I was born on September 25th 1988 in the beaches of Toronto, although I currently reside in Scarborough. I am currently 17 and in the midst of releasing my debut album as a solo artist. I first started playing guitar because a friend had one and it looked like fun, so I went out and bought one and I’ve been obsessed with it ever since. It’s just something I can't live without, although I also play bass, drums, and some keys.
The album I am working on right now is pretty different from what I’ve been playing with my bands in the past its not quite as fast or heavy or anything its just what I feel like doing. It's a lot more acoustical tracks then I’m use to but it's all good and I’m having a lot of fun with it. My influences are The Atari’s, Dallas Green, The Early November, Dashboard Confessional, Green Day, Johnny Cash, and more but there are really just too many to list and not bore you to death.
My Past in Music
In the past I’ve been part of many other bands, but only two that really stand out in my mind. The two that I’ll never forget are Eternal Instinct and Motion Drive (Lost in Fate). This brings me to my first real band (Eternal Instinct), which taught me so much about the music game. I was in bands before them but this was the first serious one. It originally consisted of Me, Jordan (my cousin who played bass), Scott (a friend who played drums), and Andrew (a friend of Scott’s that played guitar). We then after fights and Andrew leaving morphed into Me, Anthony (bass), Scott (drums), and Andy (guitar). We battled it out for a good year and a half before disassembling due to differences. We did some studio work which was our demo "Up at Six in Aurora" which contained 1. What's Wrong With Them, 2. Would You, 3. Once It's Gone, and 4. Fuck Your Opinion. We also had many live appearances at places in much of the GTA such as The Opera House, The Reverb, The Kathedral, Third Floor Reilly’s and more.
Unfortunately in May of 2005 Eternal Instinct broke up so what was I to do but start another band. I had round up a new drummer (Aaron), lead guitarist (Peter), and temporary bassist (Tom) to get us going and then in June of 2005 we had out first practice we sounded pretty good. Exactly one week later we were booked and played the El Mocambo. For a first show it went surprisingly well. This band then needed a new bassist, after looking high and low for one I stepped up to the plate and took one for the team and played bass for two shows. Then when our drummer left we were forced to cancel a show and had another huge show coming up which we couldn’t just let go by. We then called in a fill in drummer after two practices with him we were good to go and we rocked The Opera House that night. We didn’t play any shows for a long while after that until we found a new drummer which was a good two months later, and this brings Cory into the picture. About a week later I was really sick of playing bass so we recruited Anthony to play for us, about 2 weeks later we felt something was missing from our sound so we got Andy in on guitar and relieved Peter of his duties. We then found another band with the same name as us and instead of asking them to change theirs which we couldn’t because they were signed we had to change ours. A week later Andy had come up with Motion Drive and that’s the name we went by ever since.
After three shows under the new name I left the band to pursue my solo project which is now my full time project, because my heart just wasn’t in the band anymore. I couldn’t go on playing shows and not feeling the message that I was putting out their. What’s the point in putting out a message if you don’t want to stand behind it? With my solo project I feel as if every line that comes out is straight from the heart because its all me. So every line I say or write I can get behind one hundred percent.
What Brought Me to This Point
It took a lot to get me to the point of becoming a solo artist. Endings bring new beginnings which is exactly my case. It wasn’t until my grandmother’s death that I realized solo is the way I belong. I’ve always been writing songs about my personal life and they didn’t really seem right playing them with the band.
The Story of Goodbye
In October of 2004 my grandmother in which has lived with me for almost my whole life was diagnosed with cancer. They gave her two years to live and within the time she lived after that she got sicker and sicker. A few months after this when she new she would not be here for long she asked that I play at her funeral. Well not only would I play It, I would write a song that would forever be her song and that will always make me remember her every time I play it. This was one of the hardest songs I ever had to write and it took me many months to finish it. Then one night in the summer of 2005 I got a call from my mother saying I better finish the song soon cause grandma’s not doing to well. Well that night I went home and played until 8am in the morning working on the song. The next morning I played the song for my mom and she loved it. When my mom went to the hospital later that day she told my grandma that the song was finished it was only hours after that that she passed away on August 5th 2005. It was as if she was waiting for me to finish it. Goodbye is not just another song that I’ve written, it’s got so much more meaning the all the others because it took so much to write emotional wise. I had to sum up my whole life that I’ve ever known her and sing her way out. It’s definitely not an easy thing to do.
The day of the funeral is was as if I was playing another show with my band, I was calm and ready. After the gear was set up and the funeral had begun and it was getting closer to me playing I started shaking and got more nervous then I think I ever had. When it was my turn to go do my thing I did as much as I wanted to back out and not do it, I had to I told her I would and with something like that you have to keep your word. Well I started playing the song but half way threw the song I had to stop. I broke down at the point and realized what was going on, my grandma was gone and I’m never gonna see her again. Up until that point I was cool about it and it hadn’t it me but when it did it was as if that was my only thought and all I could remember was what we had done together, and all the things that will never happen again. I then started playing again and finished, and went back to my seat, stumbling my way there breathing really hard. At the reception afterward people were telling me how beautiful it was and that they wanted a copy of the lyrics and CD when they come out, which is always nice to hear after a performance. The only real thing I’d have to say about the song goodbye though is that my grandmother was a great person and I will always miss her and that she will always be in my heart. |
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