 I started playing the piano at 5. I played until 5th grade when I switched to trumpet. I continued with that until Junior year of high school when I joined the choir, which I stayed in until graduation. After graduation, I started writing music, doing vocals, playing piano and percussion with my cousin Aristotle Anonymous playing guitar, percussion and vocals. We continued working together primarily as a duo for the next 6 years. My brother ,Slim Waste, joined us playing keyboards bass, guitar, vocals and percussion. We continued on as a trio for the next 2 or 3 years. We started doing more solo stuff after that, occasionally working on a song or two with one or the other. In 1992 I got pneumonia and found out I had HIV. I spent the next 2 years working only on solo projects, until I couldn't handle doing it anymore, because of health problems. In late 2003, I started transferring the audio tapes I had from then into the computer. On January 1 of 2003 I put my music on the Amazon.com Free Download Network. I decided that since I'm still here after all these years, I should get back to my music. I have started working on new music, as well as re-working some of my older stuff. I am working on a self-produced EP, that I hope to have finished and out in early 2005.
At the age of 5, while I was starting the piano, I developed a fascination with dad's little 3 1/2 reel to reel tape recorder. When I was 8, I got one for Christmas. That's when I started my experimentation with audio recording. I found out right away mom could tell if I was really practicing the piano or playing a tape of me practicing. I tinkered with that, learning how to use it. How to splice the tape if it broke or got twisted up and I had to remove sections, etc. I finally got a mono cassette recorder and found it much easier to deal with. I started learning about how to record using cables between the record player and recorder, instead of a microphone, to improve sound quality.. And using a better microphone to record me playing the piano, then trumpet. (mom could still tell if it was a tape) Sophomore year of high school I joined the drama club and started taking the drama courses and continued with them until graduation. I was better in the technical aspects of production, than in the acting. Set building, lighting and sound. After graduation, I enrolled in a jr. college with my major being radio and television production. I took the 4 semesters of radio/tv production they offered. 1 semester of theater and 1 semester of a/v equipment operation. I did not graduate, because I hadn't taken the humanities and english courses required. I continued recording my music. I eventually got myself a stereo keyboard, a small stereo mixer and a cheap reverb unit and a used DOD 8 function digital delay unit. I used them until my health problems prevented me from working on my music. Now I'm learning this "new fangled" computer, and how to integrate it with my "old school" knowledge.
I have performed at open mic nights and AIDS benefit shows. Whether I'm performing between poets and performance artists or drag queens and male strippers, it seems like they draw the same kind of crowd. After they've seen you perform and rack their nerves a few times, they get used to you (kind of like a smoker's cough). There'd always be a few people who really got into my stuff. Even when people didn't really care for my music, they enjoyed my performances in such an odd and inappropriate venue.
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