about me

The Winding Road

I’ve always done things my own way. My musical career is no different. I began playing bass at 14 years old. My parents wouldn’t let me have a drum kit, so my dad taught me some songs on his guitar but when I heard a bass for the first time a month later, I said, “Dad? What’s that? I want to play THAT!” From that moment on, I was a bass player. I played in heavy metal and punk bands throughout high school and college and loved it. More recently, I was the bass player in More of Anything. My band mates let me run wild and I wrote funky bass lines for every song. I had a blast. All of the solo music I record today has prominent bass lines. Playing bass has always been at the center of my life.

Since playing bass brought me so much joy, I wanted to find a way to incorporate it into a career. I initially went to college for Music Therapy, but after a few weeks in music theory, I realized I couldn’t cut it. I quickly gave up on my dream to be a Music Therapist professionally, but I continued to play bass and I have always viewed music as therapeutic for both myself and for those around me.

Instead, I became a preschool teacher. I teach kids aged 3 months - 5 years old and music is a large part of my curriculum. I’ll often play my sansula in the infant room to facilitate nap time. For the toddlers and older preschoolers, I like to play silly songs and will often bring my twin kalimbas into the classroom so the students can have musical success at an early age (added bonus: they learn to share!).

BonusTime

“It’s Bonus Time!” is not just the title of my solo album, it’s the soundtrack of my life. On July 25, 2013 I was hit by a car while riding my bicycle home from work. I was on my way home from a field trip to the Museum of Flight and my preschoolers were proudly talking about Yuri Gagarin and solid rocket boosters. Some visitors to the museum even stopped and asked me, “How old are these children?” I was so proud of my students and my last memory was thinking, “Today was perfect. That’s why I do what I do.” The next thing I knew, I woke up from a coma in the hospital.

My chances of survival after my accident were pretty slim, so from that day forth, I’ve viewed my life as BonusTime. So far, BonusTime has been pretty rad. In the process of acquiring and recovering from a brain injury, I also entered a supportive community of brain injury survivors. For this, I am incredibly grateful. You can read more about my story and the early parts of my recovery in the Seattle Bike Blog. It really puts BonusTime into perspective.

Fast forward to today. BonusTime continues to deliver. I am healthy and back to teaching preschool, something the doctors said I would probably not be able to do. Music has been such a huge part of my recovery. While I never completed my degree in Music Therapy, I’m confident that the countless hours I spent working on simple bass loops, playing the kalimba, or discovering new tunings on my sansula, contributed to my recovery. Music helped me concentrate during a time when I had a hard time focusing, and today it helps me unwind when, at times, I feel overwhelmed by the world around me.

The Sansula

My first experience with a kalimba, or thumb piano, was when I was in college. My friends were having a party and I spotted a kalimba on the table. I decided to try my hand at it, so I grabbed the kalimba and wandered around town, totally engrossed by the music. When I returned, the party had cleared out and my friends were confused by how I had been gone so long. I was hooked! I never forgot that connection with that kalimba.

I didn’t pick up the sansula until many years later. I was looking for a distraction for my hands other than being on my phone, so I bought a small kalimba (I just knew I needed one back in my life). A few weeks later I wandered into my local music shop and picked up a Hokema sansula. I remember how magical the notes in the scale sounded the first time I played it. Later that night I brought my wife into the shop to show her, thinking she’d never let me bring another instrument into the house (to be fair, I had 7 basses at the time!) As soon as she heard me play it, her eyes lit up and she told me I had to buy the instrument. From that moment on, my musical life changed. Immediately, I was drawn to how the sansula could be played in many ways beyond just plucking at the tines. I began playing it percussively and showed my technique to a few of the guys in the music shop. They thought it was pretty cool!

Several months later I attended Victor Wooten’s Bass Nature camp. I brought both my bass and my sansula to camp, but since I had only been playing sansula for a couple of months at this time, I figured my main instrument would be my bass. I introduced myself on my bass and slowly showed a few people the ideas I had worked out on my sansula. Pretty soon after that, my bass returned to the gig bag and my sansula playing now defined who I was as a musician. I was humbled and honored by all of the support I received from my fellow campers, and even Victor and his brothers!

Victor’s interest in my unorthodox sansula techniques luckily extended beyond his camp. He’s continued to encourage me to perform and has served as my musical mentor, providing invaluable advice on my album. In addition, I’ve played my sansula on stage with Victor for several shows when he’s toured in Seattle. In 2018 I had the privilege of performing with both Victor and Michael Winslow at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) Show at the House of Blues in Anaheim. That was truly a highlight of my musical career!

My sansula also brought me to New York City in May 2018, where I provided a live score for the Rachel/Leah Play. The play was part of a month-long festival featuring the Genesis Plays, created by the In[heir]itance Project. I initially became involved with the In[heir]itance Project through a series of connections in Seattle in April 2017, and was ecstatic to be invited back a year later to perform the play for audiences at the 14th Street Y in the East Village. This was the first time I had ventured into the theater world and it was an incredible experience. Plus, I got to live in NYC for a month!

Recording

In April 2018 I released my first solo album, “It’s BonusTime!” The album was truly a collaboration between myself and my extremely talented sound engineer, David Miner, from Chartreuse Muffin Studio in Seattle. David took my compositions to new levels, including making one of my songs, “Harborview”, into a “club banger”. It’s fire.

As soon as I recorded the final song on my album, entitled “What’s Next?” I received an email that I was the recipient of the Jack Straw Cultural Center Artist Support Program for 2018. That day I knew that recording another album was exactly what was next! In 2019 I will begin work on my second solo album, which will feature relaxing tunes to help put my preschool students to sleep during nap time (and you too during your own naps).

What keeps me going

When I’m not trying to figure out the coolest tuning on my sansula by stealing magnets off of my friends’ refrigerators, I have a ton of other hobbies to keep me occupied. I am an artist and calligrapher and I make custom ketubot, or Jewish marriage contracts. I’ve made many for friends and family members, and even made my own back in 2012! I often describe calligraphy as music for the alphabet.

I also love giving back to my community. I am a regular volunteer for Special Olympics Washington and the Brain Injury Alliance of Washington. As much as I love humans, I might love animals even more! I volunteer at Greyhound Pets, Inc. which rescues ex-racer greyhounds, and Pasado’s Safe Haven, an animal sanctuary working to end animal cruelty. I met a turkey at Pasado’s Safe Haven named Ziggy and we have been best friends ever since!

If you’ve ever seen my social media accounts, you’ll also see that I’m a cat dad to two tuxedo cats, PeeWee and Lois Einhorn. My cats were two loyal audience members during all of my practice sessions for my album, and when they weren’t stepping all over my pedal board or jumping on top of my amp, I appreciated the company.