edge, whom my friend, Brian Love, was a lead guitarist and vocalist. As time went on, I started to feel that I was more of a ‘behind-the-scenes’ person, so I went to school for audio engineering and eventually became involved with concert production, touring as part of a lighting crew for a national tour. I always questioned which side of the stage I should be on.
I met Russell Davis and Jason Sweatt from Haltom City, outside of Ft. Worth, Texas, during the early 1990s. We played all-original music in the form of a band named Transient. We had no vocalist, I was writing all the lyrics, and the music was so close to being completely instrumental that we had great difficulty finding the right person to sing my ideas as a lead vocalist. We challenged ourselves musically, but after a few gigs (which generated positive response), a four-piece band never materialized and we disbanded.
Under the moniker ‘Thesis’, I had a brief stint writing songs with a fretless bassist, keyboardist, and singer/songwriter by the name of Bob Diekmeier. Finding a good drummer was our major roadblock, so I took on self-discovery and started to write and record more music on my own. Since then, I've been a 'one-man-band' of sorts. Having a ‘self-taught’ approach to most things in life, I decided to take on learning other instruments and improving my singing, however proficient I may or may not become. I got heavily into using computers for recording a few years later, which increased my ability to expand the music further.
That brings me to Epiphany Wave, which is about the best way I could describe the feeling of expressing myself through music. I never believed in writing ‘hits’, which I find to be a derogatory term. I believe every song should be written as if it was the last, being an individual expression from the others. I strongly believe in having something to say, lyrically. Experimentation with tuning and varied styles has become an interest of mine, as well as finding new ways to color and arrange a song.
I wrote, performed, recorded, and mastered everything you hear on this site. I'm mainly a guitarist and vocalist that dabbles in between. I do not believe that hype or greed should have any place in creating good music. I have influences, but I want to follow my own style. I think you can be successful and honest without becoming a sellout. With those words, I truly hope you enjoy experiencing what I have enjoyed creating.
Stephen David Salazar
