Well, I used to do music with a friend of mine, Aric Devone as part of the duo D.O.S. when I was younger but got fed up with a lot of the peripherals of the music industry. So much about the music industry has more to do with business and nothing to do with the art. So I stopped recording and went back to finish school. Not because we weren’t successful but because I stopped enjoying it. Also in t
he past, I spent a lot of time writing for and recording for other people. This album has more of my personality, emotion and tone than some of my earlier work. But I have included a few songs that I’ve written and recorded before by other people. Like Brian Culbertson meets Shade. What are your other Influences? Incognito, Mint Condition. Chris Botti, Alex Bugnon, and Boney James. When you’re not doing music, what else do you enjoy doing? I also enjoy cooking and martial arts. What inspires you? Well, sometimes I get inspired and sometimes I just sit down and decide to write something. Maybe yes - Maybe no was inspired by a friend of mine. She was reflecting on her past relationships while thinking about her future and said that she was maybe ready for marriage but maybe not. Some of the other songs I just sat down one day and wrote. When I was an undergraduate with Aric at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, we used to play songwriting games. One of them was to find pretty girls and take them to the piano room in the second floor of the student union and write a song about them from scratch on the spot. Now if you can image writing a song for an attractive woman whom you’ve just met can be pretty stressful as well as potentially embarrassing. But, if you can write a song on the spot like that you can write just about anything. It helped us hone our composing skills. Most of the women were very patient with us. We wound up meeting lots of people that way. By the end of our freshman year, people would come up to the piano room to hear us play on their lunch break. What really? Wait, what is Aric doing now. Oh, he's still doing music. I’d keep an eye out for him. So you two still keep in touch. Most definitely. What was the concept behind this album? In one word? Romance. I wanted to write something that wasn’t mainstream, something that was sexy without bring over the top. Subtle. I call this a smooth jazz, quite storm romantic experience. Imagine a world where people still courted, took the time to get to know one another. Warmth, passion, intensity those are the emotions I was trying to evoke in this project. What else would you like your fans to know? Music is rarely a solo event. I’d like to mention some of the people I worked with from back in the day who I worked with and leaned from. Steve Davis, Joe (Superman) Todd and Lee, Randy and Angel, Cat Thomas, Theresa, Monica and Joy, Rainy, Raymey, Scott Nellis and Tex Richardson – may he rest in peace. There are also some people I’d especially like to thank. Jimmy jam and Terry Lewis. Back in the day when I was focused on just music, we used to send out a lot of demos. Most of the time we rarely received a response and only on the rare occasion when it was a positive one. I can't tell you how many demos we sent out and honestly I have no idea if the majority of the people we sent them to listened to them or not. What I can tell you is that every time we sent something to Flyte Time (Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis) we received a response. Every time. They even sent Big-Jim Wright to Vegas to meet me once when they were working on Angel Grant’s Little Red Boat project. While we didn't get on the project, just knowing that someone listened to our stuff was a big motivator. Bruce Hornesby. After being frustrated from lack of response before our first single was released. Aric and I had this idea to go to a few record labels and just walk our demo in. It sounded like a good idea at the time. Three security guards at one record company let us walk right through the gate. We got as far as the parking lot when they couldn't contain their laughter; one guard fell of his chair saying "You can't just walk into a record label without an appointment!" Disappointed, walking with our heads down, we went back towards the car. We bumped into Bruce – literally – I still had my head down. He asked us what we were doing at label. "You really tried to walk in without an appointment?” he said. Tell you what, come back tomorrow and tell the receptionist that I sent you. The next day, Aric went to the secretary and met with an executive. Although we didn't get picked up, Bruce did us a solid. Johnny Hearns. Yes, Tommy Hearn’s’ brother. I met Tommy Hearns separately at a clothing store, but Johnny Hearns and I went to college together. In between going to classes, I was working on demos and profiling at night – pretending that we were really doing something – while I was working at a car wash in the daytime. Part of the music industry has a lot to do with playing the role. And I played the role fairly well. Being successful in the music industry also has a lot to do with the people you are associated with. Some are good, some are bad, and the difference can make you or break you. I wound up meeting a very attractive woman. Johnny came to warn me about her. He’s one of the good guys. He was also right. Any closing thoughts? Well, I’d like to thank everyone for listening to the album.
