THE YOUNGER YEARS

When I was young(mid 1970’s) I grew up in the San Jose/South Bay section of The Bay Area. I was pretty happy-go-lucky then, from what I remember. I played baseball, roller skated, and had neighborhood friends to play with. When I was about 5 or 6 years old I had my own record player. I was mostly interested in listening to “The Story Of Star Wars” soundtrack, and other children’s records I had at the time. One day, however, I stumbled upon my dad’s record collection and I was self-introduced into the world of Rock and Roll. I fell in love with The Beatles because of the song “Octopus Garden”, and the crown jewel of his records to me was “News Of The World”, by Queen. I was captivated by the album cover alone, and I digested all of the lyrics over and over as I lost myself in the sounds of hi-fi headphones. I truly feel that this is where my connection and love for music began, as a music fan and appreciator of the craft. I wondered how it was possible to make a recording and put it on an album, and then be able to listen to it through the headphones. I guess I can say I was interested in the production process, and I was intrigued by the music and recordings I would listen to for hours.

Like many families in this era, my parents separated and divorced by the time I was about 7 years old. While they figured out their legal issues, I spent a couple of years living back and forth between my mom and my dad. I had trouble focusing in school, and if you read the notes on my childhood elementary school report cards, it was very apparent. Right around this time, my dad had a career change. He had lost his FAA job due to some political climate issues(we won’t get into that), and decided to tap into his love for guitars and music by opening up his own music store, called “Andersen’s Music”. He operated his shop in the town of Newark, Ca. for a few years, and opened up more locations in the Tri-Valley and Central Valley areas of Northern California. I had been a fan of the TV show “The Muppet Show”, and based on the character Gonzo blowing on a trumpet at the end of each show’s opening, I thought the trumpet would be something I should get into. So, I asked my dad about it and the next day he provided me with one of his rental trumpets to blow on. I picked that thing up and enrolled in music lessons through my elementary school. Before too long, I was getting pretty decent at it, and I performed at talent shows at the school, and even played my 1st solo gig at a recital during a local Cub Scouts meeting. It was fun for a few years, and gave me an introduction into the world of playing an instrument and performing for a crowd. I played trumpet for about 3 years I believe, until…

ADOLESCENCE/ TEENAGE YEARS

Fast forward a little to me at about 12 or 13 years old now. I was in the 6th/7th grade, in the early-mid 1980’s. Break dancing was my life! Forget the trumpet, I wanted to be a New York City Breaker and I was all into popping, strutting, and spinning on the floor. My friends and I were totally into boom boxes and we listened to the sounds of RUN DMC, early Dr. Dre, and so much other classic 80’s music. It was a blast, however, it ended the summer between 7th and 8th grade. It was an interesting time, as most of my friends transitioned out of break dancing and into the world of SKATEBOARDING.

In the mid-late 1980s, skateboarding became my life. When I was a freshman in HS, nothing mattered to me more. My bedroom walls, closet doors, and ceiling had nothing but skateboard pictures and posters. My friends and I built launch ramps, skated ditches and curbs, and learned how to ollie over everything we could. It was a total blast(despite many injuries), and what coincided with this world was a new love for music. As a teenager in this era, I couldn’t get enough punk rock, metal, alternative, and new wave that the 80’s could offer. What really opened up for me was that many of my friends were now playing instruments in garage rock bands, and I had to get into that scene somehow.

I decided that I wanted to learn how to play bass guitar. All my friends were playing guitars and drums and I thought the bass guitar should be something to check out. “Hey Dad, I want to play bass, can you get me one to try out?” Luckily for me, my dad had a music store and the next day a bass guitar was on my bed when I came home from school. 

I didn’t know how to play it, or even tune it for that matter. There is a song by a band called Oingo Boingo called “Just Another Day” that I really liked, and I asked my dad to show me how to play it. I played the song for him on my nifty 80s record player/am-fm radio/ DOUBLE cassette player unit, and he picked it up right away. Thankfully, the song is fairly simple for the bass guitar, and before long I was able to play along with the song the whole way through. Soon after that, I obtained my first amp and was beginning to jam with my friends in their garages, and beyond. I learned everything I could, which mostly consisted of punk rock and U2(I loved U2 then, still do).

When I was about 17 years old, I distinctly remember sitting at a friend’s home during a break from one of our jam sessions. One of my guitar-playing buddies was playing an acoustic guitar, just strumming away. I asked for him to play me something “pretty”, which he did. I don’t remember what it was that he played, but I do remember thinking to myself “I would like to be able to play something like that at the drop of a hat”. He was that talented as a guitarist that he was able to come up with a request on the spot, and to me that was inviting. There had been a 12-string acoustic guitar collecting dust in the closet of our home, and that day I got it out of the closet and began to learn to play it.

I had no idea that I basically had picked the hardest guitar to learn to play on. All guitar players are aware that learning to play an acoustic guitar is a challenge for your poor fingers and finger tips, let alone doubling the strings and learning to play on a 12-string acoustic. I didn’t care about that, I really didn’t know any better. What I do remember, though, was that I was able to learn the main chord progression to Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here”, as my buddy played the individual solo part on his guitar. I was able to play a song on the guitar with another guitar player, and that felt like a cool accomplishment! Around this time, I took guitar lessons for a couple years and learned about theory. I began to learn to play lead and solos, and understand the instrument better.

JERRY GARCIA and THE GRATEFUL DEAD, and TOM PETTY ENTER MY LIFE

I went to my 1st Grateful Dead concert at Shoreline Amphitheater around 1988 or 1989. I didn’t know what to expect, and what happened is that I became HOOKED on a new frontier of music, and inspiration. I had not really spent a lot of time in the “classic rock” genre of music, or even blues. Going to a Dead show and seeing Jerry play was a world that exposed me to how bands can be loose and tight at the same time, and have no particular direction that they are following. The playability of the musicians and the way the shows were put together really launched me into guitar playing. I learned as many GD songs and began attending a ton of Dead and Jerry Garcia solo shows all around the Bay Area. Jerry became a musical hero to me, and I am fortunate to have been exposed to his aura and how the GD were playing in those years before he passed in 1995. I will always be loyal to this era of my life and the inspiration that continues to flow through me. 

Another artist that I became enamored with was Tom Petty. When the song(and related music video) Running Down a Dream came out, I got into TP. The Full Moon Fever album was my introduction to the world of TP, and I slowly started to learn more about TP and his band, The Heartbreakers. I dabbled a little bit with TP, but it wasn’t until the Wildflowers album that I became a true fan of TP. Something about those 2 albums really connected with me. After Jerry passed in 1995, I became a “Tom Pettyhead”, for sure. To this day, I feel and recognize(like so many others) that TP is the most authentic and best American songwriter there is, and that says a lot because there is so much competition. He has been my #1 inspiration in the world of songwriting, which for me began in my early 20’s.

MY SONGWRITING AND RECORDING HISTORY

In my early 20’s I obtained a 4-track recording device. In my spare time I learned how to use it. I figured out how all the knobs and sliders worked, and how to record and “bounce” multiple tracks. I had a basic drum machine to use, and before long I was recording and constructing my own songs. I would play and record all of the instruments and vocals, even adding in shakers and tambourines. I began to write and record my own music, and that was very liberating and a lot of fun! I began to pass out tapes to my friends so they could hear what I was up to, musically speaking. These recordings began a process of learning how to produce my own music, and to this day I have been refining my techniques and I have pretty much been learn as I go the whole time.

As technology advanced, I continued to record music on my 4-track, and I began to burn CD’s to pass out instead of cassettes. By my mid-late 20’s, I was writing so many songs each year that I was passing out full albums of material. I would create a little bit of cover art, print that, stuff the jewel cases with my art and music, and I was proud about it! The songs and quality were not so great, but it was what I had going on and it kept me happy. People started to tell me that they liked what I was sharing with them, which was rewarding and encouraging. 

I had been in a few bands with friends by this point, and we would play mostly at bars and parties. It was a total blast playing rock and roll and blues in these groups. It was always about the experience and the fun of it. I was primarily a guitar player and hearing other people learn my material and play it with me for a crowd provided a feeling that I was onto something that needed to be developed. I was married and I had a family children by my late 20’s/ early 30’s. I had been in the local music scene for a while, and was building a little following and name for myself in the area. I had put together a band and took them into a real recording studio. In 2004 I released my first studio recordings and album with my band, Lushes Foolish. It was a collection of all original music, and it was a great and interesting experience working with an engineer and producing that album with another collaborator. 

I continued to play shows with my band, which was fun but a lot of work. I continued to write new material, and we entered back into the studio in 2006 to begin the recordings for another album. The music industry started to suffer through the technology spread of sharing music files, and I was having a hard time balancing my family life with my music life. I released the uncompleted album in the form of a 6-song EP, called Gemini Sky. It was a fun project, but I always thought (or knew) that it was unfinished. My band broke up not long after that, and I decided that I would have to take a break from the band and playing live so I could focus on my family. 

I sold a bunch of equipment/ gear and built a little recording studio at my home, in my garage. It was nothing more than a computer with an interface and software to learn and play with, so I could continue to write and record music, which I did. Over time, I honed my skills in using the software, and became my own engineer in the process. My songwriting continued to improve. I was still connected to my music and songwriting, and as my kids got older they began to find their way into playing music also. I was able to see that music is genetic, as it passed to me from my father and from me to my kids. Full circle, some might say. 

By the time my kids got into middle school and High School, their music abilities and involvement in the community was growing, and I became inspired by this. Watching them perform with their different groups left me feeling like I needed to get back into the scene. It had been about 10 years that I had taken a break, and the scene was calling to me. I was in my 40’s at this point and had amassed a decent collection of new material and recordings over time. I decided to get back into the music scene and brought some of the older recordings from Gemini Sky into a new album idea, to mix with the new recordings I had been working on at home. In 2018 I released a new album, a “double” album of 20 songs! It was a big project for me, and I named it The Transitions Project. I was transitioning from the old into the new. 

I was able to find some local friends and musicians to form a new band with me, and we were The Bad Vibe Killers. We began to play shows and pick up steam, and I had a lot of hope for this group. It was going to be something special, and then the Covid pandemic came into everyone’s lives. We had to cancel all of our shows, and the band lost momentum as a result. It took a year or more until we were able to get back together, which we did. I continued to write new material, and the band was learning some of it. We tried our best to forge through, but unfortunately we eventually fizzled out. In 2021 I released another album of all originals called Rebirth, which has a lot of guest players on the recordings. It is a great album for a road trip, in my opinion, and I felt like it was a way for me to tell everyone that I am still in the game, so to speak. 

CURRENT TIMES

I have had some life changes since I released Rebirth in 2021. My marriage has ended, and I am finding my way in this world with a new outlook and direction. My songwriting has matured and I am ready now to put myself into the music community in new ways. I continue to write and record new material regularly. I ponder the idea of releasing an album again, as I have shifted my focus to simply writing and recording music that is more “single” focused, if that makes sense. If you have made it this far, you have learned about my love and history for music and songwriting. I feel that songwriting is the best and truest way for me to provide self-expression. Many of my songs are autobiographical in nature and they tell a story. I know that a lot of people can relate to the music I am putting out now, and I am excited to see where that takes me! Stay tuned…

Thank you for reading,
Erik