Raised on wooden spoons, pots & pans
and the familys upright piano~
Nana and I would sing old songs
like ’Charlie is My Darling’ & ’Greensleeves’.
They called us ’drama geeks’ in highschool,
although we preferred the term thespians.
And that I was, until one fateful day
my best friend & I were caught stealing c.d’s.
Thank-you forever to Jim Callaghan for
giving us "community service" at Prince Georges
Urban Coffeehouse. Experiencing Danielle Hebert
rip the fucking roof off changed my path.
I began playing percussion in a band called,
"Ten Tits" with 4 very amazing girls:
Deleina Meyer, jeNIFFER Wilson & Airyn Beagull
and a mannequin named Evonne.
After the ’Love knows no gender’ days
an absolutely hot, incestuous band named ’Normality’
was formed. With dreams of the worlds...
and feeling like big fish in a small pond
we swam downstream to Vancouver
with diluted rockstar fantasies.
And like the country song goes
I lost my girlfriend, band, job & home.
It seemed like a good time to ground out
so I welcomed my fathers invitation
to return home, rest and go back to school.
Being without a band I began recording songs alone.
Doing randitions of others poetry & music
like ’Shave Slave’ , ’Too Much For Me’,
JS Bach and the ’ Bumbo Bee Boogie’.
Without the safety of numbers I discovered
a musical freakoid within. For lack of better words,
I felt kinky. It was time to pursue the music career again.
This time ’round it was Vancouver Island,
and a band called ’The Freaks’.
And holy fuck were we ever.
I literally freaked out. Have you ever
been so musically challenged to the point of sanity,
on the brink of losing your mind!?
Our one and only live performance scared people silly.
I don’t think the general public was ready for such a
bowl moving, bleeding ear experience. Nor was I.
After a summer of love & heartbreak,
nearing 1999...Ray Morgan decides enough is enough.
We begin recording ’Magnetism’ & ’Greedy for the Green’
with drummer John Ryan at Plutonic Studios.
The project is put on hold while Johnny leaves Vancouver.
And along comes Kevin a.k.a Pin.
Ray, Pin & I come up with a whack of new material
and start rehearsing a band called ’Monkey Machine’.
Another rockin’ band that never ends up leaving the basement
thanks to my perfectionist slash chicken-shit attitude.
However we did grow host to an amazing Friday night music scene
called The Junkyard Jams. Boy, what music was made!
And what cherries were popped. However, the occupational hazards
of the rock ’n roll lifestyle took it’s toll,
and I found myself hanging out on Commercial Drive ALOT!
With the encouragement of friends I started playing open stage.
One person led to another and I found myself
in Michael Louws apartment dreaming up another studio.
There the Listening Society was born.
We found a funky location and started doing live shows on the drive.
We rocked it and rocked, and rocked some more,
we rocked it so hard we dropped to the floor.
Being depleted in more than 44 ways, the society folded.
I fled into retreat for quite some time...
with songs & movies half written, recorded and mixed.
Xaliman & Energy Discs brought hope & renewal
But it became obvious I wasn’t ready yet-
Ideas sank to the bottom and truths surfaced up.
Where had the passion gone? I grew restless.
Band after band, studio after studio.
I had to face the sadness which grew up to be anger.
The inspiration that transformed into obsession.
The love suffocating from lies.
Now at home with an ole faithful digital 8-Track,
computer, and all the gear & resources I need
-applying gel to all these experiences
collaging them together into one album...
’Criminal Record’