"Well from all that I can remember, music has always been a huge part of my life. My dad is a musician and has been involved in various bands since I was very young. My aunts and uncles are musicians as well, and it just seems to
be part of my DNA. I guess the earliest I can recall was when I was around 4 years old. The Beatles' "Octopus Garden" was my favorite song. I would play that record over and over, and I remember just being moved by the fact that
there was "this thing called music..."
I took piano lessons at 5 years old. It didn't last very long as I recall due to the fact that my teacher didn't have very much control of me. I was always goofing around, and didn't learn my material at all. I tried to play the piano for about a year, and then I fell out of it. When I was 9 years old I asked my dad to bring me home a trumpet. I figured I could make some noise
with that! I took lessons at my elementary school, and played for about 3 years. I was actually intrigued with how well I picked it up. I had to practice all the time, so it had to go somewhere. I ended up performing with ensembles at holiday school performances, and also for talent shows.
When I was 12, playing the trumpet didn't seem too cool anymore. This was 1984, and I had found a new calling: BREAK DANCING. Oh yeah, that's right! We would dust off the carboard or linoleum, bust out our boom-boxes and strut our stuff. We had a lot of fun, and during this time I was really into hip-hop music. The style of hip-hop was not what is like today, and it was exciting. I began to experiment with my own raps, and would sometimes put together beats from different songs that I liked that. I guess you could say it was sampling. I would take these beats, and some raps that I made up, and re-record them onto new cassette tapes. I had to have like 3 different cassette tape machines and a plug-in microphone to do all this. In retrospect, I was beginning my early development of producing. I wish I still had those tapes, that would be
fun to listen to!
I did the break dancing for a couple years, and in between my 7th and 8th grade years, I discovered the FANTASTIC world of skateboarding. In the mid-late 80's my friends and I really did live the life. We rode our boards from city to city, skating all over the streets and on ramps. We went to competitions and met a lot of the skateboard hero's of our time. It was during these years when my music preference changed and moved into a rock category. I listened to a lot of metal, punk, and hard rock. I also was really into the european music and pop. It was a great time to be exposed to a lot of music, the 80's were notorious for that. When I moved into high school, it seemed like all my friends were now playing guitars and forming bands. They had moved into a whole new world, and I wanted to be right there with them. Luckily for me, my dad owned 3 music stores, and equipment was very attainable. Since a lot of my friends were playing guitar, I decided that I wanted to play the bass guitar. After all, it was what I had watched my dad play while I was growing up, and I felt like that was the right instrument for me. He brought me home my first bass guitar, and right away I began thumping on it. I had my dad show me the basics and played along to my favorite records. I had a feeling that it was coming along very naturally, and it seemed very easy to learn how to play the bass. So, I kept on with it.
I began to take my bass with me to some friends garages, and we would play music together. They were mostly all guitar players, and it seemed like I was the only guy in town that played bass. So I was always jamming with different players. We would play a lot of cover songs, and every once in a while one of them would show me some music they were working on. It was at one of these jam sessions that I asked a friend to "play me something pretty". I don't know what it was that he played, but he played some music that really fit the mood I was in. I was in awe of him for that moment, and I felt like I needed to be able to create music like that of my own. There is only so much you can do with a bass guitar, you know?
As I moved through my senior year of high school, I began to shift my interest towards the guitar. There were a couple of old acoustic guitars at my house, so I found a chord book and busted those babies out! I had been listening to a lot more "classic" rock and blues, and learned a lot of songs by some of my favorite bands at the time. My biggest influence early on as a guitar player was Jerry Garcia. Man, the way he made his guitar talk was revolutional to me. I began attending a lot of concerts during this time as well, and I began to see that this music world that I had stumbled into was just so much fun! I wanted it more, and more, all the time. I never put that guitar down, and took it with me everywhere I went. I started to get a lot of recognition within my group of friends as a pretty decent guitar player, and that just fed my hunger even more.
A couple of years out of high school I had taken some professional guitar lessons from my uncle, and had a much better understanding of how the instrument worked. I also began to write my own songs. They were mostly influenced by things that younger 20-somethings think about, such as relationships and partying. I was having a blast and had been
involved in a couple of bands as well. I was learning what it was like to be a musician, and a collaborator. It was a lot of fun getting together with the groups and hanging out. We played shows at a few parties, and some bars.
We even made some money at it. I had been recording my music onto a 4-track tape machine. I would take my music and turn it into something that would become more of a project than anything else. I was learning about layering
and production. These tapes turned into albums. Before too long I would have 10 or 12 song albums that I would be passing around the circles. People began to show their interest in my music, and that meant a lot to me. I continued
to write lyrics and music, and was really honing my craft. I was beginning to feel "accomplished".
When I was in college I was involved in bands that had better players than I was used to, so I really had to step it up. I didn't want to always just "be a guy in a band", I wanted to be the main guy in the band! I started to
showcase myself more as a lead player and singer, and was actually received very well for it. When we would go play shows and I would hear the crowd cheering, clapping , and calling my name, I felt like I was on top of the world. I had been to many, many concerts as well, and really could see that there is a future in music for a guy like me. The end, however was right around the corner. Due to various issues the bands I was in broke up, and left me alone
as a musician. I didn't know what to do, so all I could do was continue to have fun with my writing and recording. For the next couple of years I was able to turn my 4-track recordings into cd's. That was very exciting to me to have
my music on a cd! I was able to design a cover, have a jewel case, copy them ,print them up- it was like a cd factory for me. The best thing that it did for me was upgrade my image, even though I made them at home.
In the spring of 2001(I was 29 years old), I decided to give myself a challenge. I had heard off and on that I should "do something" with my music. So, I did. I had always wondered if it were possible to make a living as a musician. I wanted very badly for that to happen to me. My music had been taking me to more and more places, and I didn't want to know what "would have became" if I never tried to move forward with it. I took my cd's and knocked on the doors of every coffee house, bar, cafe, open mic, and local festival I could think of. I wanted to play live and get my name out there- and as a solo-acoustic artist
I did just that. I began to play regularly at a variety of locations. I also developed a website that helped me to promote myself (I was really stoked to have website). In 2002, I began to play a lot more shows. My name was generating a lot of buzz, and at that time I was being looked at as the "cool new guy" on the block. My notoriety came very quickly and before I knew it I was getting calls from the local event promoters to play some big shows and festivals. I was also getting calls from local radio stations, and getting involved with local t.v. shows for interviews. This media-frenzy was coming very quickly for me. I was even selling my cd's at my performances! I thought, "I can do this, it's gonna happen!"
In the fall of 2002, I won my first music award.The Modesto Area Music Association awarded me with a MAMA for the best new artist in the "unplugged" category. HOW SWEET! I was real excited about that, and I thought that would be opening some bigger doors for me. Phase one of my challenge had been met, and it was time to move forward. I was ready now to put together my own band. I had been working with a bassist(Jeffrey MsClellan) for some time and he knew a drummer(Jeff Daviney). We both went over to Jeff's place to talk with him about getting together to form a band. Having a MAMA under my belt made it a little easier, and they were all for it. I now had a band and was able to play a better variety of music, and I sort of temporarily abandoned the acoustic guitar and focused more on playing electric.
It was around this same time that I had my first experience with a professional recording studio. A local producer offered me a sweet deal on recording some songs at his studio, and so we began the process of taking my music to a new level. I was very nervous about the whole process, and it wasn't the best "fit" with the environment for me to record at that time. Unfortunetly, the 7 songs we set out to put down just being used as material to teach my band, and I never really got a chance to use them to promote myself.
The band and I were doing great. Through 2003 played some shows, and many of them were with other bands. We were playing clubs, outdoor festivals, and bars mainly. We were having a lot of fun too. In the fall of 2003 we(Sojourn) were nominated for another MAMA award, this time in a new category - "Americana". As it turned out, we won! I couldn't have been more thrilled to receive this recognition again for my musical achievments. Things were just really looking up and my momentum was still growing. We were getting write ups in more papers, and I was making more appearances on t.v. It was cool but also really weird to see my name in the paper and my face on t.v. I couldn't believe that things were going so well. We decided that it was time for us to get ourselves into a studio to record an album. I was chief songwriter, and it was my band, and I wanted to document it sonically.
Throughout 2004 we continued to play shows and I talked the guys into recording some songs with me in a new studio,(Red Dot Recording). We laid down music to 4 tracks in 2 sessions. All that was left was vocals. At this point in time I was on the "outs" with my bassist. He decided to leave the band when I was ready to begin recording another 6 or 7 songs. I ended
up going back to my roots as a bass player and recorded the bass tracks on the rest of the album. I had also recruited a keyboard player(Cary Heidisch) into the band, and a few of the songs were to include his musical input as well. So Jeff and I finished the album, all the while wondering what to call it. It was a mixture of rock music styles, and certainly was different than any other albums that my musical peers were putting out at the time. During a drive out one day I stumbled across a door that had the words "lushes foolish" spray-painted on it. For some reason those words sounded neat together and fit really well with what I had going on in the studio. I finished the last song on the last day of recording, and was able to slide it on the album, a spoken-word jam that I called "Lushes Foolish". I liked it so much that I named the album "Lushes Foolish" as well. We released the album the same day U2 released "All That You Can't Leave Behind", in November of 2004. It was a "Beautiful Day"!
The album generated some buzz, and now that I had some "real" recordings of my music and a "real" album, I was able to promote myself and the band much better. I was able to recruit another musician to play bass for me(Steve Paladino), and now we were playing together as a 4 piece. It added a lot to the band to have the keyboards, and the sound was much fuller when it went off right. We started to play bigger and better shows, and we also began to play shows where we were the headliners. Things were going really well, but I was beginning to feel the strains of bearing most of the work load. I was the main songwriter and basic conductor of the band. The guys had great attitudes and pretty much would play whatever I asked them too, but this has its drawbacks as well. I was also responsible for setting up all the shows, and promoting and coordinating schedules of the guys in the band to keep everything in line. I was also coming up with new material and trying to keep the project moving forward musically, so it was hectic for about a year after the album
came out. I was able to do some new press things too, like visit radio stations and be on the air. That was very exciting and nerve-racking at the same time.
I was also trying to think of a way to start a live music scene in my hometown.In the summer of '05 I came up with a concert concept idea called "Central Valley Rocks. It was to promote a variety of rock bands together in a showcase, as a presentation to the community of live bands that they might not be familiar with. I brought in bands from other nearby cities, each one a little different in style. We had a good sound system and I also recruited a local video filmer to tape the show, to be aired on local tv. We had a good time, and I decided that I would plan another show. We set it up a few months later, and basically had the same format but with different acts. All of the bands that I brought into the concept seemed to enjoy the event. I figured out that in my hometown the scene I was trying to create was too much of a challenge, so I took Central Valley Rocks on the road. I took the same concept and applied it to different venues in different cities in the valley, and it was working real well. I was able to bring a lot of bands together that usually would never play a show with each other, and it seemed like they were also building musical bonds of their own. I guess that is just what musicians do anyways.
In the fall of 2005 I began to think about recording another album, as I had come up with some new material. I had become more interested in rocking a lot more, and some of the material we were playing live reflected that. It turned out that I changed my direction a little, and more and more songs I was writing were basically being set up for guitar, bass, and drums only. So in the spring of '06 I decided to do some more recordings in the studio. I wanted to still have a representation of who I am as a songwriter/ musician but I didn't have enough material for a full album. I decided to make and e.p., which is basically a short album. This one was to include 6 songs total. I brought the band in to record 5 of the songs, and only 2 of them were to have keyboards involved. I ended up with a nice mix of fresh music that still ranged from raging rock to soft acousticness. I was much happier with my recording and production skills since Lushes Foolish, and decided to call the album "Gemini Sky", and it was released in May '06, the same month as my birthday (and, I am a gemini).
I had a cd release party at one of the premier clubs in the area, and had a great lineup of local acts to play the show with me. Everyone seemed to really like the new music and image that I was working with. I was still getting some attention in the local market, and was now trying to get out of the area to new markets. The internet help me out greatly with making new connections with other bands and venues, and I was generating a lot of contacts. I had taken my keyboard player out of the band and replaced my bassist(with Sammy Tucker), and was now playing as a power-trio, the same as when I started back a few years ago. The band was really getting tight, and we were having a lot of fun. We played shows in different cities, and even had a few in San Francisco, which was one of my goals I had been working on. We rocked the house of every place we played, but to my surprise it seemed like the market was getting saturated and less and less people were coming out to the shows. I was promoting still through tv, internet, and radio, but the buzz began to die out.
I was beginning to realize that my efforts and achievements were beginning to level off. The live-entertainment and especially the music industry over the preceding 3 years had really began to decline. People were finding a lot of new ways to entertain themselves, and were not coming out to shows as much. It was also getting harder to sell my cd's, and play shows that would pay the band enough for our efforts. The whole music project was becoming very challenging and I began to get frustrated about it. I was feeling the pressure of being out every weekend working somehow on the music, and not really getting the rewards I was trying to achieve. I decided that it was within my plan to continue to play shows until late spring of 2007, and continued to book Central Valley Rocks events and other shows. I told the guys in the band that I would be retiring the band in May of 2007.
We still jammed out as much as we could until then. We continued to travel around and play with new bands. I still made a lot of great contacts, even though I was burning out. Over 5 1/2 years of really trying to make something out of nothing (which really began 15 years before), I had to throw in the towel. We played our last gig to a full house at a small coffee shop I played a lot at when I was coming up as a solo musician. It had always been one of my favorite spots to play at, so the last gig was a little bittersweet. All of my family was there, and we had a great time.
After that, I sold all of my PA equipment and some guitars, and re-invested it into a home studio. I continue to write, record, and promote myself as a musician, just doing it from home now more than ever! My newest project I am be working on in 2008 will be my "virtual band", which you will hear more of down the road. I have put together a real all-star cast of local band members from the central valley, and we will be writing and recording some great music together in '08. I am sure that I have still made enough fans to stay in touch with on the internet, and who knows what will become of my music as "Life Goes On".
That's my story, thanks for reading!"
Erik
Erik resides in the central valley of California, with his wife and two children
Erik - photoshoot, 2001
Opening XFEST- Modesto, 2002
Erik gets his MAMA! 2002
The EAB, with Cary, Steve, and Jeff- 2004
clear channel B93.1 - live on the air! 2/05
outdoor festival - Gallo Winery, 9/05
Godin photoshoot, 2006
Erik & Sammy! 8/06
SF gig- 3/07
