Chapter 1: The Early Years

I started playing bass at age 11 when some friends in my neighbourhood decided to start a band for fun. We already knew two guys that took guitar lessons so those positions were easy to fill. I volunteered to play bass and we found a drummer, the only problem was that we didn’t have instruments and we didn’t know how to play. So we made a drum set out of boxes and my father had an old guitar and amp that he gave me. We were set! I removed the last two strings on the guitar, built a new bridge out of wood and that was my bass. I played this instrument for a year and since we never played any real gigs and didn’t know any real musicians, I didn’t know that a bass was an octave lower. When I finally found out that I didn’t have a real bass I convinced my mom to get me one and she did: a $40 Lero.
I finally had a bass, now it was time to figure out what I was doing 'cause after a year of just learning where to put your fingers on the frets, but never knowing what notes your were hitting got kind of frustrating. I took lessons at the National Conservatory of Music were I learned the bassics. My drummer got a real kit and we were a real band and we named it 24k. We had instruments, cover tunes and no place to play. After all who's gonna hire a bunch of 12 year olds. Other than playing at our school a couple of times it remained that way for years to come and I needed more. I wanted to play all the time. So I auditioned for my church band. They were looking for a bass player and at 14 people don’t really take you that seriously. I thought I was pretty good for 14, they were also impressed and I got the gig. We travelled a lot and that was my first touring experience. But I needed more since that was usually only a weekend thing.

Chapter 2: The Teenage Years

By this time I was learning all I could about music in Jr. High, but I had to play french horn because you couldn’t choose your instruments back then. All I did was stare in the corner where they kept the upright bass that nobody played. It was killing me. I had to play it. So, I got real good on the French Horn and my teacher agreed that I had worked hard enough to change instruments. I was in heaven. I loved it. I would come in before school to play it and stay after school and sometimes I would even bring it home on weekends. Yep, I would bring it home on the bus. The kids in my area thought I was crazy but I was just determined to get better on that thing. By this time I was playing electric and upright bass and my band 24k was still around, but all we ever did was rehearse. We never did a show. I was still playing in church, but only on weekends. I needed more.

By chance I had an Uncle who was a singer and was in the studio cutting a record. I convinced him to come to a 24k rehearsal to check me out. He was impressed and hired me. We went to the recording studio and I remember seeing the faces of the other musicians when I walked in. Man it was hard being a 16yr old bass player. I went to the National Music Camp of Canada that summer so by this time I was getting pretty good. I could hold a groove, slap a little bit and read music. After the session, they didn’t have to erase my tracks like they had thought and they even asked for my phone number. The drummer from that session was starting a new band called Brass Traxz and asked me to play bass in it. I joined that group and that was my first professional band. We played in clubs every weekend, went on the road and that was cool 'cause by this time I was 17 and making money from playing bass and learning from some of the best musicians I have ever seen. I practiced a lot 'cause I never wanted them to think I couldn’t keep up. In fact I wanted them to think I was just as good and half their age.

By this time I was in grade 11 and my skills on bass were above the standard high school level and I got bored easily, so my teacher agreed to let me play any instrument I wanted. At least in my high school we had specialty bands apart from the standard stage band stuff where we played Top 40. I played drums and keyboards in the specialty bands till I left high school.

Chapter 3: The Break

I was giging around town with a lot of bands and one night I was doing a gig when Salome Bey (Canada’s first lady of the Blues) walked in. She told me she liked my playing and asked "do you know how to read?" I said "yep" and the next week I was her bass player since her regular bassist lived in America and was a busy guy. That was my first gig with someone that was recognizable and at 19 it really helped the resume. I did that for a couple of years and other than Salome I wasn’t doing much work during the days. Once again I needed more.

Chapter 4: The Bassmint Days

I tried to get in the studio scene and it was tough so I decided to start my own music production company called Bassmint Productions, since I still lived in my Mom's basement. I played the Bass and mint meant money. I had everyone I could in the Bassmint and that filled my days while I still giged at night.

I finally met a guy named Devon who had an independent video on Much Music called "Mr. Metro". I convinced him to work with me and we cut his first record "In my Nature" on EMI Records Canada. That was my first major record as a producer. It was one of the first Hip Hop records in Canada to use a live band, and it won the Juno award that year for best rap recording. I had a pretty good buzz happening and got a whole new clientele, which included some television work. I did shows like Fox’s "Studs" and YTV’s "Catwalk".
Now, I couldn’t work anymore out of my basement and since things were really happening I made the biggest decision of my life. I married my high school sweetheart, moved into a 4,000 square foot space downtown, and built a big 3 room studio. The studio, which I called North 49th St. Sound, was one of the only professional 24trk studios that was dedicated to Urban music. I had a staff of 4 and clients like EMI Records,BMG,Virgin, The Toronto Raptors and TV shows like Ooh La La, Stars on Ice, Rap City and others. On August 18, 1994 I had my first daughter. Man that changed my life. Now I had real responsibilities. In it’s five year run, Bassmint Productions produced music for a long list of television shows and records. We won 5 Juno awards and received a Craft EVA Award.

In those five years I was doing a lot of work keeping the production company going and I only played bass when I had to. The love for the instrument was lost. I was still getting some great gigs, like Musical Director for the Gemini, Juno and Genie Awards. But those happened only once a year and so did my playing. Things were getting rough in the studio scene and the hard disk recording age had taken over the minds of independent artists. The studio was losing business, the staff was losing faith and I was forced to downsized to 1 room just so I could do the TV stuff which was still doing pretty good. But by this time I was working alone and thought, man, this business is funny, sometimes you're up, sometimes you're down, and with a pregnant wife and a 3yr old daughter to support, I felt down in the summer of 1997.

Chapter 5: The Call

It was October 3, 1997 when my 2nd child was born and a couple of weeks after that I got a call from John Brunton, a TV producer that I had done several scoring gigs with. He said that he and two other guys were working on a new show and would I meet with them 'cause they were looking for a Musical Director. I said I’ll be there in 15 minutes. I walked in, got introduced to Al Magee, the other producer, and a comic named Mike Bullard. That meeting was the most outside meeting I’ve ever had in my life!!! (I’ll share it with you another time 'cause that’s a whole other story in it’s self ). 3 weeks later we were on TV with Open Mike with Mike Bullard.

The rest is an on-going story and I’ll be able to keep you guys up to date in "Da Word" page. That’s where I’ll put the latest info on what’s happening in my life and life on the show, scheduling chats in the Open Mike chat room etc. So for the latest info keep coming back to "Da Word" page.