Mr Young

SEEKING

Band to Join.

ABOUT

I grew up in a musical household with my dad playing bass in local blues/rock bands on both sides of the Red River. We moved around a bit when I was younger; I was born in Lawton and lived in Austin, TX for five years before moving to OKC, where I started playing guitar. I started out playing metal but soon, thanks to my dad, became enamored with 60's guitar music, Classic Chicago blues, British Invasion, early Rock n Roll and British Blues.

Exposure to this music was all it took to alienate me musically from most of my peer group in high school. Even though I listened to the great stuff coming out of Seattle in the 90's, my fascination with blues grew from discovering folks like Lightnin Hopkins, Son House and Robert Johnson. While still managing to play in a few garage bands with friends, I began gigging with my dad in a couple bands that played mostly Blues/Classic Rock material.

When I moved to Annapolis, MD to attend college, I found myself exposed to Punk, Hip-hop, Electronica, Folk, Jazz, Classical and pretty much anything but Blues and Southern/Classic Rock. My ears grew and I managed to squeeze myself into little niches here and there and played gigs as often as possible. After two years in Maryland and two in New Mexico, I finally graduated and returned home to play music.

For the past ten years, I have played with various groups from and around OKC (both sideman and pickup gigs). Blues, Rock, Red Dirt, Acoustic, Electronica/Techno and Classic Rock.

On the experimental tip, I've lately been dreaming about several different vibes. One is a fusion of old delta blues electrified with a techno/hip-hop feel (imagine John Lee Hooker meets Questlove) with an occasional edge to it (Skip James meets Black Sabbath). Another is a more high energy-uptempo, breakbeat feel with a psychedelic guitar tone over it (HIVE meets the Big Muff Pi). Basically, funky/groovy drum music with raw, bluesy guitar textures and a dash of Eastern tonality is what I have in mind.

If there are any interested electronica players out there (turntables, electronic drummers, keyboardists, etc) that would like to jam, please contact me. We'll need to figure out a rehearsal space and PA configuration, but I'd be more than happy to split a one night stand at the Music Box.

As far as gigging goes, I am always looking for pickup gigs or steady ones. Lately, I've been doing acoustic shows, pop/wedding band preparation, blues and classic rock gigs. If you need a fill-in player, just give me as much notice as possible, a set list (cd would be great if the tunes are obscure, but not necessary if they can be easily found online) and relevant payment info (how much and how far).

Screen name:: Mr Young
Member since:: May 26 2010; Active over 1 month ago
Level of commitment:: Committed
Years playing music:: 20
Gigs played:: Over 100
Tend to practice:: 2-3 times per week
Available to gig:: 6-7 nights a week

Influences

I gather music in a hand me down fashion. First my exposure was limited to the size of my dad's record collection. Through the years, people turned me onto to different things and I gathered some through libraries and random used sales. Here is a brief list of some of these things:

Sun Records, Stax Records, Motown Records and Chess Records for a healthy dose of old Rock N Roll, Classic Soul/RnB/Boogaloo and Blues. James Brown, Ray Charles, the Meters, Jimmy Smith, Link Wray.

British Invasion, British Mod, British Blues and British Rock of the mid-late 60's to the early 70's and their descendants.

60's psychedelic rock from the US and Britain.

90's Seattle music. Nine Inch Nails, Portishead, Radiohead, Tricky, Morphine, Crystal Method, HIVE, Robert Miles, Beck, The Roots, The GZA

Ravi Shankar, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Anouar Brahem, Huun-Huur-Tu