Hi, Steemit! As part of my introductory blog post series, I'd like to tell you about my history as a musician and what it is I do as a musician. I am a drummer, guitarist, and vocalist that records and performs various styles of rock music. I play in a few groups in San Diego, California.

Formative Years

I took piano lessons when I was five-years old until I was around twelve-years old. It was not something I was necessarily passionate about. It was ust something my mom had me do. Around the age of 12, I switched to taking violin lessons to follow in my late grandfather's footsteps. I was still not so passionate, but looking back at it, I would be learning some valuable lessons in discipline. Around this same time, my dad was teaching me how to play the guitar. My parents always had the Beatles on at home. My dad had this chord book with a bunch of Beatles songs, and this was how I learned how to play folk and rock music. I continued to take violin lessons through the end of high school and even played second violin at a prestigious youth orchestra (very back seat, mind you, I wasn't very good).

While my parents were putting on folk and classic rock on at home, my older brother was putting on metal, pop punk, and grunge. As I grew into a teenager, I embraced the angst of loud music. I picked up my dad's old electric guitar and my brother's old DOD Grunge pedal and learned how to play some Nirvana and Green Day songs. This was the beginning of my wanting to rock. I wanted to be like those rock stars I saw on TV! One of my icons around this time was the White Stripes who recently came out with their album White Blood Cells. I thought they were so cool.

I also started learning how to play the drums through osmosis by paying attention to Dave Grohl's drumming in Nirvana. Looking back at it, this was a good place to begin drums, and I would recommend to budding drummers to learn how to play Nirvana songs due to their simplicity and attention to song flow and structure.

Through my dad, I developed a taste for Crosby Stills Nash, Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Rush, and Black Sabbath. Through my older brother, I started to develop my own taste with artists like Metallica, Primus, System of a Down.

Around the time I was 13, my twin and I began writing our own riffs. We became interested in recording demos of our really basic songs. Our parents bought us a 4-track TASCAM tape recorder. This was the beginning of my career as a recording artist. It was kind of a strange beginning learning analog recording in the era of digital production, but I learned some fundamentals by recording on tape.

The Unlimited Pineapple Club

By the end of high school, I developed a taste in music and a creative vision of what kind of music I wanted to make. My twin and I were digging deep into extreme metal, but mostly thrash metal. We were really into Slayer, Megadeth, and Voivod. But at the same time, we were obsessed with Primus. We formed a project called the Unlimited Pineapple Club. Our influences were pretty much thrash metal and Primus. I look back at these years fondly. I didn't know much music theory back then, and there was a sort of purity in this kind of music we were making. You could check it out if you're curious. Here are some of my favorite tracks.

I played guitar and drums in the demo recordings, but during my second year of college, Unlimited Pineapple Club would be joined by a drummer. He was a little older than us and had more experience, so this was pretty much our foot in the door to the San Diego local music scene. However, we only played three shows before the band dissolved.

A Formal Education in Music

As mentioned in a previous blog, I entered college in 2006 as a Computer Science major but would switch to a major in Music. I studied music at University of California San Diego, a school known to embrace experimental music. The first year of studies were very traditional and classical. I learned species counterpoint, the sonata form, and functional harmony. You know, the basics of "western music." I also had some good ear training and dictation practice during this year. After the first year, however, emphasis was put on experimental contemporary music.

I was always into experimentation in rock music being into artists like Primus, Mr. Bungle, Ween, Frank Zappa, the Residents, etc. Studying experimental music in contemporary music would broaden my knowledge in what was possible in music. Some favorites that I came away with were composers like Xenakis and John Cage.

My emphasis was Music Technology. This was a great way for me to combine my computer programming with my music interests. The highlight for me in this regard was when I programmed a software synthesizer in PureData. That was one the most fun projects I've done in all my college career.

THESHIZZ

As mentioned in a previous blog, I grew up on video games. As a teenager and into my adult life, I would always be nostalgic for the golden era of video games. Around 2007 I was introduced to a message board about music and video games called The Shizz. A lot of the members on this site were into making their own cover versions of video game music. Even to this day, there is a monthly competition called Dwelling of Duels. I participated in this a few times. Here is an example of one of my entries.

Platypus Egg

Around 2008, from the ashes of UPC, my twin and I start to perform at open mics in San Diego playing cover songs with a couple of our friends. Eventually we would write original music and form a new band.

One might consider Platypus Egg my main project. My band mates and I started this group with a mutual love of Mr. Bungle and Primus. We all had eclectic tastes in music and wanted to form a project where we could combine several subgenres of rock including funk, pop, metal, and ska.

We released our debut album in 2012 and the CD release show was great! We eventually made a music video for the first track. Here is a pretty cool live video.

https://youtu.be/5ov1A47MYBU

The band has gone through a few lineup changes, but we are still active and currently working on our next album.

Old Man Wizard

As a teenager, I was playing drums on my demo recordings. But when I moved to go to college, I didn't have a space to practice anymore. So I had a brief hiatus of playing drums. However, one of the friends I made as a music student was starting a new project and was looking for a drummer. This was my opportunity to start playing drums again so I joined the band.

I've enjoyed the experience of being in Old Man Wizard because it is not my creative brain child. I am just the drummer! But it is a fun collaboration regardless. I feel like I could exercise my creativity even though the songs are not my compositions by playing in a way which makes the songs come to life and makes the music flow and expressive.

I was really proud of how the second album Blame It All On Sorcery turned out. New songs have been written and we will be collaborating once again soon. Here is a pretty cool video of us performing live.

We have embarked on a few summer tours over the years, and these are always great experiences for me. They've only been US west coast tours so far, but I've visited cities in states I've never been to before. Going to the Pacific North West is always fun. And you know what else is fun? Playing music every night and getting free drinks :)

Plunger

I will write about productivity in creativity in a future blog in more detail, but Plunger is a two-piece project I do with my twin with the purpose of getting creative juices out of our system and breaking out of writer's block, or plunging the creative toilet, so to speak. It is bass, drums, and vocals only. We get pretty primal with a sludgy, doomy, stoner sound. Checkout our latest release on bandcamp. Here is a video of us practicing a song

Rock on, Steemit! \m/

This is just an introduction of what I do as a musician. Although I am also a computer programmer and gamer, music is my primary passion. Music always gives me the motivation to improve. Over the past year, I've taken my drumming practice more seriously. I've started practicing my rudiments, learning how to play jazz, and studying great drummers that I look up to. Music is part of my daily life. Music has helped me express myself, become disciplined, and share a deep part of myself with others. Because of music, I am able to live my best life. Thanks for reading <3

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