After Mind At Large dissolved, bassist Todd Dorsey reccomended to me that I try jamming with a friend of his named Steve Marshall. At the time, I was listening to music like The Pixies, Primus, Mr. Bungle, '60s lounge music, and Pearl Jam. Steve was probably the only musician alive who could handle the idiomatic trainwreck I threw into his musical lap. After we came up with a name, Steve recommended we ask Gus Nanos to play drums. Steve knew Gus from The Other Side, one of the finest St. Louis Bands I'd ever moshed to, and I was thrilled to have him in the group. In 1997, Brian Klenke (Vinyl, The Knives) joined the band as a second guitarist.

I was now doing something I'd dreamed of since I was a child: I was in a rock band. We played out, we recorded, we toured ... we argued. After many arguments regarding the direction of the band, Gus was replaced by Barry Peraino (Spatik). With Barry, we recorded a full-length CD, toured the South twice, and won the "Best Hard Rock Band" award in the Riverfront Times Music Poll.

Needless to say, after all of our successes, I was burned out and decided I was more interested in teaching music for a living -- so I quit the band.

After quitting Celery, I started a non-profit organization to teach music to under-privileged youth, and I formed a new band called ResistAll. The line-up of the band over three years consisted of people such as Bill Dierker, Will Pelly (Neptune Crush), Chris Hughes, Joe Meyer (Trip Daddys), Laurel Mydock, Scott Freeman (Sullen, Chiaroscuro, Suffrajett, Sibylline), John Kiehne (Smokstik, KingVegas), Will Wilcox (A Little Noise, Earl), John Druelinger (The Phoney Moaners, The Monads, Tin Tree Factory), and for a very brief, inspired moment, George Gerules on bagpipes. We independently released three CDs -- the final of which was a top-selling album at Vintage Vinyl -- and played just about everywhere in St. Louis that would book us. The band unofficially stopped playing out around the time I started touring as a solo artist.

At one point, ResistAll had a gig with St. Peters rock band Chiaroscuro. Soon after hearing the raw simplicity of Scott Freeman's songs, I offered my services to him as a second guitarist. For about six months, we played some really cool straightforward rock and had a lot of fun as well.

I got my start playing solo at the Atomic Cowboy in Maplewood, MO. The bartender's name was Rick Giordano (The Pork Chop Express, Human Shield, Inc.) and we became good friends as time went on. He told me that he wanted to start a band, and at the time I was hurting to play the drums. The music we made together was loud, heavy, and angry. Sadly, my touring schedule conflicted with the band and I had to step down after only three gigs.

MP3s: none.