Music Center owner

transcribed by Brandon Carter
Coastal Journal Staff

I knew I wanted to be a musician ever since I was four or five.  My parents weren’t musicians or anything; it all started when I saw a Kiss record on display.  It just looked so cool, I had to have it.  My dad disagreed. Even though they all looked like clowns, he was pretty sure it wasn’t the right music for me at that age.

Luckily I had a 14 year-old sister who was really into The Beatles and Hendrix and a lot of other classic rock acts.  She was more understanding.  She bought me that Kiss record for my birthday.  It was a live album, so it was very exciting, and I knew right away I was going to be a musician.

I got my first electric guitar when I was six and would practice all the time.  I was in several bands growing up in Lewiston, right on up through high school.  I was in a band called “Stone Circus, we’d do gigs from Canada to New York.  I was also working on and off full-time at the music store, so I was a busy kid.  I’m surprised my parents let me do all those things.

  After high school I studied Jazz and Contemporary Music at UMaine at Augusta.  When I finished school, I bought out the music store.  I can’t really explain why I did that, it just kind of happened.  My parents loaned me some money to get started, and now we’ve got this sizable operation. 

We’ve always done well selling music merchandise, but the music lessons have really taken off.  We have 300 students, a whole range of different ages.  Now that school’s in, this time of year’s very busy for us.  Once two o’clock in the afternoon comes, we’re pretty much booked flat out with lessons.  

Even though we’ve been able to expand our space a few times since I’ve been here, we still have more goals for the store.  It would be pretty cool if we could get some studio equipment in here and set up some recording, or even just rent out rehearsal spaces.  I don’t know, we’ll see.

Outside of operations at the store, I’m still very involved with music.  I teach a college-level recording course (though I have the semester off, thankfully).  I run a 1,000 square foot  recording studio out the basement of my new house, working with some local artists recording material.  And I still play in some bands.  I’m one half of an acoustic duo called “Hey Buddy,” and I also play in a contemporary rock band called “Punch bug.”  Well, I don’t know how contemporary it is, actually.  It’s probably more along the lines of what would be considered classic rock by now. 

I grew up on classic rock, and obviously everything changed when Nirvana came along, but my record collection’s pretty expansive and eclectic.  As far as contemporary artists go, I like The Shins, and there’s also this guy who plays the piano and sounds like Freddie Mercury, but I can’t remember his name at the moment. 

My wife Tera and I have a five year-old daughter, Bella, and she’s been taking piano and guitar lessons for a year now.  We didn’t push her into it or anything, she’s just naturally inclined I guess.  If she keeps it up, she’ll be a good one.