Originally from Winona, MN, I moved to the Twin Cities in 1981 and went to school at Brown Institute, where I studied electronics. I intended to become a recording engineer but wound up a telecommunications technician instead. While still earning a living with my real job, I decided to once again pursue my love of music and recording by starting a recording business (my accountant says I can’t call it a hobby since I make money from it) on the side. Though I lack formal training in recording (except what I learned at Brown), high end equipment, and even a studio (I use a room in my house), I think I do just fine for what I am trying to accomplish. With my days in telecom behind me, I’m having the time of my life doing it! This isn’t work-it’s fun!
In August of 2000 I recorded my friend’s gig, just to see if I could do it. All things considered, it turned out very well if I do say so myself. From that recording, five songs were chosen and put on a CD, which he used as a demo. His band got more gigs as a result of that demo disc than anything else. When asked if he thought there would be a market, or demand for something like that, he said there would be a huge demand, and that’s how I got started. I envisioned myself going out to bars and recording bands. Thankfully, it hasn’t turned out that way. I say thankfully because that’s not really what I wanted to do, having lost my interest in going to bars long ago. Nonetheless, I realized there was probably an untapped market out there of local musicians who lacked a decent recording of themselves and did not have the means or need to go to a “real” studio to make such a recording. I consider that to be my market niche. An idea was born. I had my first paying customer in February of 2001 and am still going today. Along the way I’ve learned a lot, bought a lot of equipment, and met some real good people. More importantly, I’ve had fun doing it!
Around that same time, the person who had been my guitar teacher called me and asked if I would like to teach a group guitar class. Three days later, I started teaching that class! I had been a student in that class a few years prior to that and there I was teaching it! I did that for a couple years and also taught some private lessons at the same store. I then started teaching at another store, then another, and another. For some reason, every store I’ve taught at has gone out of business. Hmmmm……..For the last several years I’ve been teaching from my home in Roseville, meeting some great people along the way.
