The basics. I love art in all forms. I've had art lessons and music lessons all through my schooling. Though going to school was never one of my strong points, so after 5 years and earning a degree in Telecommunications I got an apprenticeship doing live sound with Modular Sound (Morrisville Pa.) I've been doing sound in one capacity or another for about 18 years.
During that time I worked at Princeton University as a lab assistant. That job allowed me to do some extensive travel around the world via airlines and long voyages at sea (up to 2 months). I worked for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences in their program measuring CO2 levels in the oceans as part of a greater study on global warming. When the research was done and the scientists had to compile the data I was left without a regular job. I returned to doing live sound full time and contacted our friend and jam mate, Mike Mironov, 1/4 owner of Towne Wine & Liquor in Montgomery Township, NJ. I've been there about 9 years now and in that time have expanded and "professionalized" our studio making it available to outside clients.
I am a big fantasy buff. Lord of the Rings was my Bible through my early formative years as Carlos Castaneda was in my post college days. Though I guess whether that is fantasy or not could be debated. I still read lots of fantasy and watch the Sci Fi channel, but I am quite grounded in reality. Music, art, writing, computer graphics, etc, etc. Those are the vehicles for my escapes from reality, release for an active imagination. Early progressive music of the like of Yes, ELP and Genesis, for me, went hand in hand with the likes of Tolkien. It all fit well...
Then in college one of my roomates was a huge Black Sabbath fan. I was extremely wary of anything Heavy Metal, being ignorant at the time, fearing it's messages and noisy lack of talent. Boy was I wrong. I soon discovered Iron Maiden, one of my favorite bands to this day, and heard the likes of all sorts of "new" music (to me). Deep Purple and Rainbow, crazy acts like Manowar, Metallica was just starting to get big, Yngwie Malmsteen (Jens Johansen-keys) and the list could go on. This mind expansion helped to introduce me to the jazz/rock bands of the early 70s ironically. Mahavishnu, Return to Forever and, well that list could go on too. The jazz/rock influence further opened me up to earlier jazz of the late 50s and 60s with Miles, Coltrane, Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Mcoy Tyner, Monk and there's another giant list.
Through these years a friend of Chris' and mine, Juan Garces (another jam mate and keyboard player) introduced us to a band called Mastermind. They were friends of his and Juan new the drummer from high school. We were blown away. Here it was 1989 and there's a band making music like ELP meets Iron Maiden. Long story short; after eventually meeting them I ended up doing sound for them alot and by '97 ventured with them to Japan, Europe and across the U.S. Through this friendship, Chris and I managed to get Rich to drum on 3 tracks of this CD. To Rich we could never offer enough thanks and are honored to have him be a part of this. Bill and Rich have been good friends over the years and sometime I'd like to get Bill to honor us with a track or two.
I am one person with many facets. Balance between those facets is what I try to achieve. That is also true of each facet. In the music I create all those bits that are me go in to making it. On some songs, something may dominate over others, but in the next song something else will take over. As long as I live I will strive to create and understand, for idleness and ignorance will surely kill. Art D.
