I was raised in the small northern Utah town of Richmond, where the population barely reaches four digits, and I grew up thinking I had more than I did.

My father was a hard-living guitarist with a taste for punk and outlaw rock, and he always kept instruments within arm’s reach. By 13, I had picked up his ’73 Fender Mustang. By 15, I was playing bass in his bar band, slipping into gigs long before I was old enough to be there.

If my roots were punk, my rebellion was jazz.

Drawn to harmony, nuance, and musical depth my father never quite connected with, I took a different path - one that would eventually define my voice. At 18, I headed to Nashville, only to find myself outmatched and searching. From there, I chased opportunity west to Orange County during the early ’90s rock boom, then north to Seattle as grunge took hold.

For years, I searched for the right band, the right sound, the right fit - coming up short, but not empty-handed. Along the way, I found mentors, absorbed influences, and quietly built a voice that did not belong to any one scene.

After a difficult stretch marked by instability, depression, and the edge of burnout, I returned to Utah with my wife and began again. I worked at a local music store, raised a family, and immersed myself in music from a different angle, playing jazz gigs, performing in a punk band, and, most importantly, writing.

Composition became the throughline.

Over time, I developed a sound shaped by contradiction: jazz-informed Americana with a classic punk soul. My music is groove-driven, moody, and slightly off-center - equally at home in a late-night club, a backroad drive, or an offbeat film scene. It’s not polished. It’s not traditional. It’s character-driven, textured, and deeply human.

Now entering a new chapter, I’m focused on composing for film and television, live performance, and education, continuing to refine a voice decades in the making. A little punk, a mediocre student of jazz, and always a nonconformist, I try to bring my lifetime of lived experience into every note.

I plan to keep doing it until the end.