I've been a drummer since seventh grade when I took my first band class. I remember nothing of why I wanted to be in band or play the drums, but there I was. That would have been around 1988.
I joined my first rock band in 1993. We were called Third Stone, in reference to a Jimi Hendrix song, and played mostly cover songs from various rock bands from the '60s to the '80s. I floated around in a few other bands before landing in Holiday with Abner. From there it was Omega 2000, then a rather long break while I pretended to be a DJ.
I was a Graphic Design student at the University of Minnesota, Duluth. While there I met up with some people who were DJs at KUMD, the school's public radio station. I was a great admirer of Tuesday Night Tod. He's the man most responsible for the slippery slope that got me up to my eye-balls in techo and gabber. I eventually took over his show (which was pretty amazing to me at the time) and kept the Techno Tuesday alive as The Shack of Xaq. (House of Tod, Shack of Xaq...get it?) From there I gradually became the RPM (that's industry speak for electronic music) director for the station. Talking to various record reps from across the country all day eventually got me a gig as the opening DJ for the St. Paul Moby and Hybrid show. Moby was a long time idol of mine, and in fact I had interviewed him in person a year or two before. Anyway, it was a minor dream come true, and soon after that I gave up the DJ thing. I was making my own music by then.
I started off doing my own recording in my mom's basement, using left over gear from band practice. I called myself Xero Products (because I hated the math classes I had to take at the time.) Most of the stuff I recorded was really bad, but it was fun and I really enjoyed making music from a bunch of nothing. Once I started DJing my music also morphed into tecnho and trance. Once I got tired of that, I started doing more experimental stuff as Dirty Knobs. My greatest success as DK was getting to work with a ton of local musicians doing remix work. I released a compilation CD titled Dirty Knobs vs. Duluth, Minnesota which actually sold a few copies. Probably because it featured Low, The Dames, If Thousands, Amy Abts and others. I went on to do some more work with Low, as well as Haley Bonar.
Somewhere in there I started drumming in a live band again. The band was Both, made up largely of people I had played with in the Omega 2000 days. The band eventually dissolved, and I joined up with Amy Abts. She had formed a band called The State Champs. Again, we had a good run, even signing up to Alan Sparhawk's Chairkickers Union record label. But in the end, it was not to be.
Around the same time I formed my own band called The Surfactants. Being a huge Polysics fan, I basically wanted to rip them off. Thankfully I didn't. Well, not totally. I'm the main songwriter, drummer, programmer and album making guy. The Surfactants are still in operation, currently working in a new singer and promoting our two albums.
That's the music thing in a very large nutshell.
Musician
