Practically-speaking, I am a guitarist because my little brother Rob got a guitar for Christmas in 1988.

And practically-speaking, I am a bassist because my little brother Rob got a bass in 1991 (after I stole his guitar) and a little over a year later I borrowed it to play with a band at my college, paying him half of my take for each show.

Practically-speaking, I play drums because my little brother Patrick and I bought a drum set in 1993 so we could jam in our basement.

And practically-speaking, I play keyboards because my friend Ty had a Casio MT-100 and I got my parents to buy me one for Christmas of 1986.

I started singing in earnest largely because me and my friend Joel would walk around campus and harmonize Queen and Yes songs. I had tried to sing before that, but my friendship with Joel led to me taking a voice class in college and getting the affirmation that I had a nice voice by actual trained singers (the professor even asked me at my audition how many years I’d sang in choir…which was zero).

It’s pretty clear that the functional aspects of me becoming a musician had more to do with proximity, and me always wanting to fiddle with any musical instruments that were present and figure out how to make them make sounds than any sort of specific, active pursuit on a given instrument. I think that’s why I’m more of a “jack-of-all-trades, master of none” kind of guy. It keeps it all more interesting to me.

Sticking with certain ones over others has a lot more to do with the specific things I love about how each one fits into the ensemble and what I can bring to the table. It also usually follows whether I’d been able to play with others on that particular instrument. That’s why I’m still a shite drummer and keyboardist, but I’m a pretty damn good singer, bassist, and guitarist.

And the inspirations that have kept me on track on the “favored” instruments have been largely people who either share a sensibility or a sort of inherent “sound” that is part of my character on a given instrument, or are people I could never imagine emulating.

For example, in the first camp, I’ve always felt a kinship with bassists that play melodically but hold down the groove. People like Peter Cetera in the early Chicago days, Mel Schacher from Grand Funk Railroad, Rob DeLeo from Stone Temple Pilots, Matt Freeman (McCall) from Rancid and Operation Ivy, Mike Dirnt from Green Day, Bernard Edwards from Chic, Jack Bruce from Cream, Paul McCartney, John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin, Tommy Shannon from Double Trouble, Boz Burrell from Bad Company, John Deacon from Queen, Tom Hamilton from Aerosmith, and John Taylor from Duran Duran. There are elements of all of these people’s playing that form kind of the fundament on which my playing is based – most of their stuff just makes sense to my music brain, and I just have to make my hands catch up. The aspirational ones, that I couldn’t imagine emulating as a “baby bassist” are the virtuosos, mostly – people like Geddy Lee, Chris Squire, Billy Sheehan, Les Claypool, Jaco Pastorius, Victor Wooten, Flea, Louis Johnson, Stuart Hamm, James Jamerson, Muzz Skillings from Living Colour, and so many more. All these bassists gave me something to reach for that was WAY out of my comfort zone. They taught me ways of approaching the instrument that felt fundamentally foreign to me. I’ve since worked my way closer to understanding their approaches, and incorporated a lot of stuff I’ve learned from them, expanding my playing to the broader palette that allows me to employ the techniques to succeed as a cover band musician, and give me some cool ideas to incorporate when recording my own songs.

On guitar, the players that “just made sense” were a lot of blues-based guys. Eric Clapton was an early inspiration, especially his Cream stuff. Weirdly enough, Eric Schenkman from Spin Doctors always played things that mixed the sort of southern rock/blues/jam vibe that just made sense to me – I’m not sure why, but I think he’s terribly overlooked. He always had great tone, fun rhythm playing, and a real strong sense of melody in his solos. Alex Lifeson from Rush, Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Gales, etc. Basically a lot of guys who were good with pentatonics. The aspirational players were people like Eddie Van Halen, Nuno Bettencourt from Extreme, Ty Tabor from King’s X, Vernon Reid from Living Colour, Steve Vai, Brian Setzer from The Stray Cats, Paul Gilbert from Mr. Big. I still haven’t found my way to emulating most of these guys, because I have a life. But little bits of all of them reside in what I do on guitar…though I find the bluesy jam thing seems to be more my specialty than anything else. I find that to be the easiest way for me to communicate what I want to say on guitar. Not saying it’s easy, or that I’m some sort of blues man, but I know that language well.

I can’t really even go into drums or keys because I never really “got there” as a musician. That’s why I never call myself a drummer or keyboardist. I “play drums” and I “play keys” because I can execute some ideas on those instruments, but I have no capacity to play them in a band context. I do have major inspirations with both, though.

So where am I headed with all this? It seems like just a list post. Well, it kind of is. These listed musicians’ styles are the inspirations that helped me find my style. Being able to embrace the fact that we’re all just products of the things we love in music is a great thing.

And acknowledging the practical nature of how we even started is good, too, because it allows us to thank the people who nudged us along and made us love what we do. So thanks to my little brothers Rob and Patrick, my friend Joel, my friend Ty, my parents, and all the wonderful musicians/bandmates who took a chance on me at various stages of my development: Tammy (as Dave), Jason G., Lote, Marco, Scott, Gary, Shawn, Chuck W., Rick, Mike L., Bill B., Jason J., Mike Circo, Jason H., Merle, John N., Josie, Caleb, Domonic, my brother Bill, Emerson, Brent, Rob K., Jon, Mike Craig, Dennis, Chris C., John P., T.J., Smitty, the C5 boys, Ed, Bobby, Rob H., Lee, Ned, Casey, Patrick B., Mike J., Rob Wade, Luis, Rachel, Greg, Paul, Mark C., Mandy, Marc, Billy A., Stuart, Kevin F., Dennis C., Mike B., Chris M., Chris Johnston, Ernie, Shawn, Ryan K., Brock B., Alon, Pat, Jay, and many more to come.

You’re all inspirations, and I appreciate you.

Now go find yours. But only after this coronavirus stuff goes away…maybe just find some nice people to jam with on the internets for now…

Peace be the journey!

TMS