I fell in love with music when I heard the song “T.N.T” by AC/DC. It was back in 2003 while I was in sixth grade. It was my first time playing the video game Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4 and “T.N.T” was playing over the video introduction. My eyes went wide when I heard that riff and I’ve been hooked on music ever since. I was obsessed with AC/DC for quite some time after that and even had a different AC/DC shirt for everyday of the week.

The first instrument I learned to play was the drums in 2003. A friend of mine at the time had a expansive Neil Peart level drum setup that I had the chance to play around on. Playing that drum set was the first time in my life I really enjoyed playing an instrument. I got more enjoyment from ten minutes of fooling around on that drum set then all the previous years of music classes in school combined. My parents nurtured my interest and bought me a five piece Yamaha drum set, which I still use today.

Two years later in 2005 I started to become interested in guitar. My grandfather had bought me a beginner Honer classical acoustic when I was four years old and it had just been laying around gathering dust. I was finally ready to figure out how to play it, so I dug it out and learned how to play “Smoke On The Water”. Once again my parents supported me and got me an electric guitar stater package. I’ll never forget that moment when I plugged it in for the first time, turned on the distortion, and struck a chord. Again, my eyes went wide, I got goosebumps, and I laughed out loud with joy. I fell in love with guitar in that moment and it has been my main instrument to this day.

My love for music continued to grow over the next two years. I started to teach myself how to sing and play piano on one of those classic cheap Casio keyboards. Things changed dramatically in 2007 when I was gifted my first audio recording software. It was then that I realized I could make my own complete songs, and my love of music recording was born. My first recording setup consisted of one dynamic microphone and a PA head wired into the microphone jack of a Dell laptop. Despite the primitive recording setup, I was in love again, and everyday after school I would rush home to work on songs.

During High School I played guitar and recorded as much as I could. I took guitar class every year of High School, played guitar in the High School jazz band for two years, played in talent shows, recorded as many original songs as possible, recorded local bands, and recorded all the High School concert band performances.

It was an easy decision when it came time to think about what I wanted to study in College. More then anything I wanted to learn everything I could about recording music. I was accepted at Columbia College Chicago where I went on to earn a Bachelor’s degree in audio design and production in 2013. It was an absolutely wonderful experience that I will always appreciate. I took classes in sound theory, studio recording, audio production, live sound reinforcement, live sound recording, Pro Tools software, beat creation, DJ techniques, and loved every minute of it.

I also spent a year in college interning at Wall to Wall recording studio in Chicago which unfortunately no longer exists. Wall to Wall recording was an incredibly charming and expansive studio in the basement of an office building in River North. Complete with legendary microphones and recording equipment, beautiful instruments, and red shag carpeting on the walls, Wall to Wall recording was a special place that I will never forget.

In my junior year of college I started to also become interested in juggling and object manipulation. I had fallen in love again, but this time with a flow toy called Poi. I practiced poi every free moment I had and eventually worked my way up to performing with poi that were on fire. I immersed myself in the Chicago Burning Man community and joined a fire performance troupe called The Gypsy Circus Tribe. During this period I performed with fire all over the Chicagoland area at bars, private parties, and outdoor music festivals. The highlight of this time in my life was a big Halloween show in Michigan City, Indiana. Our troupe got to occupy two blocks of downtown Michigan City where we put on a two hour show with choreographed performances, custom made pyrotechnics, and full costumes.

I then went on to practice toss juggling, contact juggling, multi-ball contact juggling, rolla bolla, and object balancing. The culmination of my efforts in the world of juggling came to be a youtube channel I created called “Learning To Learn”. I made comprehensive and accessible tutorial videos, presentations on learning theory, and a few other pieces of creative juggling content.

No matter what was going on in my life, music was always a constant. In 2013, during my time obsessed with juggling, I made my first complete project of original music. It was a six song EP that I called “Regarding Being”. I had previously recorded many original pieces of music, but “Regarding Being” was the first official release that I made available for purchase. Three years later I released my first full length album of original music called “Temporal Radio”. Between 2016 and 2020 I made three more albums. The first was an album of instrumental acoustic guitar covers. The next was a collection of previously unreleased original music that was made between 2009 and 2020 called “Mosaic”. The most recent was an album of original instrumental music called “Direct Pointing”.

I also did all sorts of interesting projects for other people along the way. I collaborated with a comedy rapper, recorded a ton of silly theme songs and promotional content for the WGN radio morning show, provided sound design for a short comedy film, ran live sound for kid’s music stages at multiple Chicago street festivals, managed an internet radio station, helped a handful of people create their own albums of original music, gave private lessons in guitar, bass, drums, and audio production, and played piano in a children’s music band just to name a few.

In 2018 I joined my first band in Chicago. It was a progressive rock band called Plastic City. I played bass and performed at a variety of mid level Chicago venues and bars. I then went on to join two other bands, a folk rock band called Jory Avner and The Half Glass Band, and an indie band called Sick Day. I was playing with Sick Day up until the 2020 shutdown and haven’t done any shows since. During my time in bands I made some great memories playing shows at Schubas, Subterranean, Reggies, and many DIY venues in Chicago.