DYSPEPTIC YORKVILLE RELIC

Long ago, I used to be a serious musician. I played keyboards and sang in working rock bands in the late 1960's and '70's--the old Yorkville-Toronto scene. It was a good ride, but my commitment to music weakened when the excesses of band life began to take a serious toll. I became a weekend warrior, then a jam buddy, then a solo noodler, then a curator of unused, dusty relics of a time that seems now more dream than reality. My creativity was channeled into writing prose, not songs.

After a long fallow period, I began playing again--practicing, buying new gear, digging up old tunes, scribbling new ones, looking into computer-based recording. I discovered sequencers, effects plugs, virtual instruments....and got lost in music creation once more.

So here I am, still banging out angry stuff for the select few who happen to be within earshot.

Songwriting: Lennon, Don Henley, Randy Newman, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Leonard Cohen (for the dyspepsia). Keyboards: Garth Hudson, Peter Jermyn, Joey Chirowski, Michael Fonfara. Singing: Tom Waits, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Stills, Johnny Rotten, the late Robert C. Smith, a vastly gifted singer-songwriter who died far too young.

Toronto, the city that the rest of Canada loves to hate and is afraid to visit.

Constantly evolving DAW gear.

If you're not part of the problem, you're not trying hard enough.