I am The White Tornado, a.k.a. the mild mannered Bill Peterson, and I write songs and play keyboards. I gained my superpowers by being infected with blues, jazz and the funk. I supplement these powers with my knowledge of science and geek subculture and my technological savvy with software effects and loops. I try to make music that isn't boring. My preferred weapon is the keytar.
When I was a kid, my favorite toy was a tape recorder. I'd sing songs into it, or make up stories and record them. I started taking piano lessons at age 10, and I'd make up TV shows and record them with music that I played on my cheap Casio keyboard. I got a lot of ideas for these shows and songs directly from the science fiction shows I was into.
Sometimes I tried to construct songs out of cheap loops by playing one tape recorder while recording with another. Sometimes I'd try to make songs by making noise with stuff in the garage. We had an Apple IIgs, and I'd write really bad MIDI songs on it, and spent tons of fruitless time and allowance trying to figure out how to hook a MIDI keyboard up to it.
In eighth grade a friend told me I should go to the Jazz Band room in the early mornings, and I learned about improvising. I was second - aka last - chair piano player in high school jazz band, but still had fun whenever I got to rip out a 12-bar solo. I moved to Iowa City for college and started playing at blues jams, and eventually got nicknamed "The White Tornado" for some reason.
I started playing some of my own songs with whatever friends I could gather in about 2003. The gigs I played were rare and ill-attended, school was a priority, and it was hard to keep a batch of people together who wouldn't move out of town, so things were sporadic. I think I eventually hit critical mass, where I was decent enough at writing songs and played enough with local musicians to understand that it's the music that matters - you can always find people to play with you. So, I became a solo artist in a sense and recorded "Seek Shelter" as The White Tornado. I'm pretty happy with it as a first album, and have a couple more planned out in my head. I hope to play them for lots of people and have fun doing it! See you on down the road!
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