Me, Circa 1995

Part III: On and off

It's in my blood. My father played the piano. His father sang in church choir. I feel that each generation should build on the past and take things to a new level. That's my job.

I bought my first bass when I was sixteen, because a friend at the time played guitar, and I figured I'd try bass. A few years before, I couldn't even distinguish a bass line while listening to a song. I thought of it as that instrument "the other guy was playing" while I was rocking out to C.C.'s guitar solo at a Poison concert! I was oblivious to it's importance and to the fact that bass holds everything together. It's funny thinking about it now, but the more bass players I speak to, the more similar stories I hear.

From sixteen until twenty-four, I was very "on and off" with my bass playing. There were times in my late-teens/early-twenties when I barely picked it up, out of laziness or general lack of motivation. While attending the University of Scranton, from 1993 til 1997, I played bass in a Phish cover band, but didn't take it very serious.

No matter how sporatic my efforts were in all of those years, the hours I did put in added up. When I would pick up the bass and play for friends, they would encourage me to take it more seriously. I had no idea that I was about to turn a big corner.

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