I heard a great saying once, by an aging piano virtuoso whose name I really wish I could remember, that he didn't regard practicing as work or play, but rather as something akin to breathing, and that's how I feel about making music: it's one of those things that I just don't have a choice in, and in fact would die without. I first started learning music at age 5 and have been playing and singing and writing non-stop at the pro or semi-pro (or quasi-pro) level since I was 14, and in college I got my bachelor's degree in music composition. Given these facts, it's probably unsurprising that I've been in lots of bands over the years. Sometimes I've been a founding member, and sometimes I've been a hired gun, but regardless of my role in each group, I have really enjoyed playing with them all, and can't wait to see what the future brings.
Stromkern
Genre: Electro
Label Affiliation: WTII,
Dependent
What I Do: live guitars, live backing vocals, live arrangements
One of the cool things about the time I spent as a member of Polymorphous Perverse (see below) was that through the members of that band
I got to meet the aforementioned
Eric Oehler of Null Device, and J. Ned Kirby of Stromkern. I can't say for sure when I first officially met Ned, but it was probably when
Chris Rider, then-bassist with Poly-P, brought him by our studio one afternoon when I was working on some Dark Clan (see below) stuff. Later on, Ned was at a Siv
show (again, see below), and liked our music enough to suggest that he'd like to work with me someday. It took a while, but then finally in 2005 an
opportunity arose: things were pretty quiet for me with ND mostly in the studio and no other live work on the horizon, and Ned needed a guitar player
for his 2005 tour. I really love the music of Stromkern, and it's not every day you get asked to do an already-booked tour with label backing, so I of course
said "YES!" and hit the road. Since that tour, we've traversed the U.S. a few times and even Europe once, got to be tour support for Front Line Assembly, and am even contributing bits to new recordings. I'm enjoying every minute of it, and thankful for every show I get to play.
The Dark Clan
Genre: Goth Dance-Metal/Eclectic Electro
Label Affiliation: none
What I Do: everything
I started doing music under the Dark Clan moniker in 1998. The project began as a way to experiment with digital recording techniques, which I had
just gotten into at around that time, but quickly grew into a sort of dumping ground for all the songwriting detritus that I couldn't
get out of my system in any of the other bands I happened to be in at the time (I'm always active in multiple projects simultaneously, it seems), and
now has a bizarre life of its own. As The Dark Clan I've released an album and an EP, have done live shows, and have appeared on radio and a couple
compilations. I don't know what the future holds for this project, but then I never did, and in the end maybe that's the source of both its appeal
and continued existence.
Siv
Genre: Art-Metal
Label Affiliation: none
What I Do: guitars, songwriting, production
The story of how Siv came to be is rather a long and winding road of interconnections and near-misses, so to keep things in proper format and length
for this page, let me just say the following: Polymorphous Perverse had a drummer, Glenn Virnig, who I knew from my time in Music School and who I
really wanted to work with in a side project. We initially tried doing a folk-rock sort of thing with only the two of us that just didn't pan out,
but then I saw an ad placed in the local music rag by a female singer with really unique influences (Tool, Deftones, NIN) who was looking for a band. Her name
was Emmalee. I answered her ad, we started playing and writing together, things clicked, and Siv was formed. We played a bunch of shows to essentially
universal acclaim, cut a three-song demo, and then promptly broke up due mostly to scheduling and commitment issues. Now, however, a few years after
we called a halt to things, and with everybody in a more forgiving place, time-wise, we have reformed to see what we can make happen.
The Gothsicles
Genre: 8-bit Hyper-Electro
Label Affiliation: Deadbeat/Sonic Mainline
What I Do: bits of engineering, mixing, production, and arranging
I came to know of the Gothsicles just by being in "teh sc3n3" in the Madison-Milwaukee area. I kept seeing Brian and Kat at various gigs, and then
after the Gothsicles appeared on the same HaLo compilation as the Dark Clan, and I got exposed to the hyperkinetic brilliance of English License,
had something to talk to them about. Conversations led to other conversations, and at some point we thought it'd be fun to hang out and possibly work
together. I contributed some mixing and arrangement work to a soundtrack song Brian did for an independent film, and things are progressing from there.
Caustic
Genre: Powernoise
Label Affiliation: Static Sky
What I Do: some guitars, remixing
My involvement with Caustic is quite minimal, but I felt like namedropping Matt Fanale, so there you go. Matt is one of the most awesomest promoters
in the world, and his band is a big name in the Powernoise world, so it was with pleasure that I recorded the riff from Pantera's Walk for him
to use in an as-yet-unreleased cover of the powermetal classic, plus I did a remix of his song Emmanuel Lewis Hand Job, which I'm really proud of. I also got to appear onstage with him at the 2007 Reverence music festival in Madison, which was a total blast.
Null Device
Genre: Synthpop
Label Affiliation: Nilaihah
What I Did: guitars, live backing vocals, arrangements
Null Device is the brainchild of two Erics: Oehler and Goedken. I first met Eric Oehler at the Inferno,
which is the only goth/electro club in Madison. The way he tells the story, March of the Pigs, by Nine Inch Nails, was playing, and he
said something along the lines of "I think this song is in five-four," to which I immediately replied by launching into a discourse about how
the song is actually in mixed meter (which it is), and began a sort of rhythmic dissection of the tune. Amazingly, he continued to speak to me
after that initial encounter. :-) Eventually, around late 2002, when Eric was looking to get a
live version of Null Device together, he asked me to be a part of it, based on my reputation and my work with other bands that he'd seen and heard.
I already had a great love for the music of Null Device, so of course I jumped at the chance. I played my last show with the band in the summer of 2007, but remain good friends with everybody and of course I still love Eric's music.
The Stint
Genre: Pop-Punk/Rock
Label Affiliation: none
What I Did: vocals, guitars, bass, songwriting, engineering, mixing, production
Years I Was A Member: Those 22 days in 05 (the whole enchilada)
The Stint was the result of what essentially amounted to a musical dare. While on a three-month consulting gig in Madison, I thought it'd be fun to make
some music with my friend Tim, ex- of the great pop-punk band B.O.R.D. What began as a simple session ended up as a project to do the entire "band thing"
in under a month. In just over 22 days, Tim and I wrote 10 songs, got a cover song together, got a drummer, rehearsed everything, recorded a four-song
demo, played a gig at a club, and filmed the whole process and kept a blog. It was exhausting, but a totally great experience and tons of fun.
Rattbelly
Genre: Metal, then Pop-Punk
Label Affiliation: none
What I Did: lead vocals, guitars, songwriting, engineering, mixing, production
Years I Was A Member: 98-03
Ah, Rattbelly. This band was the brainchild of myself and Waage, my very close friend and drummer from back in the Ghengis (see below) days. We began
as a metal band, but after three years of trying and failing to find a reliable singer to front the group, switched to pop-punk so I could take over
frontman duties and we could spend more time worrying about the music and less time worrying about personnel. Lots of great times and great tunes came
out of this act.
Polymorphous Perverse
Genre: Industrial, then Rock
Label Affiliation: none
What I Did: guitars, backing vocals, songwriting, arrangements
Years I Was A Member: 96-00
In 1996, after Ghengis had broken up, I met Bill "Stitch" Salisbury, the mastermind behind Poly-P, in a poetry class at the UW. We bonded quickly over
music and art and long conversations and many, many nights at the Inferno. Eventually he played me some of the music he had been working on.
At this point it was just stuff he and Chris Rider had been doing on an Atari
Falcon, but I thought there was a lot of potential in what he was doing. Fast-forward a few years and Poly-P is now a full band, playing their
inaugural gig at the Inferno on New Year's Eve, 2000. It was an auspicious beginning, but I would part ways with the band shortly thereafter to pursue
other projects. Poly-P lived on through many other personnel and genre changes until 2005, and I've remained friends with most of the band members over
the years, for which I am thankful because they're all great people, and my time in the band introduced me to a lot of other great people (Ned and Eric, c.v. above) and great music that I otherwise may never have met or heard about.
Ghengis
Genre: Progressive Metal
Label Affiliation: none
What I Did: vocals, guitars, songwriting, mixing, production
Years I Was A Member: 93-96
I'll always consider Ghengis my first real band. We had a manager, we recorded demos in "real" studios, we toured, we played festivals, we
made connections, you know; the whole nine yards. Our music was of the "bare-knuckles" school of prog, where there was an almost pugilistic emphasis
on chops in every song we did, no matter how catchy or hook-laden. Abrupt and bizarre meter changes, modulations, instrumentation shifts, double-kicks,
harmonized dual-guitar solos, high and heroic vocals, and complex and oblique lyrics were all par for the course. While I may not be thrilled with every
inch of Ghengis' output, I've gotta say that it was a great band in which to cut my teeth. We practiced in the 15-20 hour-a-week range, played lots of
shows, and at our peak were cramming clubs so full that people had to be turned away at the door. Good times.