About the Music

People often ask, "What kind of music do you write?"  Well, let's see. It's New Age'y, jazzy, classical and movie score'ish. It is difficult to define. I like the fact that it isn't easily classifiable, although it makes it harder to sell. It is soft yet substantial, light but profound, a great score to nature, and a great way to relieve tension in a commute through traffic. The music transcends the medium, where the instrument is no longer just a piano, and the sounds are more than simply notes placed in time. The songs possess dimension, and, because of this, the tracks are intriguing even after you’ve heard them repeatedly. 

I am a true believer of DIY, do it yourself. It's a more creative and fun way to approach life. The challenging part of this method, however, is that it relies on having strong faith, confidence, as well as the support to stimulate your journey. In order to unlock my own voice, I had to believe that there are places and things that cannot be mapped.  There are things that no one can teach or show you.  You just have to focus on the journey, and, eventually the prize will become clear.  This album is a document of one such journey.  

My desire to develop a new approach to composing combined with relatively little formal training and intense performance anxiety resulted in an unconventional writing technique. Most of my compositions are actually recorded extemporizations. In other words, the music is recorded as it is being composed, fueled by pure inspiration, a subconscious stream of thoughts, moods, and mental images transcribed instantly into music. The resulting music then feeds back to my senses in the moment, further fueling and sculpting the birth of the composition. Armed with a Macintosh and sequencing software, these ramblings are stored as MIDI files in the computer that can later be brought up and edited to great extent. I find the most effective way to write about a mood or moment is to do so while you are experiencing it. How can you put down the brush and pick it up another day and still have the exact perspective and understanding to accurately capture the original inspirational moment? 

Over the years I have amassed thousands of hours of recordings.  A sampling of them are presented on this album. Note that the pieces arranged with strings are the only tracks composed in a more traditional manner, although derived from improvisations.

Here are a few artists that may or may not have something to do with what I write: 
J.S. Bach, The Beatles, Leonard Bernstein, Steve Coleman, ELP, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Jerry Goldsmith, Billy Joel, Led Zeppelin, Steve Morse, Origami Cow, Alan Parsons Project, Styx, Supertramp, The Phish, Pink Floyd, and John Williams.