My career so far...
I've been a guitar player since I was twelve years old.
And aside from a long ago dream to play major league baseball, playing guitar is all I’ve ever wanted to do.
My first bands were all-original acts, influenced by the bands I grew up listening to: Soundgarden, Nirvana, Jimi Hendrix, Black Flag, Pearl Jam, The Beatles, My Name, Descendents, Pixies, Fugazi, and many others. I started out as a songwriter, largely because I had a hard time figuring out how to play like my heroes, and I was caught up in the punk rock spirit of the time. In truth, while I’m a much better player now, I’m still very much caught up in the ethos of that old punk scene.
After I graduated from high school, I went to Cornish College for the Arts to study Jazz. I learned a lot there, but I was still playing with my band Honest Abe and wasn’t nearly as focused on bebop as I needed to have been. I left after a year to focus on performing with my various rock bands.
In 1997, I went back to school, this time Central Washington University, to study classical guitar performance. While there, I continued to write songs and perform. I started playing regularly at a local coffee shop and played two hour sets there every Friday for two years, first as a solo act, then as a duo with my friend Morten Jensen-Hole on upright bass, and finally with a full all-acoustic band called Puptulla. During this time, I also began my teaching career at Talcott’s Music in Yakima, WA.
After I graduated in 2001 with my performance degree, I moved to Seattle, began teaching at the Island Music Guild on Bainbridge Island, and continued to perform, both as a solo singer/songwriter and as a classical guitarist. I played in a band, Queen Jane, with singer/songwriter PA Mathison, until 2007 when I left to play with Star Anna and the Laughing Dogs. I played lead guitar for the Laughing Dogs until our final show, October 26, 2012, when we were accompanied by the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall.
Since the end of my time with the Laughing Dogs, I’ve found a new career as a theater pit musician, performing regulary at the 5th Ave Theater, The Seattle Rep, Village Theater, ACT, and other theaters. I’ve also been enjoying work as a studio musician for film soundtracks, and as a hired guitar slinger for local producers, while also exploring my own producer role for artists like Andrea Peterman and Brothers & The Beat. I’ve been the lead mentor for Seattle Theater Group’s Songwriters LAB since 2018.
Additionally, you can find me playing lead guitar for singer/songwriter Andrea Peterman, performing with some of Seattle’s best musicians in our local supergroup Strong Suit, recording as a solo artist, and playing with several other projects including the Angel Band Project, with Jennifer Hopper.
I teach guitar lessons online and at the Island Music Guild on Bainbridge Island, and I’m the author of The Guitar Player’s Notebook — Music Theory and Manuscript Paper for Creative Guitarists.
Throughout my career, I’ve been fortunate to have incredible experiences and great luck. I’ve had amazing opportunities to perform alongside many of my earliest influences and musical heroes – some of the biggest names in rock – including Pearl Jam’s Mike McCready, Guns ‘N’ Roses and Loaded’s Duff McKagan, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam drummer Matt Cameron, Pearl Jam and BRAD’s Stone Gossard, BRAD and Satchel’s Shawn Smith, Santana’s drummer Michael Shrieve, Alan White of YES and the Plastic Ono Band, Howard Leese of Heart, Nirvana’s Chad Channing, the Seattle Symphony, Blues Traveler’s Brendan Hill, along with many more recent favorites like Jeff Angell and Benjamin Anderson of The Missionary Position and The Walking Papers.