Photo © Dilly Carson, edited by Laura S. Tinnel.

 

My first songwriting experiences occurred at age 3, when I penned the now-legendary hits "A Bony on a Pony" and "A Workermans". After that, I fell into a fairly long dry spell until – I found that I still really enjoyed songwriting. I took a few drum lessons as a kid, but didn’t really play until I was in a band in my 30’s: I played briefly in an alt-rock/pop band called Pride and True, which put out a cassette.

I had known Bruce earlier through mutual friends. When we reconnected via Facebook, I was blown away by the stuff he had done since we last met, and I felt a real sense of kindred spirit. Wanting to put music creation back into my life, I asked him to consider me as a songwriting partner, and/or mixing assistant, and/or soundboard for whatever project he had coming up. So when he turned me onto "This is Rock 'n' Roll Radio" and Steve's crowd-sourced songwriting mentorship program, I was really excited. And when Steve asked me to be part of this project, I just couldn't believe my good fortune. Still can't!

I wrote Trick of the Light years ago for my wife, but never did anything with it. When we were working on the album, I shared it with the band, and they jumped on it. I'm so pleased with how it's turned out. So is my wife. :)

My music influences include Beatles, XTC, Squeeze, and Elvis Costello. Mainly, power pop and new wave are my biggest influence, but I do enjoy crazy polyrhythmic stuff and different genres mixed together.

I spent 15 years as a professional actor. I changed careers from acting to audio engineering, so I got to spend a lot of time with people who were creating and recording amazing music. After 10 years of that, I settled into my current career as a voice-over artist with my own studio, Himby Productions, based out of my Orlando, FL home.