Percussionist/Drummer
My experience playing drums began
around the age of ten when my parents bought me a set of toy drums.
Little did they know what they were in for. I remember banging out the
beat to crocodile rock in the dining room of our Unionville home. The set
was quickly moved to the basement, as I recall.
I joined the school music program in
fifth grad and that is how it all began. High school stage band was my
favorite subject and probably my strongest influence. It gave me my first
chance to play a full drum kit on stage in front of an audience and jazz
music is still an influence on my style today.
During my senior year, I was lucky
enough to win a spot in the Lakeland Jazz Impact, which is an All-Star
jazz ensemble. Before that I had already begun to play with the local
band called Those Guys, founded in part by The Girls’ current bass player,
Bill Kovatch. It has also been my only opportunity to play in a rock band
with my brother Mike on saxophone.
After Those Guys dissolved, I was
asked to play a few fill-in gigs with Country Gold – a Lake County based
country band featuring Dave Griffith on vocals who I am sure must have
been a blood relative of Johnny Cash. You could close your eyes and
listen and swear that the man in black was in the room. Those few gigs
turned into a six year stay with the group until they finally hung up
cowboy hats for good.
The nineties brought a lot of change in
my life with a wife and soon after, two sons to keep my busy. After about
a ten year absence from the local music scene, I decided it was time to
get back out there. I purchased a new drum kit, got my chops together and
joined a short-lived classic rock project called Plan B.
Recently I have been gigging with some
old high school friends and local musicians in the horn band called
FreeFall. Answering an ad and meeting with Dan Rose to discuss The Girls’
project has brought me to where I am today. Though I am still new to the
band, I have quickly gained a respect for the musicianship and awesome
vocal talent that the members of The Girls possess.
Drummers are often pigeonholed as
always wanting to play faster and louder, but I have to say that my
musical tastes run from rock to jazz to country and most everything in
between. The variety of music that The Girls have chosen to perform is
right where I want to be musically, and the dedication to polishing our
performances and giving our all at every show is the kind of musicians
that I want to be associated with.
