Long Bio After moving to a new town as a kid, Tim found his dad’s guitar in the attic of their new house. At first, he didn’t believe he should even be touching it, and had no idea how it worked, but as he pulled it out of the case and examined the instrument, he pushed down between a fret and the pitch changed. Tim’s life changed. At first, Tim snuck the guitar downstairs and put it under his bed, thinking he would not be allowed to touch the instrument, but every day he would pull it out and try to figure the thing out. Then one day, his dad walked into his room (nowhere to hide), but instead of being upset, he showed Tim how to tune the guitar and let him be. Tim was hooked. It wasn’t long after that Tim started putting bands together as a kid, everything from alternative rock band (Under Current) to bad Led Zepplin cover bands, and many other projects. Tim was initially very inspired by metal music. The likes of Pantera, Testament and Megadeth were among his favorites. One day, after attending a football camp in Pittsburgh, Tim’s dad asked him if he wanted to go see Spyra Gyra that night because his dad and aunt had bought some tickets. Not wanting to be rude, Tim agreed. It changed everything. Tim saw what an incredible level these people were playing, and having such a great time with it. He didn’t even realize people could really play that well (little did he know). They stayed for the second set and Tim started jazz guitar lessons the next week with Frank Singer. With a new found love a jazz theory and harmony to go with his previous love, Tim started music school. In his first year, he and Mike Brown put on a full composition recital, while Tim played in the jazz band and various cover bands. After a year at school, Tim decided to move to New York City. Here he worked a lot just to pay the bills. Studied with a few teachers, notably Steve Adelson (master stick player) and in general just practiced a lot. Tim began a band with Dan Killoren and John Gratto that never really made it too far called “Frank Slade”. For various reasons, Tim moved away from New York. Since the New York experience, Tim decided to work on his jazz and classical music degree and went to University of Akron and where he also worked on an electrical engineering degree. While now home based in Akron, Tim has performed hundreds of shows in the area. Upon first moving to Akron, he began some exploration into the fretless guitar. This was particularly spurred by the website www.unfretted.com . After getting involved with the forum, and ripping some frets off of some guitars, Tim was one of many asked to be part of a compilation CD called “Village of the Unfretted”. This album was featured in Guitar Player magazine and had artists such as Bumblefoot (ex-Guns and Roses), Tim Donahue and Ned Evett. Not only did Tim contribute a song to the album, he also mastered the album. This CD resulted in the first fretless guitar festival in the world in New York City, where Tim played with drum master Larry Kwartowitz (Cleric, Beret). After being in Akron for a year, Tim began playing with Paul Stranahan’s Trio (a jazz fusion band) with regular gigs at Pete’s Tavern and Prosperity Social club in Cleveland. Tim spent a year playing with metal band Ceterum, which lead to playing a show with ex Faith No More singer, Chuck Mosely among other gigs around the Cleveland area. He followed his time with Ceterum by creating the jazz tech metal band, Red Side Visible. Red Side Visible (RSV) was invited to play at the FIMU festival in Belfort, France shortly after its creation and a day after picking up their first album “Enter Entropy”. RSV traveled to Europe and Members of RSV, including Tim, were able to stick around a play a few shows in Germany following the festival. RSV was later featured on Crooked River Groove TV show and played live on WIMU radio station. RSV have played shows all over north east Ohio. After Red Side Visible took a bit of hiatus, particularly because of the moving a multiple members, Tim began playing with another incarnation of Paul Stranahan’s band, Paul Stranahan’s Insomnia, which looked more to pushing the envelope with a harder edged fusion approach. Paul wrote some new tunes and Tim, Paul, Matt DeRubertis, and Chris Herald hit the studio to release “The EP”. This album lead to playing shows in Chicago, Toledo, Akron and Cleveland. One of the highlight shows with this band was opening for Eastern Blok (Chicago band) at the Beachland Tavern to great response. Following the PSI release, Tim, Paul and Chris hit the studio again with newly formed “Night Terrors”. Tim spent months crafting some of the craziest guitar sounds out there, actually most don’t believe some of it’s even guitar. The music created was journey through the mind of a person going through a Night Terror (not the same as a nightmare). The album has received some very positive responses. While making music with all these different groups, Tim regularly records and releases other music on Reverbnation.com and Soundcloud.com. The music ranges from soft acoustic tunes, to death metal, to Taylor Swift goth covers, fusion and the like. Tim began playing violin 2 years ago now and it’s added another dimension to his writing and recording. It also taught him a lot about his guitarism’s and vibrato. Tim recently began playing with impressive bassist Jared Lee’s group. Their first encounter happened while Jared planned an entire Jaco Pastorious tribute set. After getting the opportunity to play with Jared, Tim began playing with Jared’s group. This band has already begun making splashes even in the first few months together. They were featured in Nashville at Roy Vogt’s Thunder event during Summer NAMM. They’ve played Lo-Hio and NEO Bass Summit, along with various other gigs in the area. They’ve released a free live from the basement album on Jared Lee’s Bandcamp page. Tim continues to play with Paul Stranahan in various groups, including Paul’s Trio, Three for all meets Night Terrors, and working on the second Red Side Visible release. Current albums in the works : 1) Red Side Visible number 2 – by end of the year (only waiting on rest of sax’s to record) 2) Studio album with Jared Lees Group (currently in writing stage) 3) First solo album 4) Guitar Duet album with Adam Keeler (little does Adam know) |