Over 20 years ago as a senior in High School I began dabbling in the music industry booking friends bands and helping them with marketing and promotion as well as song selection. I helped take the bands from the garage to major clubs in town and in Los Angeles garnering the recognition of press and the music industry. In college I promoted local club nights and had highly popular shows on college radio in New York.

Upon returning to San Diego I stayed close to the scene and DJ’ed at an underground club called PLAYSKOOL. In 1988 I scored several opportunities at 91X FM when I guest-hosted a couple hours with Pam Wolf, a popular DJ on the station. She loved my selections so much she got me a job at the station. I worked with several DJ’s and shows including assisting on the heralded cutting edge program “Listen to This”. A local music segment of the show entitled “Loudspeaker” grew so popular it was given its own time slot. On “Loudspeaker” I backed up Marco Collins for a year searching out fresh new music, going to shows, marketing the show and assisting with the production and programming of the show.

In late 1989 I took over Loudspeaker and brought it to new levels with live performances, club nights and an A&R tip sheet. Some of the bands that saw their first radio play and exposure to the music industry through “Loudspeaker” were Lucy’s Fur Coat, Jewel (who’s 1st demo was a recording of her live on Loudspeaker in early ‘92), P.O.D., Blink (now Blink-182), rust, INCH, Calman Hart (of Berkeley Hart), Steve Poltz and the Rugburns, Gregory Page, Three Mile Pilot, Heavy Vegetable, No Knife, Fishwife, Rocket From the Crypt, Chune, Loraine (now Maquiliadora), the Paladins, Earl Thomas, and so many more bands of all kinds of musical background. I also DJ’ed other air shifts and had another new music specialty show over the years at the station. While at 91X I championed local music and helped pick local artist for opportunities at regular airplay such as Lucy's Fur Coat, INCH, the Rugburn’s, Jewel, rust, aminitature, etc.

I promoted local live music club nights and helped choose the bands for the first two May Day events in 1993 and 94which were huge 6,000 capacity events hi-lighting the best in local music. I promoted cross cultural and international music relations by trading shows and co-promoting shows with bands and promoters from Mexico, doing shows in San Diego and Tijuana combining artists from both areas. I booked shows at local clubs and restaurants and was involved in bringing local music into several independent films.

In 1992 I spoke on a panel at the fledgling SXSW Music festival about “how to get commercial radio air-play” along with moderator Matt Pinfield. In 1994 I added the job of Independent Management again to my tasks; managing local artists INCH who were signed to Atlantic records. Working with them on two releases.

Besides INCH I advised and mentored many local bands on songs, recording, performance, marketing, booking and promotion. I found time and time again that it seemed I had a pretty good ear picking so many bands before they broke and before they matured into forces in the scene and in music scenes nationwide.

In 1996 I decided I must move to L.A. to pursue the idea of working on the label side of the music industry. In Los Angeles I worked on Music Supervision and placement in independent films and shorts. I also worked as an assistant production coordinator for 21st Century Fox for a season.

I then landed a job with JADE Music, licensing music for release into Japan and Asian territories where I brought Elliott Smith, MxPx, Lucy’s Cur Coat to the attention of the company. I also uncovered a wealth of music in Sweden that I turned on many in the music industry to no avail. Years later Swedish bands were the hot topic. While at Jade I also took it upon myself to help out with another division of the company; the U.S. Indie label Creativeman.

Where I worked on publicity, retail marketing and promotion, college and specialty show radio promotion, and booked promotional tours for the artists. I booked dates for artists from out of the country and secured radio play, successful retail promotional events and key retail placement for titles.

In 1998 I had opportunities to move on to major labels but took a job with a new independent label for freedom and creativity. Through my connections at the William Morris agency I secured a job at their new venture Ultimatum Music.

Where I started as and A&R man and quickly moved to Artist Development Director then on to Vice President. Early in 1998 at Ultimatum while doing A&R scouting I tried to bring in Macy Gray, At The Drive In, The Get Up Kids, P.O.D., Lucy’s Fur Coat, then later Atmosphere, Galactic, Soundtrack of Our Lives, Trail of Dead and backed up another A&R man on bringing Phantom Planet in. The label passed on all of them.
While at the label I was able to convince the label to bring in Justin Clayton, J Mascis, The Incredible Moses Leroy and the Exies; I also co-signed Dogstar and helped convince the company to sign the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash and MOKE.
While at the William Morris backed Ultimatum I was responsible for finding artists, deal making, signing, producer and studio selection, overseeing song selection, recording and mixing, contributing to the marketing, touring, retail, lifestyle, street and radio campaigns of all the artists I helped bring into the label. I recorded albums in North Carolina, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego and Sweden.

I left Ultimatum in 2000 and started my own independent consulting company North Bound River A&E, helping artists and labels with promotion, marketing and management. With North Bound River A&E I ran successful Independent radio campaigns for the Pistoleros, Tom Freund, The Deere Johns and the Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash. Here I took relatively unknown artists and secured radio airplay, press, bookings and radio promotion events without the use of huge promotional dollars and considerations that most labels and promoters commonly have at their disposal to work with. I also took on a band for personal management called Rochelle, Rochelle and within a few months had them major press, award nominations, radio airplay and major bookings.

Within a couple years the band was one of the most talked about bands at SXSW gathering praise from BLENDER, HITS, SXSW itself and magazines and periodicals across the country. I secured openings slots with the Strokes, STP, Live, Cowboy Mouth and the Breeders for Rochelle, Rochelle. I also brought in publishing opportunities with music uses in action sports videos and DVD’s as well as shows on MTV, Warner TV and ABC Academy Awards commercials. I also placed product and visuals in Hollywood productions like Crazy/Beautiful, Blue Crush and CSI Miami.

Stepping away from management in the fall of 2003 I was hired to start a surf film and new music distribution company called Movement International. With Movement in a brief amount of time I was instrumental in securing the rights to 4 hot new surf films and 2 amazing classics as well as several music releases. I also set into place a promotional tour of both coasts for the premiere of a new film and a live performance of the music in the film.

I am currently working for a magazine publisher developing lifestyle, marketing and sales. I am also currently doing independent film and music review work and building a marketing, publicity and production company.