Biography
I was born on a tiny Island in the South Pacific named American Samoa, a Trust Territory of the United States, in a section of the village of Leone called Puapua. As number 6 of 12 children (10 boys and 2 girls) I soon found that there wasn't enough food to go around. So at the tender age of 2 weeks, I packed up my lavalava, got into my outrigger canoe and set sail for the islands of Hawaii. There a met a family that really needed my help making Puka shell necklaces to sell to unwitting tourist for a few pesos. After a few years of extracting all the Puka shells I could from the Kawainui swamp on Oahu, I decided to adhere to the law and go to school. I spent my elementary years at the venerable Kailua Mission School (now called Windward Adventist School) under the tutelage of Miss Ruth Millard learning the basics of music which would lead to a lifelong career of music. She introduced me and my friend Russell Kim to the guitar and Russell and I would trade off learning and teaching each other all the new songs and licks we'd learn. For my high school years I once again packed up my lavalava (now quite a bit larger, thank goodness) and guided my outrigger to the fabled lands of Missouri- a land rich in mysticism and ogres, wizardry and factual myths. Guiding an outrigger through the Panama Canal wasn't as treacherous as paddling up the Mississippi, but the scenery was to die for. When I arrived at Sunnydale Academy, I was once again blessed with having Miss Millard as a teacher, and she once again guided me to understand the intricacies of music and all its wonderful possibilities. Another teacher there, Ray Ostrander, would take me on wild, dangerous Vision Quests to far off places like Decatur, Iowa and Lebanon, Missouri to teach others about the dangers of TVP meals, and while there I would play my guitar and sing songs of Hawaii to quell radical Loma Linda Foods advocates. From there, I went to colleges in Lincoln, Nebraska, Walla Walla, Washington, Richmond, Virginia, Providence, Rhode Island, Sarasota, Florida, Bozeman, Montana, Flagstaff, Arizona, Khabarovsk, Siberia, Provence, France, Kaiserslautern, Germany, and Canby. Everywhere I went, I savored every experience and encounter and tried my best to translate its emotion into my music. Unfortunately, more music stayed in me than came out of me. I still didn't know how to let it all come out. It wasn't until I met Zanuck Kapala Lindsey while working at Tokyo Disneyland as a mechanical bird trainer in the Polynesian Terrace's Tiki Room that a different sort of musical training began. Zanuck taught me how to arrange songs so that each piece of instrumentation is vital and irreplaceable for the success of the message. Whether that means just 1 instrument or 100 instruments, in order to convey your story, you have to know what gets in the way and what helps it flow. He guided me through some songwriting skills, gave me band and vocal harmony experience, even coached me on my first album. He is by far in my life the greatest musician I know, and though all my endeavors, I will never be able erase his influence on my life. Nowadays, I am the Music & Worship Director at Milwaukie Covenant Church in Milwaukie, Oregon, and still play gigs in the Northwest and beyond with artists such as Lori Willcuts, Lisa Reiff, Judd Alexander and the Juddettes, Ken Haman and the Hamanites, The Joe Cruz Experience, and the classical-acid group Nylund Stockings. I've also just begun talks with Mastodon Records to record with their "Caveman" project, slated for release summer of 2007. My life is propelled by the constant devotion and support of my wife Joanna, who, unbeknownst to me, changed my life through the book, "The Proper Care And Feeding Of Husbands" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger. If you're a wife, you need to read this. If you're a husband who thinks that everything is okay, you need to get your wife this book. I have 4 children, 2 from a previous marriage and 2 with Joanna. It seems to me, at 42, that things in my music lately have slowed down and have simplified. I enjoy the sound of well-tuned guitar, no effects, just clean. I love the overtones and detuned harmonics of Oregon Trail-era piano. I love the songs my son makes up on his harmonica. I love peace. I avoid mean people. I cry at commercials. I laugh at myself. I pray. And then I sing.
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