Las Vegas-based vocalist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, film composer, and music producer. Plus, he even teaches music production at UNLV. He was an original band member in the Las Vegas production of Blue Man Group, spanning 18 years and playing five instruments. Previously, he had spent seven years drumming with Wild Colonials, who were on Geffen Records, co-writing and recording three albums, and touring nationally. He has been recording artists for more than twenty years, and is the son of the late jazz legend, Chick Corea.
“I really wanted that ‘artist’ to make music that you could whistle the melody, that it was simple, repetitive and I really like lyrics, so I wanted the lyrics to be meaningful but not overly complicated.”
“Between, say, the age of, I don't know, 13 and 25 … we really, really connect with a lot of music that means a lot to us at the time, and it doesn't go away. We keep that music with us.”
“My dad was a great influence to me, just by being around his rehearsals, his gigs, being brought along into clubs.”
“Being younger and then being a teenager and wanting approval, wanting validation, looking for that from not only my father but ‘Chick Corea’ the planetary jazz legend, wanting validation or something
from a person, it became really pretty frustrating.”
“(Blue Man Group in New York) totally blew my mind. It was really, I was like, ‘Oh these guys are just nuts.’ It was such a wild experience, and the drumming was so fantastic, I said, ‘Okay, yeah, yeah, let me get involved. How do I get involved’?”
“I think what I'll take away with me from the Blue Man Group experience above any singular experience of playing for crowds, which is always the best, I'll take away the camaraderie of the band. The musicians were all great musicians without egos and kind of each individually special.”
“Everybody has the software. Everybody can record themselves. Everybody can … finish a song, put it up on Spotify and say, ‘Look at me, I did it’… Why do you need a music producer? Why do you need a mixer? Why do you need anybody else? You need somebody else because they have experience helping you get to where you want to get to.”
“I think music producers have to be good at recognizing the components of great songs and that's what they help an artist get to.”
“It is very hard to ruin a great song. You can record it terribly. You can do all the mistakes in the world, the wrong effects, the – you can't ruin a great song. But you can't polish a terrible song, can't make it great.”
“You're going to write a song with lyrics, and it has to communicate and it has to bring an emotion to a recipient, it has to arrive, it has to make the person not want to press fast forward, they want to hear it, they want to hear what happens next, they stay interested. Those questions are very, very interesting to me.”
“In my teens I wasn't really planning a family. It wasn't a goal of mine, like, ‘Hey, one day I’m gonna have a family and I’ll have grandchildren one day,’ and it was absolutely not a goal of mine. I wanted to be a musician, nothing else.”
“Save Me” (King Whistle)
“Just Enough” (Michael Louis Austin)