Experience: My father, a concert violinist started teaching me violin at age 4. When this didn't take he demanded that I play something. Since I was always banging on pots and pans with wooden spoons when I was younger, drums it was. I did the school band thing, the marching band thing, the cover band thing (one band in particular was a great Led Zeppelin cover band). As time went on, I did the studio drummer thing, and the original music thing. While I did a lot of studio work, the original music avenue was my favorite. I came to realize that it was not productive for me to be playing someone else's music, since they had already done it. Of all the original bands I've been a part of, The Lotus Experiment was by far my favorite. I got to play many different styles and it's pushing me to play a lot more double bass lines. I also incorporated some Roland electronic drums and sound effects for a little more flavor.

Over the years I also picked up guitar (around 15), and bass guitar (around 14). I love playing them both and have a beautiful collection consisting of 9 guitars, 2 6-string basses and a 10-string Chapman Stick.

Influences: Early on it was Jon Bonham. I liked his syncopated blues approach to rock. Then I heard Bill Bruford who taught me there are lots of notes in a measure you can hit your drums and cymbals on that do not equate to just 1,2,3,4... Soon after I saw Rush, and of course was exposed to pure perfection. Since I had a good bit of jazz influence in my playing I studied the styles of Mark Craney, Raffer Griffin, Carter Beauford, and Dave Weckl. I have to mention the influences of guys like Tim Alexander and Danny Carey now that I'm trying to get some double bass into my playing. All these masters swim around in my head whenever I sit behind my set.

Equipment: I'm currently playing Drum Workshop Collector Series Maple shells. I use Evans EC1 clear heads except for the bass drum where I'm using the Aquarian SuperKick I series. I really like the stock DW heads but they are not that easy to find . The hardware is all DW except for the rack which is Gibraltar and the electronic pedals which are Drum Tech FAT and HAT pedals. The cymbals are a mix of brands because I buy them individually for their sound. Paistes are fantastic crashes. I just bought all Signature Series to replace my old 2002s. Sabian makes some great splashes and Zildjian has always been a favorite for rides and china's. The electronics consist of a couple of Roland pads and the Drum Tech pedals talking to a TD-8 brain. I have a Roland SPD-11 octa-pad for melodic percussion. The DW shells are amazing and worth every penny! Their hardware is second-to-none with all the memory locks and adjustments.

Bands: Aftermath, Entourage, Head First, Fax, Fluffy Gun, Stareway, The Lotus Experiment, Sumner-Lehr Project and of course Tea Party with Snorkel.