BIO Of M.J.
The "Eras" of M.J. are split up accordingly...
The Grunge-Wave Era (1996-1998)
Demos - Lanna, Kramer
Sound - Think Nirvana meets ZZ Top and The Cars, but with lots of whammy bar abuse
The "High School Crush" Era (1998-2000)
Demos: Dirty Talk, Sexy Girls
Sound - Pomp AOR "radio friendly" rock, similar to Loverboy/Journey/Styx
The "Post-Lithium" era (2003-2005)
Demos: Monochrome, Icebox, Killing Alabama
Sound - Nu-Metal meets New Wave
The "Everett Era" (2006-2011)
Demos: Agent Blue, EGA Stereo, 8088, M.J., System Shock, Urban Exploitation, Apocalyptic Hockey, Content through Negligence
Sound - Finally found my sound, sort of an alt-rock heavy metal hybrid with the occasional New-Wave synth or experimental instrumentation and effects
The Last Album (2012-2013)
Demos: Back to the Mower Shed
Sound - Similar to Everett
M.J. stayed very secretive for years, even my mom knew very little about what I was recording, she probably thought they were all Nirvana songs or whatever.
By 9th grade though, I got brave and started showing off on guitar at school, and this generated interest in people wanting recordings, so I started making multi-track tapes contrived via clever electronics tricks and conventional Wal-Mart grade tape recorders, drew up the art on printer paper, and then passed the tapes around school.
During 1999-2003, I took a break from demoing my tunes as I had started working with bands as a lead guitarist, and was no longer interested in writing stuff that would not at least get me a gig.
In 2003, I grew fed up with the band I was in at the time, due to the usual reasons (drugs, girl problems, and much drama), so I left and started just sitting in my room at night with all the lights off playing guitar and making tapes of the music I'd just randomly play. By then I was good with computers, so I decided to get started playing with computer recording, and from then on, I started making CD's of my own music mixed with hot-rodded covers every month.
As of September 15th 2013, I will be continuing on on LastFM as "Linguar". M.J. was my initials, I'm taking the Bride's name....and I feel like I need a fresh start. Linguar will also be a COMMERCIAL project rather than what I was doing here.
M.J. was 100% a home-brew affair. Initially I started off plugging my guitar and a distortion pedal into a tape deck to record, then I went through a period of creative electronic tinkering to "redneck" a recording rig capable of up to as many tracks of audio as I wanted so-as-long as I did not give a crap about tape hiss. Finally, I moved to digital recording (DAW) in 2003 and never looked back....starting with a 486 running Quartz AudioMaster Free.
Nirvana, The Cars, REM, ZZ Top, Loverboy, Night Ranger, Journey, Van-Halen, Poison, Whitesnake, Billy Squier, Metallica, Black Sabbath, Pantera, Buckethead, computer & videogames, Dokken, Sammy Hagar, STYX, My Bloody Valentine, Riz Ortolani, The Who, The Clash....I tend to pull from all ove the place, and it never ends....just more stuff for me to accumulate.
By Era...
"Grunge Wave" - Sony CFS Series Tape Recorders, a Yamaha G245S-II Classical guitar, a Kramer Focus 3000 (unmodified), Peavey Rage 158, Peavey Backstage 30, and DOD Super American Metal distortion pedal. I used a Yamaha PSS-170 keyboard on some tracks on Kramer.
"Crush Era" - Sony CFS tape recorders again, with a sony Tape recorder for the playback while multiplying tracks in mono using the Stereo RCA jacks as a "mixer" of sorts. My primary amplifier was an Epiphone EP-SC28 stereo chorus amp, later boosted with a borrowed Arion Metalmaster Distortion. For guitars I used the same Kramer, heavily modified by then, a Harmony H-80 Strat copy, a heavily modified Harmony H-804 with dual Humbuckers and the "middle" pickup taken out. I also had a home-made Jaguar with a Van-Halen II paint scheme and a pine body. For bass I used a B.C. Rich Ironbird, and any synth/drum duties were done by a Yamaha PSR-12.
"Post-Lithium"
Recording: IBM PC-330 100DX4 (6571-W5K) 486 DX4/100 computer using TwoTrak and quartz AudioMaster. It had 64MB of RAM and at it's biggest a 8GB HDD running Windows 2K professional.
Bass: Same old B.C. Rich Ironbird
Amp/Effects: Initially it was the BOSS ME-6 into a Korg AX30G that I used with Lithium, setup as a makeshift modeling amp setup. Icebox was done on a Digitech RP-200A, and Killing Alabama a BOSS ME-33.
Guitar: A ever-growing horde, my #1 was the Jag-Stang I got a bit before I joined Lithium. I also used a Kramer STriker 100ST with a Warmoth neck and a Hondo pickup in it, a Double Fat Tele Deluxe, the old red Kramer from the previous eras, same classical, a Casio DG-10. That Jag-Stang was the main one 90% of the time though.
Synth/Drums: Yamaha PSR-275
"Everett Era"
Recording: GEM Computer Products 386 modified into a PIII, and later a Pentium D based home-built computer running QuartzAudiomaster Freeware, later REAPER.
Amp/Effects: At it's core, a Behringer V-AMP Pro, and a Digitech Whammy on occasion. Later on I built a pedalboard for live use and would use this and that from that for this or that sound....most prominently a Behringer PH-9 Phaser and an Electro Harmonix Stereo PolyChorus. As for the last 2-3 recording sessions, I used a Behringer 2024P Virtualizer Pro for additional effects, it was used a lot on Content through Negligence, particularly Down Low and You'll Burn.
Basses: I added a Segovia/Saehan MusicMan copy to my artilery, it was first used on Agent Blue. In 2007 I added the Epiphone EB-0 which was most remembered as being the bass I used on "Poetry in Motion", and in 08' my new main became a Fender Mustang Bass which was used a lot, Factory Life was the first track recorded with it.
Guitars: Pretty much anything that ever appeared on my youtube channel at the time. The Jag-Stang was still#1, on Agent Blue I finally tracked down a Jaguar, and by Apocalyptic Hockey, I had added a home-built Jazzmaster and a vintage 66' Fender Mustang to my lineup. I also used my old Kramer from time to time, and used a Telecaster a lot on Stereo EGA, especially the rhythm tracks, and an armada of Strat(copies) all over the place. I also used a Casio DG-1 sometimes as well.
Drums: I used the Yamaha PSR-275 for drums still.
Synth: The PSR-275, I also used a Yamaha PSS-680 and PSS-560 a lot, particularly on 8088 upward, and used a PSS-130 and PSS-80 for the more "Nintendo" sounding stuff. I used a Casio SK-1 on Agent Blue on "How I Wish It Was".
"Last Album/Demo"
Recording: Same ol' home-built Win7 box running REAPER, though sound cards were an issue as they took out hardware loopback for monitoring (B***ards!). Will be working out those bugs before the first Linguar album.
Amps/Effects: Pretty much the same as Everett era, though I started tweaking my sound more to make it more refined at times, and stopped using Stereo Chorus on everything all the time. My only pedals were a Digitech Whammy and a Behringer Multi-FX.
Basses: Same ol, Same Ol', though I used the Mustang the most with the Segovia coming close
Guitars: Same stuff there too, My Jag-Stang still my#1, but the interesting one is the one the title track, Back to the Mower Shed was written and recorded on.....a super rare Hondo Paul Dean II designed by Loverboy's guitar player. That thing has mondo sustain and interesting resonance.....it's probably the first and only Hardtail I ever lusted after, and I chased it for 15 years...glad I have one now. It's made the "main four" the main five now.
Drums: I replaced the PSR-275 with a Roland Juno Di at this point. That was the ONLY drummer and Synth used on the entire album as it filled the need of most of my old "Thrift Shop" synths.
M.J. will be replaced with Linguar as my solo project. I'll talk more about that on LastFM when I start releasing material. I'm still working on the Details at this point.
