Biography
Here’s NukleoN’s story as told in his own words.
This one time, at band camp…no seriously.
Yes, I was in the High School band, and it was good (except for my brief stint attempting to play a trombone). Well, as good as can be whilst marching around in blue polyester with a horde of lisping flute players bedecked with headgear and a slightly dizzy brass section. I played bongos, yes, bongos because believe it nor not, I wasn’t yet tall enough to actually carry a snare without it banging against my knees. In retrospect, I think I would have rather taken the abuse on my poor patellas rather than play the bongos in a marching band, but as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. Perhaps, it just scars you for life. At a certain point, I knew the school band was not my idea of musical expression.
My fascination with musical instruments is something I’ve had as long as I can remember. When I was but a wee toddler, my dad would buy me these plastic guitars, and I’d ‘play’ them until they broke, but there would always be another plastic guitar. I have to admire my dad’s enthusiasm and tenacity, but then again, it was probably quite interesting to watch a toddler do his very own impression of ‘The Who’.
Later on, around 4th grade, I distinctly remember being dropped off with a babysitter and being fascinated by the piano…I kept wishing everyone would disappear so I could play it…and at the time I wanted to play that piano more than play with the other kids. Eventually, I got the chance to try the piano, but I don’t think the babysitter was quite ready for young NukleoN back then.
In junior high, I took a guitar class. I’m not sure why I chose the guitar, since that meant having to carry the thing to and from school. It was an ungainly way to travel, but worth it. Besides, the price I’d have to pay to be a male clarinet or flute player was high…very high. So the guitar it was..though I certainly didn’t have guitar fingers. After countless renditions of ‘Frere Jacques’ and ‘The Irish Washer Woman’, songs nobody plays outside of ‘lessons’, I gained a stronger appreciation for music and enjoyed the guitar, but this was soon exclipsed by my discovery of percussion.
I soon joined a beginning drum class, and knew I liked this much better, and I was better at it. I remember sneaking in to the drum room before classes and going ape on the meager set the class had. I was a rock star, and it was good. Soon, we were actually allowed to play *real* snare drums in class, instead of those awful-sounding practice pads they foist on newbies. I did get a drum set at home at one point, but before that, I made due with coffee cans. Yes, coffee cans. Of varying sizes and sounds, mind you, and believe it or not, it was strangely satisfying, given the lack of anything resembling a stretched animal skin.
When my parents got an old Wurlitzer baby grand piano, I was ecstatic. I remember my first song I ever composed on a piano, and it consisted of all-black keys. I played this thing every day after school nearly without fail, composing all sorts of funny songs….when I heard my mom practicing her songs, I’d learn them by ear in short order. I took lessons of my own, but quickly got bored playing other people’s songs…I wanted to write my own and I did just that.
In college, I would occasionally skip classes so I could immerse myself in the synth club’s room full of sweet, sweet goodness. There I played the DX-7 and Juno-1 for the first time, and I was hooked. They even had a mic and a singer would often join in whilst reading from the newspaper for lyrics. Something clicked in my head, and I knew this was what I wanted to do…I wanted to write songs with synthesizers and play all the various parts and yes, add vocals as well.
In 1991, I got my first synth, a Korg M1 bought with royalties after working hard as a rookie artist / game designer in the video game business. This was the start of a long string of synth-related purchases and sales, but I kept writing songs that never got heard except by a very close circle of trusted friends.
As the ‘studio’ grew, so did my songwriting, and I finally went public on MP3.com in 1999 as NukleoN, a band name I chose based on it’s scientific nature, the German sound of the ‘K’ in place of the ‘C’ in American spelling of ‘Nucleon’. Another consideration that was important to me was the .com availabilty. I didn’t want to choose something everyone else had thought of or had the .com for. Even though I’m a solo artist, I chose a name for myself mostly for a bit of ‘image’ which I could use to give people an idea of what my music might sound like, before they heard it. My name by itself doesn’t necessarily convey that.
After being on MP3.com for a while, I had the great opportunity to participate in a few synthpop compilations which led to my signing with Cohaagen Music and my impending first solo commercial release. After the twists and turns of my music career up to now, I am very excited about things to come.
I hope you enjoy what you hear
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