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Growing up the nephew of a music
teacher,
and having a brother and sister going
through the school system ahead of me,
teachers expected a lot from me. In third
grade, I took clarinet lessons, and that started
me on my way to pursuing music as a hobby.
I soon joined the choir for a semester or two,
once I started junior high. By the time I got to
high school, I became an avid Beatles fan, and
wanted to learn a rock instrument.
Having friends that played various instruments,
in a band made my choice simple: I would learn bass
guitar. While I was ok at teaching myself, my brother
got me lessons as a birthday gift when I was 16. As a bass
player, I joined Dan Antill on
lead guitar, Ed Markowski on Rhythm guitar, and Dave
Markowski on drums, to form the band
that would later become Last Resort. After six months, Ed and
I switched instruments.
Dan and I would also switch off
on keyboards. Granted, my keyboard
skills were less than
perfect, but I had to start somewhere. I was also influenced
by The Hooters, and purchased
a mandolin, learned a few chords and another song was born.
We recorded a 4-song demo,
just as I was going off to college. That winter break, Last
Resort recorded another 6-song demo.
The following summer, we got a singer by the name of John
Bednarik. By the end of the
summer, John was gone, so we went back to the studio to
record our third 4-song demo the
following winter. It
was to be Last Resort’s final recording. At this time, I started to become
heavily influenced by another British Band: Squeeze.
While still in Last
Resort, I got involved in a side project at school. This was in the form of an
experimental band known as The
Helveticas. I was back on bass, this time with Adrian Breiger
on guitar, Mike Spina on drums, and Michael Vito on keyboards.
Not happy with the style of
music, I left The Helveticas just as quickly as I joined.
In 1995, Last Resort took a hiatus as we were just getting
done college, and on with our lives.
Around 1997, we started up again, and I kept jokingly
threatening of doing a solo project. As
bickering within the band mounted, it was obvious we were
all going in different directions.
We decided to call it quits, while remaining friends.
In 1999, I saw Nick Harper open for Squeeze and was amazed
at his guitar playing abilities.
After a conversation with him a year later about the hassle
of bands, I wondered if I could pull
a solo act off.
In 2001, I joined Rob Brogan and Chris Carbonara in the
short-lived Brogan’s Heroes. I was
again unhappy with the direction of the music, and wanted
out. Six months later, I was gone.
I began to think more and more of my conversation with Nick
Harper and began to wonder
“Why not?” instead of “How?”
How does it sound? You’ll have to come to a show and see for
yourself.