Instrument(s)
Drums
Information
Location
houston / NYC / America Latina
Occupation
recording, design, teaching
Music That Inspires Me
none entered
Films I'll Watch More Than Once
none entered
About
My interest in politics and music was ignited when watching Star Wars in 4th grade: I wanted to join the cantina band, but even more, I wanted to defeat the empire. The next year, my elementary school band performed the soundtrack. I had the role of hitting two cymbals together, and smashed them so hard that, at a musical climax, they turned inside out. I bought an album of Star Wars music being performed by the Meco Orchestra. It was my first funk, and it would still be years until I heard James Brown, Fela or Parliament, but my path to becoming a funk drummer was already clear. I went on to join several bands, including the Pedestrians in high-school, and
Sprawl while attending
Rice University for Art and English. My current band in Houston,
Free Radicals, plays jazz-funk, hip-hop, ska, avant-garde punk, and international music. The group creates
non-commercial original compositions, performs benefit concerts, and provides the beat for street protests for causes like
immigrant rights, and against police brutality and war-profiteers like
Halliburton. When not playing drums, I am around North and South America playing
capoeira angola, showing
my film, doing a
workshop, doing
graphic design, mastering and CD duplication at
Sound Arts Recording
and elsewhere, volunteering with groups like
Food Not Bombs, and
houston indymedia, making
monoprints and
other types of art, and writing
articles.
