The Birth:
I was born May 16th, 1979 in Fargo, ND. I guess you
could say I grew up poor, but that just makes me grateful for what I have now. I was generally a very quiet, shy kid. I didn't
have lots of friends in elementary school (if any), so I guess you could say I'm a Natural Born Loner.My dad exposed me to
a lot of classical music when I was really young which probably birthed the love for music. By the time I was 7, I had begun
singing at home (badly probably), so either my mom or dad got me an audition for the Red River Boy Choir.
RRBC is a non-profit choir that isn't affiliated with school or church,
off on it's own. I did get in after the audition and ended up continuing in the concert choir (little league) for a year or
two before going into the tour choir. I did miss my chance to go to Carnegie Hall in NYC though damnit. But I did end up traveling
to the east coast, Montana, South Dakota and Minneapolis a few times. So, it was still a good experience. I ended up staying
in the choir for 7-8 years, until I was about 15 or 16. We performed a lot of classical music, something that school or church
choirs usually don't do. I did have a solo my last year, and really killed it. Other than that though, it was all good. I
had also started playing our piano at home around the age or 10-11. Self taught of course. I began guitar when I was 14, and
practiced that more than any other instrument at the time.
I started having problems with depression at about 13 years old. I was
on anti depressants by 14, and drinking by the the same age. Most of the time between 1993-1996 was spent going through
a lot of isolation and loneliness. I pretty much hid in my room almost all the time and didn't go out or anything. I started
writing a few lyrics here and there in 1994,(the lyrics showed up years later as a B-side to "Red Sun" as the song "1994").
I didn't really see myself as any good, but I had already noticed that it felt good getting even a little bit out.
The Seed:
Karma began in 1995. The band consisted of me on vocals and guitar and
Chris on drums. We never had a bassist. It turned into the typical first band scenerio. We hung out in his garage, smoking
cigarettes playing Nirvana and Alice In Chains covers. We never got anywhere. I did write two songs while it was going: "Pussies"
and "Perfect". "Perfect" is the song that just won't go away.
My depression had greatly worsened by late 1995/early 1996 and had finally
gotten into SI (self injury) and a lot of suicidal thoughts. The edge came on June 7th, 1996. I overdosed on 3 prescription
medications (Prozac, Methophenodate, and Nortryptyline). I ended up getting rushed to the hospital and became half paralyzed
when I got there. I woke up hours later with a doctor telling me that I was minutes from dying. Something like that really
makes you think. . I was really lucky.
The Beginning:
After undergoing a lot of in-patient and out-patient treatment for a month
after that day, I got to go back to my life. (the song "Ward" was written while locked up in Odyssey). Within a few months,
I came to terms that if I continued to fall and self destruct that I would end up dead by the end of the year. I needed that
outlet and music became that. I had started writing more in late 1995/early 1996, but in late 1996 I started "The SOS Experience"
(weeks later changed to just "SOS"). I began writing new songs and "Alone" kinda became my projection of how I felt at the
time. "Betrayal" was written about the Kari/Chris incident.
I finished Demo One in Feb. of 1997. It had 4 originals (Perfect,
Alone (soft), Betrayal, Alone (loud)) and some various covers of Nirvana, Alice In Chains, Guns N Roses, and even The Scorpians.
It was done very cheaply and all on an acoustic guitar. It started me recording on cassettes and in late 1997 I did the Alone
EP. It was again all acoustic and just had different versions of "Perfect" and "Alone" along with 3 new songs ("Ward","Uncommon"
and "Bored). "Bored" still exists as my only sarcastic song. No song of mine has more different versions than "Perfect". It's
been recorded at least 4 times to date.
I ended up finding out there was an SOS Band. I wanted to be original
so I started playing around with changing the title. Somehow, I ended up with Battle Cry. I started writing new lyrics in
1998 and got a keyboard that year and started writing music that was very different from the SOS format.
The other members of Battle Cry weren't really members but more "consultants".
They were both actually good pen pals of mine. I still did all the recording and most of the writing. Trista Whitman had a
lot to do with the title and artwork for The Odyssey. In the end, she did do the cover for it as well as the original
BC logo. Angela Cafiero was honestly just an annoyance, she never really did anything.
In 1998, I recorded The Odyssey.It was my first full length
album and was done electronic without any guitar at all. The coolest thing about it though is the opening piano part for "A
Tear For You" was something I had been plunking on the piano since I was 12. Lyrics to the album I did again except for two
songs. I collaborated with Whitman on "H and P" and also with a good friend at the time, Carrie Nelson, on "Bloody Princess".
The song "A True Soul" was written about my uncle who had died of lung cancer earlier that year.
The Odyssey was put out just after January 1st, 1999. Shortly
after that, Whitman and I let Cafiero go due to lack of production. Whitman left maybe 7 or 8 months later. I did a single
for "A Tear For You" which also featured an electronic version of "Ward" and "Ode To Joy" (Beethoven) as well as remixes of
"ATFY" and "Torment", the instrumental track on the album. The single for "Red Sun" was done later that year with "1994"
laying as the B-side.
I can honestly say that even though I knew BC was now solo, I never considered
stopping it and a year later I was writing a new album. It was electronic again but had a fair amount of guitar seeping into
it. The album was a step forward in musical quality, but especially in lyrics. "I Lay Awake", "In The End", and "Isolation"
really had good points to them. My favorite chorus from the album lays in "Take Me Away" which was a very hopeless song. "Isolation"
is self explanatory, "I Lay Awake" is a love song. "Purity" was done via electric guitar and no keyboards were used in the
song. Overall it was a darker album and had more atmosphere than The Odyssey.
During the recording of the second BC album, I had been recording covers
of Depeche Mode. Some even went back before the first album. I started putting them together and Cover Mode was the
result. With a few older recordings ("World In My Eyes") but mostly new ones. I also did guitar only versions of "Sister Of
Night", "Higher Love", etc. It was a lot of fun and still am proud that I kept most of the songs very close
to the originals, one of my goals most of the time when doing covers. Cover Mode came out I think mid 2001.
I then went to finish up the second BC album.It took me a year and a half
to produce it, but I think the extra time shows. 02 BC came out in December 2001 and I did a single for "Isolation"
shortly before which had the B-side of "Cinematic" and a version of, surprisingly, "Greensleeves".I actually really liked 02
BC because the atmosphere was so much better.It was a good, smart step forward. However I must've been alone
in it. This is the only time when I've almost quit doing music. Hardly anyone heard the album and it seemed nobody cared.
I couldn't pull myself away from it and just decided to take a break by early 2001. It would be over a year before
I wrote another note.
The New Beginning:
Following my separation January, 2003 I began writing again (even though
I had kept writing lyrics over the 2 year period), and did the song "Empty" in March. That was the first song to be recorded
in 2 years. I wasn't sure where BC was going, but I kept up with it.
May 2003 I did Demo 2. Like, Demo One it was an acoustic
cover album. The songs were a lot different than the first though. Songs by Flaw, Deftones, Tool, Nine Inch Nails, Machine
Head, Cause and Effect, Leonard Cohen, etc. Closing it was a acapella song, "Silence" which, yes, was written for real
person. I've always enjoyed doing covers and sometimes tend to overdue it. It was also the first time that I didn't produce
every song. Tony Hagen produced "The Burning Red" and "Everybody Knows".
A couple months later, I ended up having one of those days and went in
and wanted to record a song. This is the wierdest time I've ever had because 2 hours later I walked out with Demo 2.1.
This one I never really put out though because I didn't want people to think that I couldn't do things on my own still. I
covered "Outside" by Staind, "Jail" by Down, "Nutshell" by Alice in Chains, The Smiths, Depeche Mode's "Somebody",etc. There
was also an instrumental acoustic track that closed it. I don't even remember what I titled it.
In July, I decided to start going for a new BC album. In two days, I put
down two of the best songs I've ever written: "The Course" and "All Good Ends". That's literally all it too and I was 100%
working at BC again. Right from the beginning, I started working on the new album differently. I wanted to demo the songs,
and redemo and really pay a lot of attention to detail. . in music and in the lyrics. I knew I wanted to take a leap. Most
of the songs I noticed had almost a Paradise Lost energy to them. I'd always written very slow songs, and these had quicker
tempos to them. In August I started putting together the album as far as the songs and began to see almost a order to everything.
I tried something very new and rearranged the order to see if I could tell them as a story. The album was originally titled
"Confect". After the storyline really became apparent I went through different titles, and Decay was picked.
The Emptiness:
September and October 2003 proved very tough on me and though
Decay got a good start, a system crash and lots of depression pretty much damned the BC album and at the end of
October, Battle Cry officially went on hold. It was unsure whether or not it was the end of Battle Cry as I've even played
with that idea before all this happened. The demos of "The Course" , "Exploration" , and "All Good Ends"
still circulated, so at least some got out.
December 2003: Battle Cry goes officially on hiatus. Recording
is stopped. Writing is stopped. Planning is stopped. To occupy the void left by BC, I begun playing around with instrumental
ideas. LaconicAura was born. LaconicAura was birthed from the idea of telling exact stories through feelings rather than
words. No vocals of any kind were used and so it was nice to not have something specific to say. In the end, it ended up being
very specific, but only to me. "Versatile" (2003) was a quickly made album after only 2 weeks of recording. It kinda brought
back the enjoyment of having an accomplished album. Also ended the 3 year absense of an original album.
I'll be honest and admit that there was an unsureness of BC ever since Dec. 2003. I
hadn't had an album in 3 years, I wasn't really enjoying it anymore. It became a hassle almost. I was contemplating just never
making another album under that format/name. Never do I go down without a fight.
Battle Cry didn't resurface again until about May/early June of 2004. I was going through
stuff to reissue and mixing the masters to get them into the best possible CD format when I just kinda thought back to how
long ago it was since I made the Odyssey album. Only about 18-19 years old at the time, I felt that a very important part
of me was in that. I then decided it is too much a part of me to leave behind so easily.
Though consideration for the third BC album began back in April, official work didn't
start until late August/early September. Keeping a few songs from Decay and writing some new ones, The Year After combines
the basic BC format with the really old SOS guitar flavor. A few songs written later on brought in a very optimimstic/retrospective
outlook which brought the music up a bit. Not a heavy album, not extremely dark, and not happy. Pretty much as moody as I
am.
In November of 2004, The single(?) "Exploration" was released on the webpage and a newly
formed profile on myspace.com. I had also been emailed about airplay on a college radio station. Has Battle Cry
now begun to take flight and increasing exposure? As cliche as it is, "only time will tell".
February 2005 began yet another plan. Celebrating the 10 year anniversary of my beginning
of home recording, I decided to FINALLY do the long awaited task. Rerecording the old SOS songs from many, many, many years
ago. Wihtout a doubt it seemed like the right time. TYA really ended an era. I guess I've pushed as far as I could go in that
direction, so now it's time to embark on something different. So, think of this new EP, titled "Deccenary Retrospective" as
a border. Separating the old from the new. Era 1 from Era 2. I recorded the songs in their original style, acoustic guitar
and vocals only. However, this time around I used an acoustic simulation pedal.
After recording all the guitar tracks and one new song, "I'm Sorry", it simply sat for
months. I started working more and getting some things done in my personal life. In very early May of 2005, I came home in
the mood to sing. In one day, one session, the vocals were recorded. "I'm Sorry" is considered, to me, as a TYA session recording.
It was recorded late Jan. 2005 while still experimenting with reverb.
"Deccenary Retrospective" is slated for a late summer release.
Last updated: May 7, 2005
