I'm a multi-instrumentalist/audio-manipulator/ engineer/producer and owner/operator of Seizures Palace Recording in Brooklyn, NY. I've started this site to highlight the music-performance aspect of my career (for more on my engineering/production credits, go to the Seizures Palace site below). I am currently a member of the Blue Prostitutes (with Vinnie Paternostro, Aaron Moore, and Sam Lohman), a member of Hallux (with Andrew Barker, Hans Chew, and Jake Klotz), a sometimes member of Steve Mackay & Radon Ensemble, and an ex-member of Pineal Ventana, Victory Girls & Deity 5000. If you want to know about this in excruciating detail continue reading.
I started playing violin at age 6 in Macon, GA and played the instrument seriously until halfway through my college-career when I realized I didn't have the chops to keep up in a very competitive market. On occasion I still pick it up and scratch away for a recording project, but I am woefully out of practice.
I started playing guitar half-heartedly at age 9 but didn't really take it seriously until I got my Les Paul when I was 14. At around the same time (maybe I was 12), I acquired an orange-sparkle drum kit from my best-friend's older brother and drums quickly became my favorite instrument (much to my parents' dismay). Although I played around on basses from time to time, I didn't really seriously start playing until a line-up change in Pineal Ventana forced me to switch to bass. Nowadays, bass is my main instrument.
At age 16, I got a Tascam Porta 05 4-track cassette recorder and I've been recording ever since (although the 4-track is long gone).
I started playing in bands at age 16 with Acacia (a suburban-Atlanta band that lasted from 1986-1988 but never released anything - which is probably a good thing). I then went away to college to concentrate on violin and aside from a short-lived project with friend Peter Fletcher in 1990, didn't play in an organized group until 1992.
In 1992, Curt Hagemeier (an old bandmate from high school) asked me to play drums in his metal-industrial band Deity 5000 which up until that time had been Curt, Ryan Taylor (aka Tayo) and a drum machine. Other members to join D5K were Derek Bentley, Chris Veach, Joe Stephenson and none other than Christopher T. Jackson (aka Jackson). Deity 5000 lasted until 1996 but never released anything (other than self-released cassettes) despite several excellent studio recordings.
Deity 5000 had rehearsed at Black Box Studios in Atlanta next to Pineal Ventana's room and I had become friends with the band during this time (in fact D5K had even played a show with PV in Augusta, GA in '95). After D5K disbanded, Mitch (of PV) directed me to his old King Kill/33 bandmate Chris Swartz who was looking for a drummer for his new electro-prog project. I joined, but after 3 or 4 months of work, I learned that Travis had left Pineal Ventana and the band was looking for a replacement. As fate would have it, the next day Mitch came to the record store where I worked and I expressed my interest in the project. My first show with PV was in November of 1996 opening for Melt-Banana at Dottie's. I stayed with PV until the end came in June 2001. During this period, we released 3 full-length CDs (Breathe As You Might, Malpractice, and Axes to Ice), the Expel E.P, and appeared on a few compilations including a Magnet Magazine comp and the Our Heat (Your Moisture) comp released by PV's Mitchell Foy and Clara Clamp. For more on Pineal Ventana please visit the MySpace page below.
When PV broke up, I formed the short-lived Victory Girls with PV's Clara Clamp, Shane Pringle, and Lindell Todd. The other members were Shane Sanders (Ultra-Babyfat) and Jeremy Kleine (Who Killed Teacher). Clara's pregnancy and my subsequent move to Brooklyn ended Victory Girls after 6 months.
Seizures Palace had existed as Pineal Ventana's project studio in the basement of Clara's East Atlanta house and had continued through the Victory Girls, but Clara's pregnancy meant that was an impossibility for the future. Pineal Ventana had recorded 2 of the full-length CDs with Martin Bisi at BC Studio in Brooklyn, and as luck would have it I had visited Martin a month before and he expressed interest in having another studio move into the very large space to bring overhead costs down. A few phone calls later and the ball was in motion. Seizures Palace Recording has now been in Brooklyn since April of 2002 and I've recorded over 50 records there including albums by Angels of Light, Devendra Banhart, Khanate, Akron/Family, A.R.E. Weapons, The Unlovables, Chicha Libre, and OvO, as well as many others. Please check out the Seizures Palace MySpace site below for more info.
The studio has kept me from performing much in the last 6 years, but I've managed to spare some time for a few projects. I played drums for a short tour and recording for Sikhara in 2003. I've played bass sporadically for Steve Mackay (of Stooges "Funhouse"-fame) & Radon Ensemble including a WFMU show (2 songs of this show were released on the Tunnel Diner LP by QBICO Records). And I've filled in on bass for a couple of shows for Cyclone 60. I am currently playing bass in the newly-formed Blue Prostitutes which features the all-star line-up of Vinnie Paternostro (Temple of Bon Matin), Sam Lohman (Cash Slave Clique, Nimrod, 36), and Aaron Moore (Volcano the Bear). A track we recorded with Steve Mackay was just released on a WFMU compilation of tracks from Live at WFMU. You can only get it if you contribute to WFMU during their fund drive. WFMU rules, give what you can. I also curate/produce an improv series at the studio under the moniker Ghosts of Seizures Palace. I invite certain combinations of musicians, throw 'em in a well-mic'd room and record the output. At the end of the night, I often sit in with the ensemble. There will be a MySpace page devoted to this in the very near future.
Thanks for visiting.
hallux live at glasslands (brooklyn) october 14th, 2008 from Acid Marshmallow II on Vimeo .
