Biography

I started playing music at about ten years old. My father was attuned to my interests, and he was very supporting. People say that it's very important to feed your child's interest. I'm in the process of finding out if that's true, raising my own kids with the same philosophy.

Nobody in my family was a musician. I mean NOBODY. However, my parents did sing for fun. They'd break out the Kareoke machine on the weekends and sing in the living room. And, my earliest memory of fascination with the guitar was with a guitar that my uncle Dori gave me while visiting my grandmothers house in Mazatlan, Mexico. I had neglected the guitar, it had three strings left on it, but for that fateful day of discovery, none of that mattered. I played in the bathroom, it was all porcine so the sound bounced around. Music having an innate geometry in it, I recognized harmony and tuned the three strings into a chord. The rest is history.Why play music? That's a really good question. But, there's no answer to it. The closest answer that there is to an answer is, For many reasons. But none of them practical, of course.

It seems that no matter how important branding is, and no matter how much I "see" it work for others online, and very few with which I'm acquainted with. I can't bring myself to engage heavily in it. I think that there's something about being a creative person and branding that do not live in the same house. One wants to be loose and elusive, and another wants to nail you down to a logo, a sound, or a narrow identity.

I've tried, for some time, to get myself to do branding. As a matter of fact I'm still trying, but I'm not sure if just being who you are, and presenting whatever works arise out of me meanwhile hoping that those works form some sort of cohesive identity is branding. Probably not.

There are certain tenants that I live by, and one of those is artistic integrity. I've tried to talk myself into seeing branding as a meta form of creativity, as part of a larger work. But, that perspective has only worked to a degree.

My musical interests are unlimited. I've played and written in the styles of everything from Folk Americana to Moroccan music. From Celtic Scotish Moors to Afro Cuban. I've also written a classical guitar piece or two when I was primarily into classical guitar. I've also learned how to play numerous instruments from different parts of the world. Music is not so much something that I choose to do, but it's more a part of me than something separate.

I feel that a lot of my work is relevant but there are specific works of mine that I think, if the world hasn't caught on to it, it isn't because it's not a quality piece of work. It's because they either haven't heard it, or it's everyone else that is missing it and not I. There are indeed works like that out there, I believe every passionate hard working artist has AT LEAST one of those. Sometimes, those pieces are labeled as "ahead of their time". As an struggling artist, I can tell you that as much as I'd love to be flattered by that (and I acknowledge that it's a compliment when given), f**k that! In the sense that the me after I'm dead doesn't need ANYTHING, but that I need everything now that I"m alive and in the struggle.

This is something that's weighed out by every struggling artist, and is something on the side of what makes us "sell out" as they say, or compromise our work. I don't judge anyone who does. But, for me, I see it as a form of succumbing, and not really a pure choice.

Really though? What am I gonna tell you? I studied with blah blah blah at blah blah blah. Unfortunately, I must tell you about my first guitar teacher Chris McGuire. He's the founder of the Fort Worth Classical Guitar Society. I say unfortunately because when I read other musicians bios I almost don't care about what school they attended, and with whom and where they played. Also, Chris was was kind of a dick sometimes, but I can't necessarily blame him, because I know for a fact that I was super ignorant about a lot of things! So I probably said some dumb shit that pissed him off. Now, I'm the age he was when he was teaching me, and I now hear people say dumb shit erry day!

I attended the BUotU (Best University of the Universe) for music, which is throwing yourself in-front of people and playing for them after you've practiced a whole bunch.

Chris McGuire taught me some valuable lessons, sometimes they took me weeks to incorporate one into my playing, some took a year or more. I've been playing classical guitar ever since, then I expanded into Flamenco. Everybody loves Flamenco. I could make a sitcom out of it.

Before getting into Flamenco I went to school for theory & composition of music starting at North Lake College in Irving TX. I wanted to be a composer I guess. Then I realized that I was already a composer. The truth of the matter was that I was going to school because I really didn't know how to apply myself in life (that and I loved music of course). And, if I had to be part of an institution, college was going to be it. But, I was like "Hey! I got a scholarship offer to Jacksonville University." I moved to Jacksonville and didn't go to school. I got really into smoking weed and doing crack, and it all went downhill from there. Just kidding! I was twenty six/seven, I signed a one year lease for an apartment in too nice a part of town. I just couldn't see myself slaving away at requirement classes while working night jobs for four years. Let's see, twenty seven, twenty eight... thirty. I'd be thirty years old with a degree in theory & composition of music.

After two weeks of furious thinking I decided not to go. I was like "Fuck this, man! I'm gonna learn the ins and outs of composition on my own!" No U.S. Government or Biology101, I'm gonna cram this into a year, and that's what I did. About a decade later I scored the music to a feature film named California Winter.

But before that, I got a job teaching guitar after bouncing around non musical jobs. Life was bleak for a while. I had no money. No family around. The girl that I chose Jacksonville University over UNT for, we broke up. Before I got my teaching job my car broke down, and you know what they say, like 70% of American's are one transmission failure away from bankruptcy. I was one of those. I had to make a plan man! I had like one, maybe two months worth of rent saved, and I was now renting a room attached to a recording studio. I had no bed, was sleeping on the floor and I decided to practice and write like my life depended on it. Because frankly, it did! My commitment level was... if I'm awake I'm working. What was I working towards? Getting a gig playing music. If life was gonna suck, it was gonna suck while I played music for a living.

And, I've been doing that and growing ever since.

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What Kind of Music I Like

I'm fond of just about all musical style. Listening wise, I'm adventurous. I've gone through seasons where I listened to folk music like Bob Dylan, pop music like Ricky Martin and Madonna. Rock music like The Cult, the early days of Snoop Dogg and the whole NWA posse. I listened to Otis Redding, and Gill Scott Heron which lead me to listen to his daughter Jill Scott. I played her album Who Is Jill Scott? for like two months, the studio production was incredible. DJ Jazzy Jeff did that. I was like "From The Fresh Prince of Bel Air Jazzy Jeff? Whuuut?".

I then got into gypsy music from Eastern Europe, Rajasthan, and Spain (Flamenco) after watching Tony Gatlif films that my bellydancer girlfriend at the time turned me on to. During that same time, I also got into Middle Eastern Music. Songs like Rachid Taha's Ya Rayah, and Abdelli's song Tharguith from his album Among Brothers really caught my attention. I learned to play the clarinet, the nay flutes, frame drums including the riq drum, the accordion, the darbuka, and the oud (What can I say? I didn't have a TV). Furthermore, I've had a lifelong fascination with Celtic and Medieval music. My musical tastes have run the gamut of styles and time periods.

Virtually every musical style has something in it for me, but my favorite songs are those that carve a new path. Songs that say something, regardless of the genre. Songs that suck you into the artists world like a good book. Songs like De Cara a La Pared by Lhasa de Sela, The whole Surfer Rosa album by The Pixies, many songs by The Smiths, and Depeche Mode, Snoop Dogg's rap style on his debut album, and Mozart's Serenade for the Winds. There's too much music to name. If we both had the time I'd gladly be here all day talking about it, but the best I could offer you is a peak at my youtube channel where you can find many songs that I find notable.

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My latest adventures in music are my Mariachi band, Mariachi Primera Costa, working my chops via Flamenco and classical guitar, and Brazilian Bossa Nova and Samba. I'm also working on a few singles in styles that are unrelated to Spanish music, which I'm mostly known for as a performer.

If you'd like to know more about me please enjoy one of my podcast episodes below: