Album Notes

When Giants Fall is the new Hard Rock. Hard hitting Rock that grooves you, tells a story and leaves you sweating. This is how I came to make this music...

I grew up in somewhat rural Michigan, listening to AM radio and of course, Motown. I got my first bass in 10th grade and put together a 3-piece band with my friends called Crystal Blue. Yeah, it was high school. It gave me something to do with my hands at parties...
In college I helped form another band, 4 out of 5 Dentists. We played some oldies as well as the cutting edge of the 80's - U2, The Cure, Gang of Four, and some other bands I'd never heard of before. We also helped each other write songs that helped us keep momentum and a following all through college.... those were some great parties :)

At that time, I started getting into recording because, during the process of song writing, I had such a hard time getting the ideas in my head to make any sense to my band mates. I was sort of the weird one and apparently the ideas I had were just enough "out there" that they couldn't understand what it was I was trying to expel from my head into the sound spectrum around us. I ended up with a degree in Telecommunications for Michigan State, with and emphasis in Audio Production.

After moving to Seattle (that's another story) I joined a Power Pop band, The Line, and after a few years of getting nowhere, I quit. I tried a few other band situations but didn't find anything serious. After a dark period with no band, I spent some time in Europe, read all of JD Salinger and Hemingway, and I saw "The Graduate" again. "The Graduate" rekindled the flame I'd once had for music in film and I started writing music for films ... kinda...they were my films, starring my housemates and friends in mostly Star Trek type roles. We had tons of fun making them. Please don't ask to see them.

I got a band together to help me record music that was to be in films of some sort, but in order to make the musicians feel comfortable playing the music I wrote in a standard verse-chorus-like format. After a while I asked the guys if we could play a gig, and they agreed. Pretty soon we were a band called Back Hoe playing the Rendezvous, The Ballard Firehouse (opening for Pat Travers), and other Seattle venues. This was the beginning of the sound I'm putting out now.

Later the drummer moved to San Francisco. With our new drummer we changed our name to "20". That incarnation lasted until the guitarist left for the east coast.

I played with Brian Burke (of Zero Station) and Dave Vlasaty in a Husker Du/ Replacements influenced punk band called Blue Gum Road for about a year, made music with friends and wrote some songs, tried to start a couple other bands ...

Which brings us to now. I decided to start with the recording and fill in the band later. So many of the songs are versions of music I started long ago for some potential unrealized films. All the songs are produced by these guys, with me: Engineers/Producer Scott Ross, Engineers/Producer Geoff Ott, Producer Wayne Horvitz, Engineer Matt Brown.
Tim Young (guitar) and Mike Stone (drums) played on most of the tracks. Chad Quist and Eric Eagle helped out on a few tunes.

Then I went out and got a gig and the most amazing thing happened - the band showed up. Suddenly, competent musicians were responding to my ads. We spent 2 weeks with 5 rehearsals and played the show at the Blue Moon. We've - played a few other shows in the meanwhile, a couple at the Central Saloon.

The band is made up of these guys:
Mickey - Bass and Vocals
Tim Young - Guitar
Chad Quist - Guitar
Mike Stone -Drums

Ben Smith (Drums, also the current drummer for Heart) and Andrew Sherbrooke (Guitar) sit in for live performances.


Mostly we're a band that enjoys what we play and spend considerable effort honing songwriting skills. It's a full raw sound that I think of as somewhere between Yes and Soundgarden, The Who and Hammerbox.