My Miniature Biography
                
      
 
My musical journey begins when I was 9 years old. It
was 1986 and Poison had just debuted with Look What
the Cat Dragged In. That was really the first time I
fell in love with any music. Shortly after, I got into
pretty much all of the 80s mainstream glam metal
bands, but Poison was always, and to this day is, my
favorite glam band. I didn’t get into heavier stuff
until I heard Metallica in 1992.

“Wherever I May Roam” off the black album struck a
particular interest in me with that eerie
Egyptian-like sound (which I later learned is the
infamous harmonic minor scale). After listening to
that tune a million times over, I decided to look into
the rest of that album and eventually purchased the
black album after buying all the singles. Over the
next year, I collected the other four Metallica
albums: Kill ‘em All, Ride the Lightning, Master of
Puppets and And Justice For All. Believe it or not,
the older stuff had to grow on me. The first time I
heard those albums I didn’t care for them. Soon, I
would love them to the extent that Metallica became my
favorite band.

Around October of 1993, I decided that I couldn’t just
listen to Metallica all day long and not react to it
in some way. I couldn’t sit still listening to them
because they charged me up so much. I started beating
on my chair, my bed, my dresser, whatever I could find
to make a cool percussion sound. I originally wanted
to play drums because I was so infatuated with Lars
Ulrich’s unique style of playing. My parents would not
let drums happen because a kit would have driven them
crazy to have to listen to in the house. So, my next
choice was guitar! I had an old guitar in my closet,
since I was about seven, that I never learned to play.
I begged my parents for it, though I only tried it
maybe once or twice. It was to hard to get the notes
to sound without my fingers hurting, so I gave up.

In late August, 1993, two days after high school
started for me, I broke my foot jumping into a house
foundation because I felt I was invincible that day. I
found out the hard way that I was really being stupid!
I had to wear a cast on my leg for the next six weeks
and couldn’t really do anything. Being unable to go
anywhere or do anything, I decided to pick up that old
guitar and start learning to play. The first song I
learned was “For Whom The Bell Tolls.” I worked my ass
off trying to learn it by ear. An old friend helped me
out a lot by showing me how to read tabs, and by
showing me power chords and the palm-muting technique.
That was enough help to get me going. I practiced 10
to 16 hours a day for the first couple of years; I
played nothing but Metallica. I had all their songs
learned and memorized in a year and a half. I also had
gotten heavily into Queensryche by this time. So much,
in fact, that Metallica and Queensryche were now my
two favorite bands.

In 1996, Metallica came out with Load. I had waited
years for that album! I was so excited about it and I
felt they could do no wrong. As it turns out, Load sucked
so badly I actually wanted to cry! I went to a release
party at a local record store and I remember the store
was packed with eager Metallica fans. Not a single one
had a trace of excitement as the new album was being
played. We all bought the album anyway because we had
waited so long for it. Shortly after the release of
Load, Queensryche released Hear in the Now Frontier.
To me, this album was probably worse than Load. My two
favorite bands had completely gone sour and, in my
opinion, had sold out one hundred percent to the current 
times.

Around this time, I bought a compilation album called
Twisted Metal. Through this wonderful compilation, I
discovered King Diamond, W.A.S.P, Metal Church and
Yngwie Malmsteen. I especially loved Yngwie and King!
With the first check I ever wrote, I decided to go
purchase everything King had ever done. It was a $127
check, if I remember right. King had just released
the graveyard had just come out at that time. I also bought 
everything Yngwie released and eventually collected all the 
Metal Church albums, too. But with Wasp, the only song I was 
ever crazy about was The Headless Children. Now that I felt 
Metallica and Queensryche both completely sucked and sold out, 
King Diamond naturally took over as favorite. Yngwie was right 
after the King. I also got into Mercyful Fate very heavily.

I started to listen to more classical music, mostly
Bach. Both Yngwie and King combine classical music and
metal to create neo-classical metal, the most powerful
style in history! After a few years of teaching myself
to play mostly the same stuff, I went out and signed
up for lessons at The Music Center in Kenosha,
Wisconsin. My guitar teacher was Terry Peterson, one
of the most talented guitar players I have ever heard!
My first lesson with him was the very same day I went
to sign up. He taught me endlessly on technique,
theory, applied theory, etc. It wasn’t until I started
taking lessons from Terry that I got into any lead
playing at all.

What prompted me to start taking lessons in the first
place was a local guitarist that played for me. I was
advertising for a band, and, at the time all I played
was rhythm: absolutely no lead whatsoever! I believed
to play the kind of lead that I like, you just had to
be born with that kind of talent and I certainly was
not born with that! One guy that responded to my ad
wanted me to come over and see him play and, if I
liked it, possibly form a band. I went over and he
played me the most amazing lead guitar I had ever
heard. This wasn’t Yngwie, or Andy LaRoque, or early
Kirk Hammet: this was just an ordinary guy that was
standing two feet in front of me alternate picking,
sweep picking and improvising the most amazing lead
work. Most of his stuff was based around harmonic
minor, melodic minor and full diminished ideas; this
was definitely the style that appealed to me more than
anything. I went home that night and realized that it
is possible for me to learn to play like that. No
longer would I place limitations on my playing
ability. Music lessons here we come!

In 1996, I wrote enough songs to make my first
demonstration cassette, about 45 minutes worth of
music. The material is as good as it is due to Terry’s
teaching. You can find out more about my demo “Eyes of
Fire” at http://www.eyesoffire.net. It’s my only
recording as of now, but soon there will be much more.
Stay posted at my website at http://www.eyesoffire.net

After a couple years of lessons with Terry, I took on
a second teacher, Rex Carroll. Rex used to play in a
well-known Christian metal band called Whitecross. Rex
was the Eddie Van Halen of Christian guitar players.
He was probably even better than Eddie: very
technical, precise, an amazing improviser, songwriter
etc. Rex wasn’t as well-versed in theory as Terry, but
he had the ability to teach me practice techniques and
soulfullness. Both players are equally good, but each
with their own qualities. I am very lucky to have had
them teach me. After about nine months of lessons with
Rex, he had to embark on a European tour with his band
and had to take a break from teaching. Upon his
return, I decided not to continue my study with him,
simply because I didn’t want to pay for two teachers
again. I continued to take lessons from Terry for
another year or so but in August/September of 1998 I 
cancelled my studies with Terry for personal reasons.
Since then I have taken no lessons. I have enough books, 
notebooks and tapes of my lessons to last more than a lifetime.

Now, for the first time ever, I am in a band. I
started my search to join or form a band in 1994/95.
In January of 2002, A Touch of Evil invited me to join
after I jammed with them at their practices for a few
weeks. Doug, A Touch of Evil guitarist, found an ad that
I had placed in the classifieds at milwaukeerocks.com
and contacted me via e-mail from there. From the first
time I heard these guys play, I knew this band was
definitely different than any other band you ever see
or hear, especially on the local level. Doug, Mike,
Jeremy and Megan are great musicians with some very
innovative ideas and songwriting abilities. I am proud
to be a member of this “rising force” which will sweep
through Milwaukee like a bat out of hell and
eventually conquer the world.

 
                                           
My Vision:      
 
There are a lot of bands I enjoy listening to from all 
generations including a lot from today, however as far as 
mainstream go’s, the only generation I ever fell in love with 
is the 1980’s.  The 80’s by far had the most technically 
advanced and modern musicians ever to this day whether you want 
to believe it or not!  Now remember, I’m speaking STRICKLY 
mainstream!  Going into the very early 90’s, mainstream rock and 
metal got far to intricate, complicated, advanced, modern etc 
etc etc for the mainstream crowd to handle.  Even when 
mainstream peeked, the feeble mainstream industry could’nt 
handle the best of the best.  Examples are King Diamond, 
Yngwie Malmsteen, Great Kat, Savatage, Manowar etc etc etc, 
but the bands that did make it commercially with popularity were 
the best that mainstream could ever do, never was mainstream more 
advanced and modernized in a timeless fashion than that of the 
1980’s.  When that scene did peek in the very early 90’s, 
naturally mainstream couldn’t handle it any longer and the idea 
of mastering your instrument to put no limitations on your self 
expression and moving forward in time completely blew up and 
fell back to rock bottom and alterna-grunge was born in 
mainstream music.  Hence, we stepped backward in a musical 
timelime to about the year 0004 ??? In Mainstream music since 
the fall of glam metel and the rise of alterna-grunge the masses 
have been time warped and completely and most utterly decieved 
into thinking that they ARE in the now and not stuck in time 
simply because the mainstream is now “different” than it was 
before.   In my opinion, change is a wonderful thing but only 
if it’s a progression!!!  Unfortunately history has shown as 
that for the masses, change is embraced simply for The sake of 
change and lack of quality even if the change is a step back 
instead of a step forward.  I personally Do not want to step 
backward, but instead always forward!  If change means 
degressing by about 2,000 years, I would press to find a better 
form of change, a MUCH better form!!  Most mainstream people 
seem to have the utmost pride for being up to date in the 
timeline of pop culture and are blinded to the fact they have 
been utterly decieved. A Touch of Evil and Eyes of Fire are the 
most perfect bands to pick up where mainstream left off in the 
very early 90’s and move forward into the 21st century 
intensifying mainstream more so than it ever has been!  But most 
importantly, create a diverse enough mainstream so that there 
ultimately is no mainstream left to waste away what is left of 
the masses comformative lethargic brains.  There are many new 
bands actually that are perfect right along side with us. For 
example, Hollow, Stratovarious, Death, Control Denied, 
Nightwish, Rhapsody, Primal Fear etc etc etc...  Listen to 
these bands, feel there energy and get into the 21st century!  
Will the world ever embrace this?  Or just continue to be morons?  
As for me, I believe music is timeless and should NOT be 
cheapened, blasphemied and  used to represent a time line of pop 
culture and even worse, pride your self on being updated with the 
times while your clueless on the deception that has surpassed you 
while your in total denial as you are reading this thinking to 
yourself that I don’t know what I’m writing about. 
 
                                                               
My Message to all:     
 
Bottom line,  I believe in individuality!  Listen to whatever 
brings you joy regardless of where it fits on a time line of pop 
culture or how popular it is or what style of music it may be!  
Stimulate your brain!  Think for yourself no matter what anyone 
else says!  This has to happen in the world amoung the masses if 
we can ever expect to move on and out of our archaic way’s of 
thinking and join the 21st century!!!
 
*Update:  I'm 
available for Lead/Rhythm Guitar position
Listen to my sound files and contact me via E-mail  I respond to ALL e-mails.  If I do not respond within 48 hours its because I didn't receive it so please keep trying.  
Spread the word...
 
 

 

© Eyes of Fire 1995. laws #1 , laws #2

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