Skip to "Post-History " if you just want to know about the recent years.

A Pre-History

Growing up in the suburbs of Northern Virginia, my parents started us listening to music at a very early age, letting us sing along to James Taylor and " Sesame Street" records.  But all that changed one night when I heard Nazareth's " Hair of the Dog" when I was maybe 4 years old.  That was probably my first introduction to rock music.

It was also probably my first introduction to cursing, too, but that's beside the point.

Through the years, my sisters and I were encouraged to play musical instruments.  I started off on the clarinet and trumpet, like most every kid does, I suppose – I never went for the recorder, though.  (Maybe I should.)  Then, after seeing a friend of mine play guitar in seventh grade, and when I saw that he was dating a pretty hot chick, I figured that was probably a thing that I needed to do.  So I started taking guitar lessons in 1988, learning stuff like "I'll Be There For You" by Bon Jovi, "Youth Gone Wild" by Skid Row, "Paradise City " and "Sweet Child O ' Mine" by Guns N' Roses…

You know, the classics.

In eighth grade, I dropped the clarinet (which I was still playing in the school band) and moved to the percussion section.  And as a graduation present in 1990, my father bought me my first drum kit.  It fell apart over the space of two years, and we traded up for a newer-model entry kit, which I would continue to play until 1999.  More on that later.  Also, during these high school years, I would be introduced to all manner of great rock – Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Minor Threat, Live, Metallica, and many others.

After playing drums and guitar in Spinning Infinity (a band that was started with my best friend) in high school, college brought along a whole new set of fun.  I was the lead singer in a cover band called Scoundrel – imagine, if you will, guys with long hair thrashing about on their instruments, and this little Asian kid with a buzzcut as their frontman… yeah.  I totally didn't really fit in.  So after leaving them, I joined up with another cover band called Dali Lama, playing rhythm guitar and singing the odd song here and there.

Post-History

After I left Radford University, I started going to this open mic in Alexandria at Tiffany Tavern, where I met the two bands that I would wind up playing with after 1997.  The first was a band called Choptank Murphy, whose lead singer asked me to join up on guitar.  But thanks to school and work schedules, I couldn't fulfill that role at all.  For Valentine's Day, 1998, however, they needed me to play drums for them because their drummer couldn't make the gig.  I agreed, as I had taken over on drums at several rehearsals before, and I knew their songs, so it wasn't that much of a stretch.  Eventually, I became their drummer.

We played at the Tiffany Tavern open mic one night when this guy named Chris and this girl named Vivion were in attendance.  To make an even longer story short, they (for all intents and purposes) stole me from Choptank Murphy, and I have been playing drums behind them ever since.  Along with a guy named Brian (we call him "Freddy " , though), we all formed a band called Juniper Lane – you might have heard of us somewhere or another.

My acoustic shows are usually anywhere from DC to Annapolis.  These shows are notorious for odd cover songs at the drop of a hat.  At one of these shows, someone jokingly asked me to play Cyndi Lauper's " Girls Just Want To Have Fun"…

Which I did.

God help me.

So you can catch some craziness at any one of three shows:  the Juniper Lane shows, acoustic duos with Viki, or my solo shows, which seem to be happening with great frequency in Annapolis, Maryland.  Check the schedule for further updates.