pozmusic

You know the movie "Pleasantville" with Toby McGuire whose character gets sucked into a 1950s black and white TV show? Well, I grew up in Pleasantville. It was actually called Saratoga, but it was Pleasantville. It was a perfect childhood, if there is such a thing. But then I hit adolescents and began questioning what life was all about. That's when life began to suck.

From my teens till I was 30, I did lots of soul searching, lots of traveling (I was literally in a new place every year from age 18 to 30 and went to 5 colleges in 5 years), read lots of books on personal development and spirituality, and wrote songs along the way.

What I discovered over the years was I wanted to live a life that mattered, that meant something. And I wanted to enjoy it. What's the use of anything — be it fame, fortune, work, even family — if you're not enjoying it.

My music has just been an expression of what matters most to me — the enjoyment I get from my family and friends, from music itself, from nature, from doing something that makes the world a little better place.

I went down to L.A. years ago with my first demo tape and actually got through the doors of a number of music publishers and got some good feedback. But they said that I had to write for the market, which was infatuation or dysfunctional love songs for teenagers which I wasn't interested in doing. I continued to write songs about what I cared about and finally recorded my first CD in 1998. I've got 5 CDs to date.

In 2004, I co-founded the Positive Music Association, a group of musicians from around the world that use music not only as entertainment, but as a way to create positive change in people's lives and in the world.

I'm also a trained life coach, after having played at a coach training workshop and discovering that I had been life coaching through my music for years.

I've done a variety of other things as well. I've written a book on osteopathic medicine in Tucson, worked for LL Bean in Maine, performed with Up With People all over North America and Europe, took care of a quadraplegic young man near Santa Fe, and owned my own graphic design business for over 11 years in Boulder where I now live.

I live with my Belgian wife Myriam, who keeps reminding me that we live in a "real world," and our two teenage daughters who actually still love us. When the estrogen level in our home gets too much, our two male dogs and I go outside and pee on things. Ahhh, it's a good life.