At the age of fifteen while playing in the opening band at a bar in Wisconsin (on a school night), I was curious why the headliners sounded great and we sounded like s**t. I was determined to achieve sonic quality for my band and, at the same time, I wanted to make sure that some wise-guy engineer couldn’t lie to me. I, therefore, began to study electronics and physics in high school and fell in love with music.
The band broke up; I went to college; and after two semesters, I felt a gaping hole in my life without music. I dropped out of college and tried to explain to my family that I was going to move to California to learn how to make records. In 1986, I moved to Los Angeles and got my first assisting job at Warner Bros./ Amigo recording studio. My first session was with Paul Simon and Roy Halle doing all the vocal overdubs on Graceland. My second session was with John Denver, producer/engineer Roger Nichols and Elvis’ band. I pulled off the hat trick by working with David Lee Roth and Ted Templeman on my third session.