Reference to Jesus Christ and the global effect of His death.

I have played live four times, thrice with a half-hour concert and once on a 90-minute. I love it and hope that a full band experience can come along one day. I may get into more and more of my stuff having taped backing so I can convey the full power of the songs (it's really hard to translate to acoustic sometimes).

It's so much easier to find important music when you don't have to fight through the label muck.

That reeeeeeally depends on what the deal would be. I would love to have actual musicians working on my stuff, I admit, but I don't think any label would be pleased with how far-ranging I tend to experiment per album. They'd likely ask me to pick a genre and stick to it and such like, and I don't think that's healthy in the slightest.

I started my recording in 2001, scrapping most of it and re-recording my first album, The Under 500, in 2003. Inverse and En Passant followed in 2004, with recording for an actually well-engineered album, Hollowed Out, also completed that year. In the spring of 2006 I finally finished producing Hollowed Out and released it; since then I've been working on As Receiving Today Yesterday, which I consider far and away to be my most intriguing work.

I consider the following songs to be heavy influences on my songs (I only list ones at least 10 years old, because I should be very careful to have anything newer be a muse):

Almost all things Genesis, but particularly:
Watcher of the Skies
Get 'Em Out by Friday - I love writing lyrics like this.
Firth of Fifth - my favorite song of all time.
Dance on a Volcano
Entangled
Robbery, Assault, and Battery - more great lyrics and a 13/8 instrumental passage.
Turn It on Again
Mama - the sense of layering and hypnotic beats are exactly the type of thing I do all the time.

Much of the Peter Gabriel catalog, including:
Games Without Frontiers - the variation in parts from verse to verse has always struck me.
Steam - the layout of this song is fantastic.

I Cannot Believe It's True, Phil Collins - this has been a muse for my bass style for a very long time.

Life in the Gladhouse and
Dawn Chorus, Modern English - WAY ahead of their time in how each instrument is played and how they combine into a song - the influence of these two songs cannot be overstated.

Enjoy the Silence and
Policy of Truth - how to make an accessible odd chord sequence and how to wrap vocal hooks around it, doubling up vocals an octave, and how to make a catchy song without singing high.

These Are Days, 10,000 Maniacs - the hi-hat heavy beat and the general sound here have always appealed.

Tremelo Song and
Weirdo, Charlatans UK - how to fuse dance and rock together, and how to interact keyboards and guitar.

Possession, Sarah McLachlan - for about the same reasons as These Are Days. Also, the way the drum and bass parts change constantly but never feel like it.

Sleeping Satellite, Tasmin Archer - same reasons as These Are Days and Possession.

Distant Sun, Crowded House - one of the great acoustic songs that actually rocks. A touchstone in so many ways.

Regret, New Order - that high bass hook adds so much uniqueness to the song.

Devil with the Green Eyes, Matthew Sweet - about the same reasons as Distant Sun, only in this case particularly for the chaotic lead changing the mood of everything. Inspired the entire Hollowed Out album.

Flood, Jars of Clay - how acoustic guitar can work on the strength of a vaguely baggy beat and a lot of rhythm.

Pearl's Girl, Underworld - I'm not sure how just yet, but it's my favorite electronic song.

Who knows?

Right now, it's Cakewalk Home Studio 2004 with my trusty Samick acoustic guitar, my not-as-trusty 5-string bass of a brand I don't remember into an Ibanez 30W amp, an Ibanez GRX20 electric guitar into a Marshall amp with a Digitech RP200 pedal I haven't used on any songs yet, a brand-spankin' new Casio CTK-900, Drumsite, Hammerhead, and the old Kalava archive for drums, a sample CD, and some other random stuff (the occasional harmonica, for instance).

The old gear includes a Yamaha DX-27 and a ToneWorks effects pedal; these will still probably get used quite often and are in the bulk of my songs.