There is just me to talk about since I am the only one in the "band". At an early age I was a perpetual whistler. So that really was my first instrument. Then onto the piano at age 8. I just couldn’t get into the instrument and gave up music till I was 11. This is when I discovered the LOW end of things. I learned to play baritone TC. (brass) I played this instrument from grade 5 till grade 12. In grade 7, I was inspired by a local high school band with no bass player. So I asked to play with the guys and had a new bass around my neck the next week. I am an extremely determined person. From that day on I got up early before school and practiced. Then came home for lunch and practiced. Then after school, after supper and before I went to bed. I soon started reading all that I could get my hands on and practicing at least 6-9 hours a day. I got into all the heavy music of the time. Vai, Satriani, Racer X, Extreme, Testament, Living Colour, Malmsteen, Jeff Beck and Mr. Big. I learned all of the heavy bass players material I found interesting. It was Sheehan to Jaco, Muzz Skillings to Claypool. Really anyone who could play fast and was extremely technical I would listen to. I read and read and read and learned all that I could take in a day. Then I wanted to take private theory lessons. I signed up at the college, while I was in high school, and started learning classical theory. Later I was introduced by friends to Jazz theory and studied that for some time. While in high school I asked the band teacher if I could play the bass. It was a resounding YES! I finished my last few years in the school band playing bass and baritone in the classes. Once I felt that I had learned all the wild techniques on the bass, 4 strings just weren’t enough. I went to 5 strings. Then to 6. Finally music was just becoming a blur of notes with no real soul or direction other than to play all the notes on the fret board over the hardest changes I could manage. But it just wasn’t working for me. I would go to bars to play with other people and I didn’t know any of the songs that everyone knew! Nor did anyone know the songs that I knew. I was learning Bela Fleck and practicing to a click. But I didn’t know Bad Moon Rising by CCR. I was an accomplished player and exceeded the players around me but in the end it was about the song and the music and not about the spot that I waited for in the song to show off the noise of techniques I could play. Then Nirvana came a long. Music totally went the other way! You didn’t really need to know how to play just be able to sing and look cool, but it was about the song now not the playing. At this time I was getting better in the band but we needed a singer. I was forced to sing since no one else would! AND did I suck! Like peeling the skin off a cat suck! Not only did I suck at singing I couldn’t play and sing at the same time... total train wreck! BUT determined as I was I learned to not only sing well but sing and play at the same time. So as the years went by I gigged lots and learned lots. As the high school band broke up after almost 7 years together I looked to build a new band. I was very blessed with this band in high school. We all were very determined players. As I looked to build a new band I couldn’t find any guitar players to replace what I once had. Fed up one day I vowed to learn the guitar. To make a long story short after a few years of noodling I now was a fully accomplished lead guitar player. Ya, just like that. Snapped my fingers and I could do it all! I’m joking, it wasn’t that easy. It was difficult and I am still learning to this day. It seemed to be easier to play than the bass since the guitar could drop in and out of a song at any time. It could fall ahead and behind the beat and be sloppy and neat all in the same song. Bass is not able to do that or the whole song/band just falls apart. So here I am writing and learning songs on the guitar and looking for bass players. But wouldn’t you know it. I couldn’t find a bass player I felt was good enough to play with and the cycle started again! SO I got fed up and didn’t care how tight things were and the bands went to crap and the music went to crap. I got bored with being a player... I went into a music store one day to return a silly purchase I made by a pushy salesman and was told that I now had credit in store. I didn’t want anything in there!! So the salesman suggested recording software. Then from that day I learned to record. I bought more and more toys as I read and learned on engineering. Soon my house was filled with recording gizmos. A friend suggested I record his band. I agreed. Then I bought more gear to record the band. Soon I was recording all my friends’ bands and of course buying more and more gear. I was so busy recording that I thought it was only proper than I get some engineering education so I could charge $ for the amount of work I was putting in. I took courses at university and college and worked in a professional recording studio to learn the craft. I came back home after some years. With some money from the family farming business I built and designed a 2200 sqr/ft commercial recording studio to put all this gear that I purchased. I read book upon book upon book and did test upon test upon test. I went to every recording studio I could get into. I viewed pictures on the net of the inside of studios until I felt I could design a studio that utilized all the good things that I liked in every studio I saw. After an extremely large amount of money in gear and the building, I had a professional studio with professional gear to put all my musical crap. I stared a business called Absynthe Recording studio. I recorded over 150 full length albums by myself in 4 1/2 years. I tracked, mixed and mastered and mass produced these all by myself. I put in 18 hours a day sometimes never sleeping for days. THEN...I burned out.. I hated noise I hated music I hated instruments and musicians. People didn’t pay, people complained and after a while I sunk. I soon never opened the doors and just recorded my own songs. I ended up recording over 100 of my own songs in the studio I built. I learned to program all the drums. Play all the guitar parts, bass lines, lead vocals, harmonies, guitar solos, percussion, piano, and synth. I learned to mix and produce music. I experimented with sounds and recording techniques. This is when I really learned to write music. I wrote many a song.. some shat! Some good! I soon sold the business and left all my possessions in storage and took off around the world without a guitar! I vowed never to be involved with music like that again. I didn’t play music for quite a while not even a guitar. I remember driving home from work at the studio and I didn’t listen to the radio in my car or listen to a home stereo or TV when I got home. I started sleeping with ear plugs in since my ears were so sensitive. NOW... After a long time away from music. I am on the internet showing some of the songs I have written and now focused on showing the world what I write! There in short is my story.... Stephen..
