It was some red, oddly-shaped, no-name POS.
The first song learned (poorly) was 18 and Life by Skid Row.
Out of respect to poor mid-90s teenage style decisions, and due to digital cameras and cell phones having not yet been invented, there are no photos of this milestone to share.
Instrument: Guitar
After meeting in high school, Aristotle was formed in an Aurora, CO garage by drummer Danny Luehring and myself. The band played mostly cover songs by bands ranging from Rush to Metallica, from Van Halen to Dead Kennedys, from Boston to Pantera, and so on.
Aristotle also wrote two original songs which we performed at our first and only live show at a battle of the bands that took place at Pistol Pete's in Sheridan, CO along with Kjell Moe on vocals and Brian Fisher on bass.
Here's me, on the right. And that's my second guitar, my old Steinberger (Hohner).
Instrument: Guitar
This band, which also featured Mikel Wojtyszyn on guitar, was inspired by heavier thrash at the time, including Slayer, Testament, Suicidal Tendencies, and Sepultura.
With only two members, Sacrilege served mainly as a writing project, and became a stepping stone to forming Maledict.
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Mike Wojtyszyn and me
Instrument: Guitar
As Mike W. and I delved deeper into extreme and death metal, Maledict was formed as our first death metal project.
Maledict attempted one unreleased studio effort that never saw the light of day.
Other members included Dave Rogers on drums, who would ultimately become the drummer in Undertaker.
Instrument: Guitar
Wojtyszyn, Rogers, and I continued writing heavier material. But as it currently goes with young bands, changes were right around the corner.
Line-up changes saw the departure of Wojtyszyn and addition of Otto Larson on guitar. Dave Reeves replaced Brian Fisher on bass, and Dallas Brown joined on vocals. At this point, the band was reborn as Undertaker.
Drawing from influences such as Cannibal Corpse, Mortician, Death, Suffocation, Godflesh and others, we joined the local deathmetal scene with the likes of Dismembered Fetus, Yeast Infection, Cephalic Carnage, Hideous Corpse / Skeleton of God, and SLC's Wicked Innocence.
Instrument: Guitar
Undertaker released one EP, Necro-Thievery, in 1994 on Creepo Records, which features artwork by Jeff Kahn from our label mates Skeleton of God.
This felt like an awesome achievement for my young age, releasing my first studio effort and being signed to my first record deal while still in high school.
In May of 1994, I kind of accidentally started playing Primus basslines on my guitar while in jazz band rehersal. There was something about it I really liked...
Instrument: Bass Guitar
As I continued to experiment with playing basslines on my guitar, my interests expanded into different styles of music.
By midsummer of 1994, I decided to step down from Undertaker to focus on my emergent interest in bass guitar.
I bought my first bass guitar, a '92 fretless Fender P-bass. It was maybe an odd choice for a first bass, but it definitely added tons to the sound of my early bass projects.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
In spectacular fashion, I started putting together a very eclectic combination of musicians for my next project and my first project on bass in late '94.
Inspired by Primus, RHCP, Radiohead, and Pearl Jam, the project would feature two full-kit drummers: long-time friends Sean Kuchera and Jason Wheeler (future EOS and Black Yeti), Bruce Conrad on guitar, and Billy Lawson on vocals. Chunk Light Dolphin was born.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Things were going well for CLD as we continued playing shows in the Denver area with the likes of Deeps54 (Concentrated Evil), Love Buzz, and Battered Tree Frog, but a few adjustments were needed.
Billy left the band and Bruce stepped up as vocalist, and Pat Payne (future EOS, Black Yeti, and more) joined as his first tour on lead guitar.
With these changes, we rebranded the band as Tweed, and the shows continued at locations including The Mercury Cafe, Cafe Euphrates, and the Aztlan Theatre.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
I guess I was always a multi-project musician. During the later days of Tweed, Sean, Pat, and I started picking up extra days at the jam space working on new and different material under the name WonderNone.
The songs were arguably darker and more aggressive, inspired by acts such as Quicksand and Tool. It was short lived and the project never performed live, but some of the riffs laid the groundwork for future EOS songs.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
A common theme you'll see recurring frequently in this timeline... is change.
Disagreements within the band finally took their toll on Tweed, and we disbanded. This wouldn't be the last time I share the stage with Jason and Pat, though. More on that later.
After the split, I joined an existing Denver-area 311-inspired raggae rock band, Nothing Yet, learned their material, and started playing shows in the area with them.
The band featured some pretty talented musicians including Doug Wingert on drums.
This was the first time in my career that I joined a pre-existing band rather than help found it, but it wouldn't be the last.
Instrument: Bass Guitar, Programming
After Nothing Yet fizzled out, I decided to take a very different musical direction from things I had done in the past.
I had been listening to a lot of electronic music during this phase of my life, mostly big beat and drum and bass (stuff like The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Crystal Method, Goldie, Hive, Meat Beat Manifesto, Future Sound of London) thanks to the influence of a co-worker.
I took this interest and started working on my own solo electronic project, which I jokingly dubbed Lowfat. It included lots of obscure rap and jazz samples and crude synth parts, but still included my live bass guitar as well as self-recorded drums performed by Jason Wheeler and afro-beat sessions from Steve Hine.
The project later took on a more trip-hop vibe and even included a couple of tracks featuring a few local rappers. I also started performing live DJ sets in the Denver area with the likes of D-Bom and PH-10, which was a huge endeavor (and financial investment coming from other forms of live music and equipment).
I produced enough material for a double-album that was to be titled "Common Sense is a Recessive Trait," but I never got around to releasing it.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
After working on solo electronic stuff for a few years, I was convinced to get back into playing in live bands by former Deeps54 / Concentrated Evil guitarist and vocalist Adam Schell. Together with former Deeps54 / Concentrated Evil drummer Kevin Ozias, we formed the progressive three-piece Thingism.
Like many bands, we couldn't really put a label on our sound, but when I listen to our one self-recorded demo these days, it sounds a shocking amount like Tool. Odd that I didn't hear it at the time. If I can find those, I'll post them here.
I even employed some of my Lowfat experience to program a live set intro song using samples from Redman and Portishead.
We played lots of live shows all over Denver, including one of our last at a house party in Aurora on the 2000 NYE. We thought for sure the power would go out during our set, but as we all know that was completely uneventful.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
During my time with Thingism, I was able to get reunited musically with my former Tweed drummer Jason Wheeler. We started working on plans for a new project that pulled from some of our biggest influences in music including RATM, RHCP, and Toadies.
To round out the line-up, we pulled in our former Tweed guitarist Pat Payne and added an up and coming local rapper, Matt Lamoureaux, on vocals. With that, Earth's Other Sun (or EOS) was born.
The result was still very RATM / RHCP inspired, but took on darker tones from Black Sabbath, Helmet, and Fugazi. Payne and I were even able to work some of our older works from WonderNone into the mix.
We existed very much during the time of nu-metal which was a challnge for us since we were very much... not. EOS played all over the Denver area with lots of big early 2000s bands from the area, including Typecast, Fomofuiab, Faze, Dropsound, and Ainmatter.
Due to our influences from rap and other "groovier" acts, we were largely labeled as a "funk metal" band, which was always hilarious to us.
However, my love of the heavier side of music never really subsided, and new acts such as Slipknot and Mudvayne piqued my interest at this time of my life.
Instrument: Guitar, Programming
Playing in EOS afforded me the opportunity to connect with several bands and different musicians. One example of this was re-connecting with an old high school friend, Jesse Gemme, who was playing drums for Typecast.
We shared many similar interests in heavier music and had an idea for a recording-only project that was largely inspried by our mutual appreciation of Fear Factory.
Jesse knew me back when I played guitar for Undertaker, but had his doubts that I still had the guitar chops for such an effort.
While Mainline was short-lived, we were able to collaborate on two tracks that would serve as a foundation for our future project, Assisted Suicide Assembly, but also opened up another opportunity.
Instrument: Guitar
After working together on Mainline, Typecast's drummer Jesse thought it would be a good fit to have me join the band on guitar.
I had been primarily focused on bass guitar for several years, but Typecast had grown to be one of my favorite local bands. I would go see them live even when EOS wasn't on the bill. So I was excited for the opportunity.
In the fall of 2001, I joined Typecast on guitar. This would prove to be an awesome opportunity to play some killer shows and meet some cool like-minded musicians for future endeavors.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
It was definitely fun while it lasted, but ultimately EOS's time ran its course. In no small part, I'm sure, to my attempt to juggle two Denver-area bands with similar but different audiences.
I made life-long connections with Jason, Pat, and Matt, and these connections would prove to bring us back together in the future.
This was my first attempt at really trying to balance two working bands and it taught me a lot, but it certainly did not deter me from trying it again in the future.
We did manage to get a few studio recordings over our time together. I'll try to find those and post soon.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
After a couple of years playing guitar in Typecast, the band underwent its most significant lineup change leaving it as a three-piece: Jason LeBaron on vocals and guitar, Jesse Gemme on drums, and me on bass.
I was happy to be back on the bass guitar again, but the music also took on a more melodic style, which left somewhat of a hole in to be filled in the pursuit of heaviness.
Instrument: Guitar
With the lineup changes in Typecast, Jesse and I had considered resurrecting our previous project, Mainline, to fill our needs to create brutal music. But there were others in the scene that had similar interests.
Chad Armstrong, vocalist of Fomofuiab, and Sean Coon, most notably the bassist of Blister66 and Switchpin, were also both looking to do something similar.
The four of us gathered secretly at the Typecast jam space and quickly churned out an anthem of sorts; a song that highlighted the shortcomings of our current memberships in other projects that were just not quite hitting the mark for us.
With its simple chorus, "We're not supposed to be here," False Invitation announced the birth of Assisted Suicide Assembly. Our mission was simple: to create the heaviest music possible regardless of popularity or scrutiny. No excuses. Just fucking heavy.
Said differently, we thought: "What if we just wrote songs that were made up entirely of the breakdowns, you know... the parts of the songs that people like most?" We fucked around, and we found out.
While the songs came quickly to the band, its formation was anything but smooth. At least for me. I loved Typecast and I loved playing bass again. In fact, I didn't even own any guitar equipment when we formed ASA. It was all "borrowed" equipment.
Add to these reasons that I had just gotten married and my first son had just been born.
I cited all of this as reasons why I didn't think it would be possible for ASA to be a full-time endeavor. But Sean, Chad, and Jesse had other plans.
Sean managed to cobble together a suitable guitar rig for me to use and even sourced us a dedicated jam space, and the three of them continued insisting that ASA take the front seat in our music careers. I could not deny the ease of how these heavy songs came to be, nor their impact on me, and eventually gave in to making it a priority.
For our first show, Jesse and I pulled double-duty, as ASA opened for Typecast at the Ogden Theatre in Denver.
The crowd response was undeniable. ASA was here.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Unsurprisingly, Typecast began to suffer with the lineup and style changes, and with the success of ASA.
In 2004, Typecast finally disbanded.
During my time in Typecast, I was fortunate enough to share the stage with national acts such as 30 Seconds to Mars, Clutch, Prong, Dredge, and more.
Instrument: Guitar
With our ability to write fast and record our own material with our crude, yet effective, home recording equipment, ASA landed an independent record deal with Louisiana's Camp Fury Records within the first year of our existence.
Our EP, the very appropriately-titled "i fucked up and did something right," was our first release on the label. It sold out almost immediately.
Instrument: Guitar
ASA continued to write, record and tour.
We recorded and released a split EP with Continent of Ash on Camp Fury Records and also contributed to the Base Camp 001 compilation CD.
ASA hired Josh Allen, formerly of Control Element, as the second guitarist of the band. He contributed to the writing of songs that would ultimately appear on our first full length.
But, as the patterns go, trouble was brewing with the band.
Instrument: Guitar
Tensions within the band grew and ultimately forced some line up changes.
Chad Armstrong was fired as vocalist. Former Typecast frontman Jason LeBaron joins the band with all new lyrics for the songs that were being recorded for our first full-length, No Love Lost.
Drummer and founding member Jesse Gemme also left due to personal reasons. Alex Wiggans of Watership Down was hired as his replacement.
Finally, Josh Allen also left the band due to uncertainty of our future.
However, ASA was far from done. While the changes in frontman definitely had an impact on the overall style of the band, there was still a lot to be done.
ASA released our first full-length effort, No Love Lost, on as a four piece in May of 2006, featuring all-new lyrics by LeBaron and drums by Wiggans. This would be the band's final release on Camp Fury Records.
Just before the release, we hired guitarist Taylor Steele (Blister66, many others) as our new second guitarist. Even though he was not on the recording, he played our CD release show at the Gothic Theatre in Denver (along with Ainmatter, who was also releasing their new full-length).
With the addition of Steele, the band was reenergized and began writing new material almost immediately with the goal of landing a new record deal. We recorded and released a new two-song EP, There Will Be Blood, independently in November of 2006.
Instrument: Guitar
Spoiler alert! We didn't land a new deal.
Although we were writing what I feel to be the best material we'd ever produced, other musical interests for members in the band got in the way, and it just felt like it had run its course.
Again, the bonds made while working with this band were long lasting. LeBaron, Steele, Wiggans, and myself would go on to do other projects together, and Sean will always be one of my best friends.
Before we wrapped it up, we were lucky enough to get to open for Machine Head at The Gothic Theatre for our last show ever. Not a bad way to go out.
In addition to Machine Head, ASA was honored to share the stage with the likes of Organized Hostility, Aggro-Fate, Poolside at the Flamingo, See You Next Tuesday, Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire, Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza, and many others over the course of its existence.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
One of the other musical interests of former ASA members was Razed Hero, a band that featured Jason Lebaron on guitar and vocals, Alex Wiggans on drums, and myself on bass.
The band was initially commissioned by my former employer as an attempt to build a more "commercially viable" heavy rock band.
It was the first time I was paid to record in a recording studio. We worked with Dave Otero at Flatline Audio to produce our first four-song EP, The World.
This project ultimately failed, but the songs became the first four for the fledgling Dead For Denver project.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
After the failed attempt of Razed Hero, LeBaron, Wiggans, and I continued on writing and recording together under what would become Dead For Denver.
We picked up second guitar player Ty Fury (formerly of Fomofuiab, eventually of Dirty Little Rabbits, Murder of Crows, and more).
Ty was only in the band briefly before having to leave to go on tour with other projects, and we picked up Taylor Steele on guitar.
After a few months of trying to balance my new work schedule with DFD's practice schedule, and due to a lack of actual opportunities for the band on the horizon, I quit the band.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
After a brief hiatus while I got my career shit figured out, Taylor Steele reached out about a new deathcore project he'd been working on with former Ainmatter vocalist Wes Morales and former Gematria drummer Ryan Oakes: Identity Pusher.
They had produced one single song which was engineered by Jason LeBaron and were eager to show it to me, hoping that I'd want to join the group on bass.
It was fucking sick, and so I did.
This band was instantly the heaviest band I'd ever played bass for, and it was a blast.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
In 2010, Identity Pusher released its only recording effort, the self-produced five-song EP "It Was Already On Fire When I Got Here."
The band continued to play shows locally for the remainder of the year. Ultimately, it fell apart, again due to different interests.
In my case, it was to start my new business, Origin Snowboards.
And with that, I started the longest hiatus from music in my career.
Instrument: Guitar
Don't get too excited. It was just one benefit show as the original four-piece line up at the Marquis Theatre in Denver to help raise money for our former front man, Jason LeBaron's medical bills.
With It's Always Sunny in Tijuana, Burial Plot, and others... I can't remember who else was on it.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
To quote Big Boi: "Funny how shit come together sometimes, you dig?"
Eight years had passed since I was last in a band. Three years since my last live performance on a stage.
I'd remained close to my former frontman, Matt Lamoureaux, since the demise of EOS. Lam had been in several projects including Versus, Strange Agent, Hidden Powers, and most recently punk outfit The Lurchers.
Things were starting to get weird in The Lurchers, and Lam had a desire to start a positive hardcore crossover project. Further, he demanded I come out of my retirement to join the effort.
Lam had already lined up guitarist Tom DiCosola. The riffs were rad. We found a drummer and started writing and rehearsing.
The first drummer ultimately didn't work out, but we were able to replace him quickly with Bill Jenkins.
And with that final adjustment, Chew Thru became a song-writing juggernaut.
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Instrument: Bass Guitar
Chew Thru released our first self-produced five ong EP, Heavy Hands, in November of 2019.
We played our first show at Streets of London in December of 2019, and started booking and preparing for our next shows in 2020.
I'll let you guess what happened next.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
No, we didn't split up. But it was almost as bad.
Our second show was scheduled for March 20. Obviously that did not end up happening.
There's really nothing more to say for Chew Thru in 2020. We literally did nothing as a band all of 2020, not even practice.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
What can I say, I was bored. I was stuck at home with my bass, my pedals, and my recording gear.
I tuned my bass weird so that I could play both bass and guitar parts on the same instrument, and started writing.
What I came up with was an 11-minute sludgy djent-inspired epic. I recorded it, audio and video, and shared it with Matt Lam.
I initially called the project "Right of First Refusal" thinking I'd show it to the guys in Chew Thru and give them the opportunity to take it, in whole or in part, as Chew Thru material. But after showing it to Lam, he had a different idea.
Lam had played with drummer David Saylor in The Lurchers. David was also the drummer for Voideater, Drink to Victory, and Terminator 2, among other projects. Lam thought that David might be the perfect fit for the project.
Even with the pandemic, we masked up and practiced social distancing in David's large jam space. I used the riffs I'd been writing as a basis, and we started working through things together. Just bass, drums, and vocals.
I don't need to tell you it was a dark time in our history, and that showed in the material we were writing. It was pretty much the exact opposite of Chew Thru.
PROBES was our distraction.
We wrote our first three songs and recorded and released our first three-song EP, They All Died Twice, in December of 2020. Not bad for a pandemic band.
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Instrument: Bass Guitar
2021 was another slow start for Chew Thru. But it wasn't all bad.
We were able to finally get back into a jam space in April of '21, over a year since we'd last practiced together, and we booked our first show since 2019.
Chew Thru played at the newly re-opened HQ (formerly Three Kings, before the pandemic) on July 17th in front of a packed house full of show-starved shut-ins. It was amazing.
We continued the trend of playing more shows throughout the rest of the year.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
PROBES played our first show at Black Sky Brewery in September of '21.
We also worked on three more songs and released our second EP, No Way Home, in July of '21.
Instrument: Guitar, Bass Guitar, Programming
Wait, this shit again?
I got bored in '21 and finished up a couple more of the last songs we wrote as a band in 2007 and posted them to Bandcamp. Why not?
Features vocals by Jason LeBaron, but everything else on the tracks was performed or programmed by me.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
In addition to continuing to play frequent shows, Chew Thru was finally able to release our second EP, Baby Birds, in June of '22.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
PROBES released our third three-song EP, The Removal, in November of '22.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Maybe I was over-correcting for all the lost time during the pandemic, or maybe I just really like playing bass in heavy projects.
In June of '22, David from PROBES asked if I might be interested in playing bass in his other band, Voideater, when their other bass player resigned.
Voideater had been one of my all-time favorite local acts since I first saw them live in 2018. Their raw heavy riffs and blistering volume reminded me of early Obituary, and their light show was dizzying. Was I interested? Fuck yes I was.
I joined, and quickly pushed the band to put together a live set and songs for a new recording.
It would take some time, but we were underway.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Chew Thru continued to play shows throughout '22 and '23, but we weren't making the progress at the speed we were hoping for. We just never seemed to recover after the pandemic.
It was a tough decision, but it was decided that we needed to part ways with our drummer, Bill.
We found our next drummer, Jackson Lynn (formerly of The Nitz, currently of No Comma and Itchy-O) and started the process of reinventing our set.
Jackson made his live debut with us at Lion's Lair on October 13, 2023.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Voideater played their first show since 2019 in April of '23.
In June of '23, we released Voideater's second studio effort, the self-produced full-length album, Speak Into Existence.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Chew Thru is currently preparing to record our third self-produced EP this year.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
PROBES released our fourth EP, You Were Gone, in January of 2024.
Preparations for our fifth EP are in progress.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Voideater is currently working on new material for our next EP and preparing for our show on August 30th with Suicide Cages, Primitive Man, and Weekend Nachos.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Ah, what's No Comma? No Comma is Chew Thru's new drummer Jackson Lynn's other band, and my fourth band currently.
The band includes Lynn on drums and guitarist / vocalist Aaron Stamper. They parted ways with their bass player in '23, and Jackson asked if I would be interested in stepping in on bass. Who am I to turn down learning another set?
I played my first show with No Comma at Clancy's on March 15, 2024 along with Chew Thru. Yes, Jackson and I did pull double-duty that night (far from the first or last time I've done that).
My next show with the band will be October 9th at Bar 404 in Denver with Single Mothers.
Instrument: Bass Guitar
Yes, you're counting correctly. This is band number five, currently.
I've been good friends with the dudes in Suicide Cages since Chew Thru played our first show with them in October of 2022: The Brutal Poodle's Thank You Fest 2.
Mhyk, Devin and I have talked about starting random projects together for quite some time now, but never had the ability to focus on it.
When their current bass player announced that he was going to have to resign from the band, they asked if I'd be interested in auditioning.
I was honored for the opportunity. Not only because I love the music and the dudes in the band, but I also have a ton of respect for their outgoing bass player.
My first official day in the band was be July 7th.
See you in 2025.