My earliest musical memory is of my uncle Tim playing "Ramblin Gamblin Man" on the drums. Seeing and hearing him play made me fully aware of the power music has over people -- especially drums. One other early memory I have is of a guy up the street from me named Timmy Ford, who had a sparkle blue Apollo 5-piece drum kit. These two Tims sparked an obsession with drums that still exists in my life to this day.

I can honestly say that drum lessons were the greatest thing my mother could've given me. I remember details about drums very vividly and with great sentiment (i.e., the first song I learned how to play was "Teen Beat" by Sandy Nelson). As I progressed through the Catholic school system, one thing became abundantly clear: all I wanted to do was play music. My grades in school were usually pretty poor because I was either watching TV or religiously practicing along to Rush, Grand Funk Railroad, Van Halen, or Stray Cats records.

St. Mary's High School is where I met Bill Dierker. He and I sat with all the "metal dudes" at lunchtime, and before long, we found ourselves jamming together. His love of hair metal guitar histrionics perfectly complemented my love of hair metal show-off drumming. We formed Hellhounds of the Deep Satanic Sea Raiders with St. Mary's freshman Adam Scherrer and played together for a grand total of two weeks. During those two weeks we composed three instrumentals, two of which I wrote. None of us could sing and play at the same time, so actual songs were out of the question. Our name came from a book about pirates that was in Bill's basement, and we liked it because it was delicious irony to have such a big name for a band that sucked so prodigiously.

I still keep in touch with Bill, and he probably wouldn't object to a H.O.T.D.S.S.R. reunion show, as long as I can find some Rototoms.

MP3s: Hellhounds!, Hellhounds! pt 2, Rototoms and Washburns, Rise of the Setting Sun

St. Mary's Jazz Band served as my first experience performing in a non-Celtic ensemble that played fully-composed music. We played such thrilling selections as "The Love Boat Theme Song," "The Addams Family Theme Song," "Mony Mony," and "I Love Rock 'n' Roll." Our shining moment was playing between whistles at a St. Louis Steamers indoor soccer game.