311 Artist Feature
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| Biography |
| At around age four I proclaimed my desire to be a rock and roll singer. My first influence was my dad's
collection of early rock and roll 45's from Chuck Berry, Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis etc. When I was 5 I took up classical piano until age 12. It was
then that I switched to guitar and my passion for music really kicked in. The first song I learned on guitar was Margaritaville followed be
Should I Stay or Should I Go? My first performance was in a junior high talent show playing Clash songs. We attempted to do an unplanned
encore and my 300 pound music teacher ran out and unplugged our amps. The first real band I was in was called the Eds. Tim Mahoney
played the guitar in this band which was named after our drummer, Ed. We played parties and dances through my high school years. Our
material was made up of original songs and covers by bands like REM, the Smiths, the Cure.I also played in the high school concert jazz
band with Chad Sexton. When I was seventeen I graduated early from high school and moved to downtown LA in pursuit of a music career.
When I returned to Omaha for graduation Tim, Chad and I got together for a jam session and the Omaha Stylee was born. We called
ourselves Unity. We had a keyboardist named Ward Bones at that time. In '88-'89 Chad, Bones and I moved to Hollywood and made an
unsuccessful stab at getting a contract. Chad moved back to Omaha first and met P-Nut and original 311 guitarist Jim Watson. Chad
asked me to join the band to play a gig opening for Fugazi on June 10th 1990. Our first release was called Dammit, released on cassette
only (300 copies.) After parting with Jim Watson and adding Tim Mahoney we released the Unity CD and Hydroponic cassette ep in '91.
We then added SA as a full member and moved to LA in '92. These were lean times that we spent practicing, playing basketball, and
unsuccessfully growing marijuana. There was also a lot of pasta eating and TV watching. Just before the band desinigrated in poverty we
were signed by a lone courter, Capricorn records. Our first record music came out to little or no fan fare in '93. We then had a bare bones
tour that was temporarily sidelined because of the RV fire. We were ignored by the media until Down hit in '96. Now it's '97 and life is
GOOD! |
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