My first CD is titled A DIFFERENT DRUM.  The concept for this project stemmed from my belief that I was breaking away from what would be expected from someone with my musical influences into a genre that most drummers would not consider exciting - new age.  A Different Drum was born out of sheer emotion as I found a way, through self-taught keyboard skills to express my thoughts and feelings that originated from a series of significant, life-changing events that I was experiencing at the time. The music was inspired by artists such as

David Arkenstone and Mike Oldfield. It  featured prominent string layers on a foundation of mostly straight ahead 4/4 rock rhythms.  It was a total learning experience for me as both a burgeoning independent songwriter and a musician struggling with the challenges of learning the technical side of being a recording engineer and producer in the computer age.

 

 

   

 The title for my second CD INVENTING FIRE came from my personal belief that in music, there is really no such thing as original anymore.

I truly feel that everything that is written nowadays is rooted in blues, jazz, Celtic, aboriginal, first nations, Asian or eastern European cultural music. Therefore, it is impossible to invent something that already exists - it's like trying to invent fire.  You can't invent fire because it always existed either by design or by chance.   Hence the term for my CD Inventing Fire.   This CD expanded on the new age motif further by bringing in a harder, rock edge and more intricate drumming patterns while still maintaining the layered keyboards. Also new to this project was the addition of applying multiple layered and inter-twining rhythmic melodies. Still learning how to operate all of my recording equipment I employed the tactic of using tympani to mirror the bass guitar on certain sounds giving them my own distinctive sound that contained a richer, punchier lower end frequency.

 

 

     

My third CD is called ILLUMINATION.  The concept for this title comes from the fact that by the time I recorded this project, I was getting pretty good at navigating around the technical aspects of digital recording and mixing. I had also (through my two previous CD's worth of music industry dealings), had a few more years exposure to the business side of the music industry.  I started my own record label, Da Vinci's Notebook Records and in effect I felt that I was more savvy from a business perspective and slightly more enlightened or "illuminated".   I was using different rhythmic textures, less keyboard string layering but more catchy, hooks and melodies. This album contained two milestone performances for me. The first was the creation of my World War Two epic composition The Queen's Own which is a musical tribute to the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada military regiment in which my uncle was enlisted.  He was among one of the first waves of the D-day invasion to hit Juno Beach and was later decorated for bravery during the battle. 

My second milestone moment came when I composed the pop song Touched  which was my first composition that contained vocals.

 

 

     RANDOM ACTS OF MUSIC  is once again a hybrid mixture of rock, pop, symphonic rock, prog rock, new age rock, jazz and jazz fusion.  This project is  a bit of a departure for me as I am attempting to explore the various avenues and styles of the Jazz genre which is the genre of music on which as a young drummer, I cut my teeth. In some ways, it is sort of a home coming for me.  There are one or two traditional jazz standard covers along with a whole array of original music incorporating flavors of other styles of jazz.