The Process

The Musical Warrior.

It is late at night in New York and I'm performing somewhere.

My garb consists of high top sneakers, army cargo pants, my Japanese Yakuza jacket, a one-man folding tent, and the backpacker guitar Brandon Blomquist lent me.

The backpacker is a wonderful achievement of a musical instrument. It allows you to take it anywhere, and because of its size, you never feel like you are carrying a bulky guitar around. It makes perfect sound and plays perfect under every circumstance I put it under.

With my head shaved in a classic mohawk, people took to calling me the musical warrior. So I guess that is what I was.

I made it my duty to play every night of the week I could, at concerts, open mics, coffee shops, bars, houses, apartments - nothing stopped me from just doing what I thought was right - and at that time it was just to play and keep playing.

While there were times where I did not eat, playing the guitar would stave off my hunger until some food did appear.

At this time in my life, I learned to appreciate the magical side of being creative. Spiritually I always felt aligned and comfortable doing what I was doing, even though there were days it seemed like no success would come.

But at this time my waking hours were spent as a 24/7 entertainer. I was playing regularly with Firecamp, and me and Mr. Clown were walking the city on the hunt for an audience and food.

Somewhere inbetween all of this, I was back in New Jersey, finding I had songs and lyrics coming out of everywhere. The Lyonhart was a prolific MC and producer residing in New Brunswick at the time and he invited me to his studio, The Wall Of Sound to lay down my rap tracks. It was awesome. Because I was in such performance shape, it didn't take long to bang out the lyrics to the more rap oriented songs.

I had my brother Brad lay down several passes of keyboards on the rap side of the album.

Once these were done, I recorded and finalized a batch of acoustic songs that emerged from my time in Japan and Spain.

These songs were very dear to me, and I still play them to this day, maybe more so then my rap songs. Having the acoustic guitar as my backup allowed me to perform anywhere. Rap can be a technical nightmare to perform live. But an acoustic guitar and a well written song can entertain children of all ages.

And I think that is what I Am The Classic is all about - it is about realizing that being a true entertainer means that you can perform anywhere at anytime - for anyone.

I Am The Classic sold so well that it allowed me to move to California. Since that day, I've always followed my music.

Liner Notes and Thank You