Bo Bracey...........
I was around age 10 or so when I started taking piano lessons. My parents forced me to and I hated it because I really wanted to play tenor saxophone, but they insisted I develop a background in music theory and piano first. My Dad bought me a synthesizer for my 13th birthday and that really clinched it for me --- keyboards were my instrument. By then I had been getting into rock n roll and I realized that my lessons would allow me to play the music I was listening to. I purchased dozens of songbooks - The Cars, Journey, Van Halen, Depeche Mode, Elton John, and Billy Joel, and started learning the songs in them. Played organ and piano for a couple of churches as well, and they put me on piano duty for high school Chorus class.
As I moved into my 20s, my musical interests were more on the electronic music side, partly because I wanted to write and produce my own electronic music. I was accepted to UW Madison but didn't quite make it into the Music School, mostly because I wasn't a fan of traditional classical music -- only rock 'n roll and phat electronic beats! I ended up skipping school and joining up with one original electronic band/act in town, but only played a few gigs with them and mostly it was just accompanying the music that was already playing off a tape in the background. Had dreams of starting up a Depeche Mode-like act with 3 or more keyboards playing live, but it was impossible to find the people to do it.
A bit discouraged, I focused on another hobby of mine - computers. For the last 20+ years, I built an IT career and put music more or less aside, although I always kept a keyboard around for general practice. A few years ago as the pandemic bgan, I decided to teach myself blues, boogie woogie, and rock n roll piano. I started rediscovering a lot of classic 70s rock that I had shunned in my younger and more pretentious years! After a year or two and a couple hundred hours of practice I realized that I wanted to play live and that I wanted to join a band. I spent about a year trying to find one --- it was not so easy to find a regularly gigging band in 2020 and throughout most of 2021. Eventually I settled in with the great group of folks in Retro Specz, and I'm looking forward to a rock 'n roll 2022!
