Growing up, music was always playing out of our stereo from Stone Temple Pilots to Dave Matthews Band, The Beatles to Led Zeppelin, Sting to Yes, and Seal to Tears for Fears, to name a few. Down the hall I’d hear Incubus, No Doubt, the “Boy Bands”, and Destiny’s Child, among others, coming from my sister’s CD player. This environment during my upbringing certainly left it’s mark on my musical tastes, and personal writing style.

In middle school, I joined orchestra and began learning the violin, which I carried through graduating high school. It was here that I started to understand the balance of melody and harmony and importance of each section to the piece. About a year later in 7th grade, I picked up learning the guitar. Chords, riffs, and solos were all now available for me to absorb, and I did my best to soak it all up.

In college, both at CSN and UNLV, I studied Jazz with a composition emphasis. While taking my music theory courses, I was gathering how music works and could start analyzing my favorite movie, television, and video game scores. John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Yoko Shimomura, and the legendary Koji Kondo are just some of my favorite modern composers. With this newly acquired knowledge, I started writing my own music for various ensembles.

Songwriting is something I started doing more seriously after graduating from UNLV. Armed with the likes of John Mayer, Jamie Cullum, Snow Patrol, Paramore, and so many more as influence, I try to write about experiences and interesting things I’ve seen or thought about. Hopefully it connects with you!