About Me
I grew up in Northwest Indiana, about an hour outside of Chicago. I started playing drums when I was 16 and had a band lined up before I even got my kit (Skunked Brew..haha). We played cover songs and a few originals - played mostly graduation parties, but we did manage to take 2nd place at a Battle of the Bands which was totally exciting back then (I might even upload a video clip from it...it was a riot). I recorded a demo with a friend, and several years later I played with some friends a recorded two demos with our metal band, Snuffleupagus (which later became Morthona); we also played some parties and a local metal show, and we did get several reviews in a few big metal magazines.
After high school, I went to school @ Purdue University (Lafayette, IN) for a year but decided that it wasn't for me and that I wanted to follow music. In 1995, I transferred to Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. There I studied music, music, and more music. I had classes in pitch recognition, music theory, classical music, counterpoint, conducting, performance techniques, contract negotiation, music publishing, music business, basic accounting, technology in music business, and more. While I was a Music Business/Management major, I (of course) did lots of playing and took as many drum classes as I could fit in. I studied linear drumming, rudiments, chart reading, latin, jazz, funk, odd-time signatures and polyrhythms, double bass among other things. I also had the opportunity to play in a number of recording projects ranging from Led Zeppelin sound-alikes to moch band demos to tv commercial soundtracks to radio jingles. I also played in a number of recitals and school shows, as well as several musicals over at Harvard University.
Eventually, I met a few like-minded friends, and we ended up starting the metal band KEVORKIAN . We played shows all over the New England area, received radio play on a considerable list of stations across the country, received reviews from numerous magazines/webzines across the world, played live on the radio once in town (WERS 88.9FM "Nasty Habits"), and we recorded a 4-song demo which we pushed ALL OVER THE WORLD. The band ended up moving to NYC in September 2001, just before 9/11. We eventually recorded a full-length album which was released in October 2002, and we continued to play tons of shows throughout NY, NJ, and PA (including CBGBs - RIP!) with bands such as Immolation, Arsis, Dying Fetus, Enslaved, Goatwhore, etc for several years. We continued to receive reviews and acclaim in various media (including Metal Maniacs magazine and PureRockFury.com) as well as airplay on several radio/web stations (including WSOU in NJ). In 2004, the track "In The Name of the Father" was picked by Matthew Blanchard (Shadow's Fall) to be included on Lifeless Records' "Treasury of Sorrows" compilation, and Sky Records signed two KEVORKIAN songs to be included on their "From the Shadows: Metal for the Modern Era" compilation next to such metal greats as Strapping Young Lad, Anthrax, Mastodon, and Dillinger Escape Plan. I continued playing with KEVORKIAN until the end of 2005, when I left to pursue other interests in my life.
