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My influences include a wide variety of music: The Beatles, Chemical Brothers, Garbage, Nelly, SRV, Fiona Apple, Tori Amos, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Sting/The Police, Marvin Gaye, Stax Mowtown, Steely Dan, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, John Williams, Johan Sebastian Bach, Mussorgsky, Mendellson, Holst, Metallica, Slayer, Sepultura, Pantera, Jeff Buckley, The Doors, Jamiroquai, Rob Zombie, Sublime, Joe Satriani, Marty Freidman, Al Dimeola, Fatboy Slim, Beastie Boys, Dr Dre.

I was the featured local artist of the month on 103.7 ?The Mountain,? Seattle, WA, in September 2001, was a semifinalist in the Shure National Songwriting Contest 2002, and a featured artist in a VH1-sponsored promotion.

My goal is to make a great living doing what I love: continuingly challenge myself to explore my heart, the hearts of others, and express this through my music.

Music has made such a tremendous impact on my life. Its powers of healing, awakening, and emotional evocation are true magic. It has allowed me to express so many things about what I feel about our world, our society, my heart, and the emotional needs we all share. I want people to feel whatever they want about it. Just feel it for real.

I had already begun to write my own material after about six months of playing, and I formed a band with some friends in school. We were called ?Devil?s Advocate?, and anyone who heard us would probably say, ?They sound like Metallica except that their drummer sucks.? That didn?t matter. We were still cool just because we had a band.

Then I got heavy into guitar slingers at this time. Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and Kirk Hammett became my new professors. The faster, the better! I was on a quest to crush ?em all one day. I also studied players with more exotic phrasing such as Marty Freidman, Al Dimeola, and yes, there was a time when I thought Yngwie Malmsteen was the man. All the while I would continue to write songs. I wrote a lot of instrumental music; more than an album per year. From 1995-98, I recorded four full-length records in my house.