Tell us (NON-MUSICAL) about yourself

[og]

The Fifties, '55 in particular, were apparently good years for paranoid subversives.I was born in '55 and grew up in small-town MO. After dabbling in farm life, warehouse work, and other physical jobs, I went to night school and became a machinist. A very promising second career as a chronic drunk was cut short in 2000 by health problems.I've been married thrice--I swear, this is the last--three kids, a boy (27), and two girls (17 & 21).I spent a year in LA back in '79--if it was all like the parts I remember, I musta had a ball.My wife and I now live out in the Boonies, 15 miles from the nearest town and, unfortunately, 60 miles from work. My commute cuts deeply into music time, but I hope it's a temporary thing.My main therapy is flyfishing which, besides guitar, is the only thing I've ever done for more than 35 years without quitting at least once.

[hookstownbrown]

Cool thread!Well shucks, I'm the youngster. Born in '57... 49 going on 25.I started writing rhymes at age 6 or so. I always wanted a guitar, but the folks weren't listening.Around age sixteen, I became an entrepreneur and started my own business selling... uh... spices. I sold spices with integrity and slowly built the business into a respectable entity. One day, I sold a few pounds of... spices and bought myself the Strat that I had yearned for since I was a kid.Well, the Strat took over my life and my business soon went up in smoke. I didn't mind though.Self taught, I played in cover bands for a few years and then took lessons for arranging on piano. After that, I started writing again and ended up in a new wave band doing originals, chasing the record deal. We did colleges around the extended area and other nameless gigs until someone from Atlantic approached us.The possibility of a record deal ended up trashing the band - arguements, egos and such. So, I got this hair-brained idea to join the army! If I joined, I could take the bonus money, buy a sequencer, drum machine and recording equipment and write songs, arrange and produce on my own!So, I joined the army! Then a family happened. Then I had the army pay for me to attend the U of Maryland. Three years later, I left the army with something unexpected... Self discipline!I bought a real business and built it up until I was making six figures, but I was not happy. So I took some of the profits, built a studio and started writing again. Then I found the Taxi website and NSAI and embarked on a new/old career. I eventually sold my business after twelve years of working 80 hour weeks.Now I am here. Broke, happy as hell and loving every minute of this righteous journey.

[nomiyah]

There goes Casey again, starting conversations. Nice getting to know each of you.I was born in the Bronx but when I was 7 we moved to the country on the Mendocino coast. We lived in a hippy commune with no TV and nothing much to do so I played a lot of music and wrote all the time. I dropped out of college to work full time as a musician.I travelled all over the US and Europe but I'll leave out the part about music (that's most of my story). I was married for ten years to an Ethiopian man. We had a son and went to Addis Ababa to meet my in-laws. I divorced in 99 because he didn't want me in the music business (he shouldn't have asked me to choose).Now my son is graduating junior high and we live in Oakland. Well, there's more of course, but enough is enough.Nomi

[Casey H]

Quote:There goes Casey again, starting conversations. Nice getting to know each of you.Nomi

[Casey H]

OK, I said non-musical but I have some time on my hands and feeling like telling the story of how I got where I am (for better or for worse) in music.This is a LONG post. Around the age of 12, my parents bought my brother I each a $10 guitar. We bought a book, "You Too Can Play The Monkees" or something like that and soon we where doing "Last Train To Clarksville". I played rhythm (incredible complex G7 and C chords) and he played that also very challenging intro/lead.We got better and spent the next few years learning Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, etc. I played a lot for friends who put up with the fact that my singing was (and still is) horrible.From around the age of 16, I became more and more interested in writing my own songs. Most were awful, but some pieces of those early songs evolved into my current work. My guitar playing got better by playing with friends who also played. We did some wild campfire concerts (we were too "under the influence" to know that we were bad)- lotsa Beatles, Stones, Doors, Moody Blues, The Who and later Bruce Springsteen.But the originals kept coming for the next 20+ years. They generally came out of extreme emotional pain like a bad relationship, unrequited love, stuff about my parents (I thought I was John Lennon sometimes), etc.I always wondered what to do with all this material being I couldn't sing. I didn't even know what a publisher was or that there were professional demo services for people like me. I knew nothing about song structure, hooks, bridges, etc.At the age of 45 mid-life crisis hit hard. I was gonna explore this thing before I died. I wrote a song called "Boot Up" which I was convinced was a surefire hit. I wrote this long before the movie "You've Got Mail" came out but missed my calling, LOL. (Actually the song isn't very good).I think of you each morning when I boot upHoping there's a message from you...I think about the little iconsI look between the textI look beyond your sideways happy-faceI look at how you signed off....Do people still say "boot up"? (You can hear it on www.broadjam.com/hurowitz )OK, this was it. My big chance. I made a cassette of me singing about 10-12 of my originals, starting with Boot Up. I was determined to at least get Boot Up recorded for demo. Dumb luck... I was working out at my gym in a T-shirt with guitars all over it. A musician named Darryl (the band "D4") came over and started talking to me. I told him what I wanted to to and he spent a half hour in the car with me listening to my tape! Darryl referred me to a friend who agreed to demo Boot Up in his basement for $200. Wait... it gets better...My wife was furious that I was going to spend $200 on this. We were having some problems and had a few sessions with a marriage counselor. This subject came up and the counselor said, "Wait, don't do anything until you talk to my friend DK!"... DK was/is a member of an excellent local Philly band. It turned out that DK and some partners were starting a studio, "Farmhouse", for projects like this. We recorded Boot Up and 11 others and I ended up spending $5,000 instead of $200 !!! LOL! It was like musician fantasy camp for me- I had the time of my life. DK and friends produced and arranged the tunes and taught me all sorts of stuff about choruses, hooks, etc. Stuff I never really thought about.I picked up a copy of Songwriter's Market and started mailing out demo tapes like crazy. I got a few single song publishing contracts on songs including "I Don't Need Nobody Else" with Emstone Music Publishing. By marketing and making contacts I started learning the business, what a publisher was, about film/TV and master rights, PRO's, how to look at contracts, etc. I became an active member of tonos.com. While on there, Australian lyricist Craig Ackroyd sent me some lyrics for a song called "Adrenaline". I set them to music with some adjustments and had a new song. But the first studio I worked with became too expensive. I posted on tonos for help...More luck... Dan Marfisi , an incredibly talented LA producer, responded and recorded Adrenaline for me. Everyone said "hit!". This song put me on the map in terms of more serious interest from publishers, etc. (The music track to Adrenaline is used in a short film about global warming on www.onthebrink.org - 2nd half of film).I kept writing and reworking the old material. With Dan we went on to do a lot more including "What a World", "Painfully Single", "I Had Lunch With Your Wife Toady", etc... Some of those were re-works of the original 12 songs. Thanks to Dan and co-writers, 2 songs, "Marry Me" and "Just Another Slap In The Face" were recorded by Vicky Taytro www.vickytaytro.com for her first CD. "Marry Me" was also recorded by "Double Vision" in Australia.So, from the year 2000 till now, "What a long strange trip it's been"...More later (if you can stand any more )... Got to go to work. I do that sometimes... Casey

[hookstownbrown]

If I take all of the musical stuff out of my life, my bio reads like this...I'm a divorced jeweler with two kids and high blood pressure.

[matto]

Quote:If I take all of the musical stuff out of my life, my bio reads like this...I'm a divorced jeweler with two kids and high blood pressure. ...or in my case...I have high blood pressure

[zink]

Well, I make a living playing and writing, so their's not much else.Lived in NJ my whole life (all over the state). I like to hike and travel in my free time. Never been married, but dating a really cool girl. That's about it.Zink

[nomiyah]

Quote:OK, I said non-musical but I have some time on my hands and feeling like telling the story of how I got where I am (for better or for worse) in music.Wait a minute... didn't you say non-musical? Have some respect for the author of this thread and stay on subject, dude.(PS-interesting read anyway )

[hummingbird]

hmmmmm NON-MUSICAL I have a hard time thinking of anything I do that doesn't involve music in some way.... let's see...... I like Stargate, Star Trek & Battlestar Galactica; Lord of the Rings, fantasy, sci fi, & comedy;I aspire to live the most creative life possible;I'm a writer, I've had articles published;I'm working on an ebook right now;My family is wackily frustrating & cheerfully bizarre;I paint as a hobby, first watercolours & now acrylics; Also make jewelry (beading); Walk, love walking, by the ocean; Like camping, too; I've dabbled in comedy improv & stand-up; & community theatre;I don't like housework, ironing, laundry or doing dishes, but I try to get them in; I don't like paying bills neither ; I'm a champion of peace but I respect those who serve;I love cafe writing - sitting at a cafe in the sun writing in my journal;I'm very scattered so I make long to-do lists on the backs of envelopes and put the most important (and usually most boring) thing in Captial Letters to try to get myself to actually do it. I seem to lose my lists and always have to start again or maybe it's just Freudian slips (Freud was a fraud);my favourite food right now is spinach salad with nuts, dried cranberries, feta cheese & sesame dressing;I'm a casual bird-watcher... hence the nickname.Hummin'bird (I guess I did manage to come up with a few things )