Bio

In the year that the Sex Pistols played their final show and the Dead Kennedys played their first concert, I made my first attempt at doing the rock band thing. Prior to this foray I had only penned songs to try to win the hearts of cute girls. At that time, I was more of a follower and as I had followed my big brother Hans into high school wrestling, I had followed him into music. He played guitar, was self taught and had a knack for writing some catchy music. I got my hands on a drum kit, was schooled at drumming by a friend and I guess my musical journey began. Along with my friends Mark D. and Matt D. a band started to form.

We must of got thousands of cardboard egg crates from my uncle and proceeded to frame, drywall and attached all these egg crates to the inside of my parents garage to make a rehearsal space. My parents seemed to gladly give up the space for the car. They were always supportive of our endeavors. Even the misguided ones.

To make a long story short. Many bands sprung forth from that first one. Over time band members changed and I had gravitated to guitar and songwriting. We had some silly names and wore some even sillier clothes but looking back, those were some of the happier moments of my life. There is nothing quite like spilling your guts to an audience through your songs even though it can be a scary thing.

Back then I took it all too seriously. I regret many of my decisions and lament some things that happened, one being losing my musical relationship with my brother. He left the band early on and I always wonder what would of happened if this brotherly core had stuck together.

After what was a really great show at the Starwood in Hollywood, I summarily quit / broke up the band. It is too complicated, too stupid to explain why but in a moment of personal insanity I ran away from music.
The crazy thing is that I ran away completely. I sold all my gear (and I had quite a lot of stuff from guitars, amps, to drum kits). After that period, I didn't really touch a guitar or write for at least 15 years.

During those years alot of great things happened. I got married to the love of my life. I had 3 kids who I absolutely love more than anything. One day, I spotted a piece of crap acoustic guitar at a yard sale and purchased it. It came in handy to play background music as I made up stories to lull my kids to sleep. Slowly I began to write again. More years went by and eventually my friend Mark and I started to throw down some songs using Cakewalk. It was all just for fun, it is all quite lo fi. As more time went by and life got busy, I seemed to lose my relationship with songwriting again. My kids grew up and one of my daughters got involved with music. I taught her some preliminary guitar but overall she taught herself.

Over time, this happened and that and now she is doing quite well in her band. Seeing her play pulled my heart back into things musical. Last year (2010) through Facebook of all things, I hooked up with my friend and awesome musician Matt D. and along with Mark D. and another great musician Mike H. we have been jamming and recording a bit. Not sure where this will go but every day up in Mark's garage (Gabby Road Studios) were blessed days.

To this day, I still struggle with putting my music out in the public arena and consequently some times it just seems easier to bang out stuff on guitar and sing to the computer. It is as much therapy for me as it is songwriting.

I have been involved in my own music blog American Pancake and also been writing songs when I feel the need to. It struck me about a month ago that it is time to just put some of my stuff out there.

I plan on recording more- hopefully less lo-fi in 2012. I guess I just have to as the songs won't stop bouncing in my head.

take care and thanks for giving my stuff a listen-
Ellogoods