Hello curious rock 'n roll aficionados. You've stumbled across my GUM! intro page. I originally became interested in the bass because I was in such a big family. There are eight of us, three of which are represented in GUM! When I grew up there were pianists and guitarists galore older than me. There was always music in the house, and I knew I wanted to play it. I took a great interest in the guitar and ukulele in music class in Elementary school, when we studied them.

Then one day my brother Pete's friend came over with a bass guitar. Wow. That did it for me. I started paying attention to what was going on in the low end of the sound spectrum and never looked back. I begged and pleaded for a crappy short scale plywood Sears bass and got it, soon replacing it with a cheap but decent P copy from a local music store (I still have the receipt!). I took some lessons and learned to play, then the family moved from NJ to Vienna, VA. I got in a high school band the Cellar Dwellers with some remarkably talented colleagues, Jim and George Richman, and the rest so they say is history.

I spent some years with Jeff Juliano, Jeff Wiersema, and Taylor Lee (with a few other members coming and going) in the glam rock band Gimmix. We had fun for a few years. I also played with Peter in Loyal Opposition and later did some studio support for Jeff W. formerly my bandmate in Gimmix a.k.a. "Rick Jefferys". I moved to Philly for a few years, then came back to NoVA to join GUM!. Now I'm ready to "really play that rock and roll!" with these guys. My biggest influences as I developed as a bass player were John Entwistle, Paul McCartney (of course), Grahm Maby (from his brilliant work with Joe Jackson), Sting, and JJ Burnel.

Other than music, my main hobbies include Home Theater. I'm kind of a LaserDisc nut, with a collection way to big for my own good. I like fiddling with computers, programming is my 'day job', and I like to play around on the Internet. I'm not into video games, though, and computer 'bells and whistles' don't do much for me. I'd rather spend my time reading back issues of the Internet bass digest "The Bottom Line" than blowing away bad guys in "Super Tomb Raider III 3-D" (tm)(c). Whoops, what was that? I guess I'm a hypocrite because I've got 4 sound cards in my computer with 16mb RAM on'em and sample out the wazoo, busting funky grooves, sometimes working with local rapper "MC Dred" as well as my own sample laden projects.

But the number one love for me other than the bass is motorcycling. I have a sporty 1995 Kawasaki GPZ 1100 which I just LOVE to take out to the twisties and have fun with! Chris and I occasionally go out riding together for rides through the back country in the Blue Ridge of VA. I've also been known to pack up and ride for a week or more to Deal's Gap, NC/TN; Duck, NC; or Daytona Beach, FL for vacations.

Pat and I share a townhouse in Centreville, VA (also known as "townhouse utopia"). This place is constantly filled with the raucous sounds of spontaneous idiotic clapping and yelling. Or sometimes frustrated screams or funky grooves from the computer/music room. Or foundation shaking explosions from the sub in the Home Theater room. If not that, there's always the Karaoke machine in the living room, complete with scrolling text LDs and three count 'em three microphones. It's a madhouse but we love it! So whatever you do don't you DARE try to shoot my jam session down, and no way will I let you ward my rock music off. So now I'm off to play that rock 'n roll!

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