| 1. What are you currently up
to? |
Right now I play piano and sing at Jellyrolls Piano bar at Walt
Disney World's Boardwalk. I haven't had much time to record in the
past couple years or so. I have a ton of songs I'd love to get
recorded and try to get another CD put together. But for the time
being, money and spare time make that pretty hard.
|
| 2. Who were your
influences? |
Well... songwriting: probably Diane Warren or Bryan Adams. Singing:
Sammy Hagar. Piano: Billy Joel. Personally: my father.
|
| 3. Brief history of the band plus the style of music you play.
|
My "work" has mostly been writing. Like most writers I have a
mountain of basement tape recordings. But I did manage to put
together a rather well recorded CD a couple years ago, "The Mirror".
I started playing drums as a kid, then moved to piano. I can fiddle
around an acoustic guitar and the bass a little, and I sing okay. Not
REAL good... but they pay me to do it at Disney World so I guess I'm
fair at it. Mostly what I write is very mid-tempo tunes or ballads.
Mostly resembling Bryan Adams, Jude Cole, REO Speedwagon, Nelson-ish.
I like to believe some of it is of the calibur of Journey, Survivor,
Night Ranger and stuff like that I just don't have a voice like
that... or the studio to get that kind of production.
|
| 4. What has been the highlight(s) and lowpoint(s) of your career to
date? |
Highlight would probably be my current job. It doesn't really have
anything to do with MY writing. But I make a decent living being a
musician at Disney World. And it affords me the time to try to
generate interest in my own songs.
Can't really think of a lowpoint in particular. Getting all those
rejection letters is no fun... but we ALL go through that.
|
| 5. How easy is it to gets gigs? What is the live music scene like?
|
Hmmmmm... I'm afraid on this one I can't be much help. My job is a
contract job so it's 5 days a week just like any other job. As far as
the "music scene" goes... I truly am mostly out of touch. I know what
I like and I write what I like regardless of what's popular. As Jude
Cole wrote: "I play guitar to make the rent... ...I might not make a
million dollars, but a million dollars won't make me."
|
| 6.
What do you think of the state of rock music at the moment? Do you
listen to radio much at all? Has the Internet helped music grow or
hindered it?
|
In my world, "Rock" music isn't Rock music anymore. To me, Rock
music is Van Halen, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith, Night Ranger, Whitesnake,
Led Zepplin, stuff like that. The epitome of all rock singers and
writers, in my opinion, is the great Sammy Hagar. THAT'S rock music
to me. As I sit here and right this right now I have 5 discs in my CD
player: Winger, REO Speedwagon, Brian Howe, Vixen, and Trixter. And
by the way, Trixter's 1992 record "Hear!", is one of the most under-
rated rock albums ever. As for the Internet, I think it may
have hurt sales, but overall I think it's been a great stride in
getting music to the people. And for people like me, that's what
we're mostly after anyway.
|
| 7.
What do you enjoy getting up to in your spare time (eg hobbies,
etc)?
|
This will sound so goofy, but other than a lot of reading, I've been
cross-stitching this big project for my mother for about the past
year. But mostly just trying to become a better piano player and
reading.
|
| 8. If you could create a fantasy band - what would be the line-up and
why? |
DRUMMER- Tommy Lee. Despite his reputation, personal life, or
whatever other strikes are against him: anyone who knows anything
about music can't deny that he is a phenomonal drummer. Solid solid
solid.BASS PLAYER- Jack Blades. Just one of the best songwriters ever, as
ell as one of the greatest voices.KEYBOARDIST- Jonathan Cain. Again, just such an incredible
songwriter. "Faithfully" is 20 years old next year and is on the
radio every hour of every day all over the world.GUITARS. Ooooo, I just don't think I can pick two... but.... um...
well one of them would just HAVE to be the amazing Dann Huff. And I think the other would be... probably Neal Schon. Ya just can't get
much more melodic than that guy. LEAD VOCALS- Sammy Hagar. Sammy can sing ANYTHING.
|
| 9. What CD's do you currently have available and where can they be
purchased from?
|
At the moment I just have one, "The Mirror", which is available
through my website:
http://www.jacemusic.com
|
