I never really quit playing the piano, actually, but rather stopped the actual study of the music and the instrument itself. Instead, I started to enjoy listening to my favorite songs on the radio and picking them out "by ear". This was much more fun to me, much quicker than learning the music, and while it was never entirely correct... it was good enough for me. This too, however, quickly became tiresome. I started to lose my connection with music that was not my own. I began writing. I wrote my first song, "The Music Box," when I was 11 years old. While the complexity was low, and the true music theory was lacking, it began my method of telling stories through music. I continued to write, to express myself in ways that words simply could not achieve, and I felt satisfied.

Over the years, my mother pleaded for me to record this music even if simply setting a tape recorder on top of the piano... anything to record their existence. I would tell her not to worry, that everything was fresh in my head at all times, but she was not assured and would say, "you just never know"... words that would haunt me in the not-too-distant future.

On July 17, 2004, I was in a diving accident that left me quadriplegic for what I feared to be the rest of my life. Fortunately, it was not long before I began rehabilitating at what many described as a miraculous rate. Still, the effects on my motor skills... on my hands, my fingers... left me avoiding the piano because it was more therapy than it was rescue. It was breaking my heart and my wife stepped in.

We had planned a weeklong vacation over spring break in 2005. We went to visit my uncle, Bill Holt, in Panama City Beach, Florida. My wife, Corri, and my uncle had arranged for me to go to a professional recording studio for three hours to record some of my music much to my surprise. I was certainly not prepared for such a task, but I immediately sat down and began practicing what I felt like playing in the studio. In three hours, I was able to record four original pieces on a nine foot concert grand piano. The experience was nothing less than amazing. In addition, my uncle was friends with a gentleman named Glenn Lysack who did various types of instrumental mixing as a hobby. We spent the following couple days working on my music adding in orchestral backgrounds. We were doing things and producing sounds with my music that I had never dreamed would be possible. I had a smile from ear to ear that could not be erased even when it was time to travel back home at the end of the week.

Five months later, after months of careful consideration and deliberation, I made the decision to purchase the hardware and software necessary to produce music out of my home. I had too many ideas and too many dreams going through my head that I needed to record before they were forgotten. The equipment arrived which immediately began a waterfall of creativity for me. I was convinced that "anything is possible" and have been having an absolute blast ever since.