My first experience
with a musical instrument was ukulele lessons in grade five. I immediately
concluded that I would never play a stringed instrument. After some progress
with things you hit or blow into, at 15 or 16 my brother's band needed
a guitar player, so we bought one at a pawn shop and I became one.
After steady gigging through my teens in such colourfully-named outfits
as The Dormant Checker Effect, Tunnels Under This City, Stupid Head, and
House of Zenon, I began what ended up being a lengthy hiatus from performing.
In that time, I pursued higher education, hosted college radio shows,
moved to the Arctic, worked as a sound designer on dozens of theatrical
productions, moved a lot, and travelled as much as possible. I generally
had a guitar with me and while in the North, I eventually learned how
to play three chord songs. Earlier efforts had been sometimes catchy,
but more harmonically "naive" and often numbingly complicated.
Upon returning to London (Ontario) in the late 90's, I bumped into schoolmate,
James Cummins, who was looking for a bass player. He had the gear (which
was actually Eggy's (Greg Rinehart's)), so I volunteered to play it. That
band was the Yams, and we played hundreds of shows and put out two albums
in the following five-or-so years. Shortly after that band got underway
I was asked, to my astonishment, to joined an established New Orleans
piano-based band called Voodoo Butter. Keyboardist Dean Harrison has a
massive musical brain and over several years of collaboration on many
projects I learned as much as I could absorb from him about virtually
every style of music. Voodoo Butter also put me on the same stage as Mothers
drummer Ted Peacock. Playing with Ted and Dean was (and is) an endless
lesson in groove.
Guitar fell by the wayside as I quickly found myself a full-time bass
player (with the odd mandolin gig). A list of all the bands I've played
with may be posted on a separate page at a later date.
I pulled out my sadly neglected guitar to help out on Johnathan Davis'
first album, J.C. Davis and the Cowboy Minstrels. That was fun, so I started
weaselling my way back into the throng of guitar players. Being asked
to join the Cool Mothers was truly an honour for me. These are all people
I looked up to (and opened for) when I was starting out. Besides, the
rule is: "You never turn down an opportunity to play with Ted."
R