Born: Houston, Texas, 1974
Living: New York, New York

I am a "musician - software developer - photographer - graphic designer" living in The Lower East Side, New York. I have always had a love for creating things, which I suppose came from my childhood.

Our family had moved to a house in the serene countryside (some 40 miles northwest of Houston) by the time I was four. As the second and last child in my family, I spent quite a lot of time with my older sister, Melody. Being a child in 1978, in the woods of Texas... you CREATE. My father was a drummer and perked my musical interest that same year when he gave my sister and I a pair of drumsticks and practice pads. At eight, I began playing on our first drumset.

Musical influences were in abundance from my parents, Rebecca (Becky) and Lloyd (L.B.) On more than 20 acres of land, you could be as loud as you wanted to be! Armed with my dad's reel-to-reel, turntable and the McIntosh stereo system, I would take daily journeys into the collection of albums and tapes at my disposal.

There must have been over a thousand LPs to sample and inspect carefully. We were always taught "respect" for things. Treat and handle them correctly and respect other people's belongings. In this case, it was my father's things, and if you didn't take your time and use the equipment properly... it meant that your ass was toast.

So there it began. My tendency to procrastinate, but also my love affair with "listening". From age four, it was Led Zeppelin (I, II, III, IV, HOTH, Physical Graffiti), Black Sabbath, Grand Funk - yep, the red album. Nazareth always had intesting covers, but I didn't care for the music. There was Muddy Waters, ZZ Top (my dad knew Billy Gibbons when it was 'The Moving Sidewalks'), and what about The Thirteenth Floor Elevators!!! Roky Erikson really influenced my dad. The Rolling Stones was there with Goats Head Soup and Sticky Fingers. Bob James, Al Jarreau and Steely Dan entered into the picture in the late 70s.

If Ginger Baker was my father's idol, it was Neil Peart for me from the time I was about 11 to 16 years old. I must have known every single riff on bass, drums and guitar from Caress of Steel to Presto. Then things changed for me, I began playing piano much more... albeit without any knowledge of theory. My focus turned to Peter Gabriel which led me to exploring carnatic and hindustani classical indian music and anything I could get my hands on.

When I was 18 and working as a waiter, a fellow waiter and I began discussing music one night. It was then that he asked me the question, "Hey man, you probably know a drummer. My roommate is a great guitarist in a band and they are looking intensely for a drummer right now. Do you know anyone?"

'FEEL', was a project formed in 1993. Alexander Lagos (vocals), Glen Ackerman (bass), Jeremy Rogers (guitar) and me. This became a long and wonderful journey between the four of us (and later a 5th... Josh Mason) that took the band touring around southern United States until 2000. Feel disbanded in November of that year. Alexander moved to New York. Glen pursued music fulltime. Jeremy took a job offshore.

I was working for Enron at the end of 2000 doing web development for Enron International. In early 2001, I hopped over to Enron Broadband and was developing internal applications for the business intelligence group. Enron Broadband existed between the 44th and 46th floors of the Enron building... just below the 50th floor where Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling kept their offices.

I would ride up the elevator many times with Ken Lay or Jeff Skilling before the end of 2001. Those are interesting experiences to remember. Fortunately, I was working on a new project that was closely tied to the executive officers of Enron Broadband in the last quarter of 2001. One day in October 2001, I was told by an executive I was working close with that "the writing was on the wall" in terms of Enron being in a questionable state as a going concern. I was offered a phone call to another business unit to provide me job "security" for a few more months. I took it.

Up until that time, I had taken a break from playing music. I needed it, but the urge was coming back. I didn't feel complete. Glen and I got together mainly for me to take guitar lessons from him, but we talked about music a lot. We discussed doing new projects. We became and still are, brothers.

Over the next few years, Glen and I would play with different ensembles. Under the names "The Unusual Suspects", "Reid-Ackerman Trio", and "Live Jazz Experiment", we forged ahead with different styles and experimentation. We would do standards, complete live improvisation pieces, our own interpretations of Wayne Shorter's 'Footprints' and 'Masqualero' and Glen's own special compositions.

In 2005, I made a drastic change in my life. Uprooting not only myself, but my significant other as well, I chose to sever my ties to everything I'd known my entire life. I suppose if you desire change, the only way to have it is to see it through. Confused and moving to Rome, I was in Italy for only a week. Without a Visa, I wouldn't be able to do much anyway.

So, in September of 2005, I came to New York to with my cat (Ms. Bella Anastasia). I settled into a consulting gig with Credit Suisse/First Boston within a couple of weeks. By December, I was taking an offer with a much smaller, much more dynamic and creative firm (i33 Communications).

After a long nine months on a project with i33, I am leaving for Spain and Italy (once again). This time it's coming with a refined approach. About 20% business and 80% personal exploration, I will be increasing my fluency in Spanish and Italian by being immersed in the culture and definitely some help from classes in Barcelona and Siena.

Next year I will be pursuing music full-time. I will be studying at The Collective NYC and playing professionally.