Post
by gaijin1717 » Fri Apr 10, 2009 11:44 pm
I grew up in the suburbs outside of Denver, Colorado. Got heavily into the local punk rock scene (it really does, or at least did exist) in high school as my family slowly fell apart. I started playing guitar at 14 but have never really improved much. Still love to play, though. I was in two bands (guitar player) that never got very serious: irXum and Sex Pole Mayhem.
After high school I moved to the beautiful Pacific Northwest to attend school at a small liberal arts college in Portland, Oregon. Around this time I was introduced to Aceyalone and my love of hip hop began - bought my first set of turntables around this time as well. I studied sociology, anthropology and Japanese (both culture and language). In year three I headed to uni in Osaka, Japan and fell in love. Not with a Japanese woman, but with Japan itself. Unfortunately, I had to return to the US to finish school. My senior thesis focused on a few of my favorite subjects: Japan, minority rights and prostitution (specifically state-instituted prostitution - basically the government pimping out foreign sex workers after their defeat in WWII).
After I graduated college I stuck around Portland for a few years, realized I was in love with my best friend and began what has been an amazing relationship. I worked as a teacher in both an elementary school and preschool. Then, though, as I felt all the responsibilities of adulthood building, I decided it might be my last chance to actually go live in Japan for an extended period. I said goodbye to my girlfriend and headed back to Japan to teach. I started in Shizuoka (near Mt. Fuji), but decided that I really needed to get back to Osaka where I knew there was a big music scene (also amazing breakdancers). In Osaka I worked in three different middle schools and worked closely with a lot of their special-needs kids.
After a year I realized that what really mattered was my girl. She moved down to San Francisco when I moved to Japan, as she grew up across the Bay in Oakland. So then I found myself living in Northbeach, San Francisco. Started work in association management and realized that, although I do love teaching, with association management I got paid better and had the opportunity to travel a bit. Been to quite a few places in the US since then on business, as well as going back to Japan (Kyoto) and Beijing, China. Moved from Northbeach to the Lower Haight and am now living happily in Oakland with my girl, my dog, and my cats.
After moving back to the US I realized I really wanted to record my guitar playing and produce my own beats. Picked up a Korg ESX and cheap audio interface which came with a lite version of Live. Been hooked ever since.
Tada!
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