Born a poor Chinese kid in Soho, Derek Lawrence was actually born American in Bowling Green, KY in 1972 and stuck around to see what would happen. Starting out on his sisters upright piano around the age of 5, he discovered a love of music and the sounds that came from musical instruments (as well as whatever else was within reach that he could bang on) Turning his attention to guitar at age 13, he began listening more intently to songs by Prog-rock bands like Rush & Yes, as well as the Beatles ,Bluegrass, Led Zeppelin, James Taylor and 'Jazzers' like Joe Pass and Tal Farlow.
Skip to the nineties: Derek enjoys some success with the band Antietam from 1992-2000. They recorded an album that spawned singles that were in regular rotation at many major FM radio stations in the southeastern U.S. Of course, modern technology allows a young band to be heard worldwide in the time it takes to convert a WAV. file to an Mp3 file. Derek even got a few royalty checks from a song co-written with fellow Antietam member Kirk Johnson. Their song, "Dangerous Woman" was used in the Fox/Spielberg cartoon series,"Toonsylvania".
So Derek got his first taste of cool stuff like radio interviews, airplay, video production, feature stories in magazines, opening for major label acts, autographs, groupies and royalties during this time with Antietam. Like many other bands, they grew up and broke up.
From 2000-05, Derek hooked up with childhood pal Marty to form Jam Central Station with drummer John Givens,(also from Antietam) playing a few originals and some heavier classic rock like Robin Trower, Black Sabbath, Pink Floyd and Jimi Hendrix tunes. Also during that time, Derek, John, & Donny Hyatt hooked up with Don Thomason to gig as The River Rats doing mostly vocal-heavy country, some traditional country, and just enough older rock standards to keep busy in clubs.
Derek will most likely continue to play somewhere with somebody in both original endeavors and cover bands until they have to scrape his old, decrepit ass off the stage. "I like most any music thats sincere, music I don't like as much, such as most modern hip-hop and modern country sounds like it was just made for the cash and dumbed down to be easily digestable by the masses. Although i'm a sucker for cheesy 80s stuff and some ear bleeding metal."
He's currently working on new original material and gigging with his brother Frank, on bass and John Givens on drums under the name "Smokewagon", a cover band doing everything from Johnny Cash & The Police, to Jack Johnson & The Clash. You can also catch him playing with various artists around town in "fill-in/hired gun/jam session" gigs here and there. Derek also enjoys typing about himself in the third person.
