BrandsForBands

I moved around quite a bit growing up. I call Newport, Rhode Island “home” because I lived there consistently for the longest amount of time. I bought my first guitar when I was seventeen. I was inspired by local bands like Throwing Muses and Belly.

In 1997 I wound up in Charleston, South Carolina – where I met Graig Markel, who was in town on tour with his band. Our love affair began where all great romances start…in a bar. Soon after, I took a Greyhound bus to Seattle so we could be together. We formed a band, Tagging Satellites.

Over the next six years Tagging Satellites released two EPs and three full-length albums. We had a few line-up changes over the years, but Graig and I remained the consistent thread that held the band together…until we couldn’t. It nearly cost us our relationship but instead of becoming another rock and roll casualty, we broke up the band and got married.

Graig started a new project called, The Animals At Night, and I started recording some of my own songs. Graig and I are also involved with Seattle’s indie-electronic band Head Like A Kite.

My live band includes: Jon Hyde (pedal steel), Greg Panto (banjo), Doran Bastin (bass), and Joe Patterson (drums). Along with Graig recording and producing my first solo album at The Recovery Room here in Seattle, he also joins me on stage playing guitar. We have shared the stage with: Jesse Sykes, J. Tillman and Robin Pecknold (Fleet Foxes), Micah P. Hinson and many others.

“Birds And Bullets Fly” is my first solo release. I hope you enjoy the songs.

Zeus was born from the musical friendship of Mike O'Brien and Carlin Nicholson. The two Toronto-based musicians have been living on the road for the past few years as the backing band for singer/songwriter and Broken Social Scene member Jason Collett. With a lineup rounded out by longtime friends and musical compatriots Rob Drake and Neil Quin, Zeus draws upon classic influences to craft timeless songs, complete with fuzzed out guitars and shimmering three-part harmonies; classic rock n'roll with a touch of twang. An EP, entitled Sounds Like Zeus, was released this past summer to widespread critical acclaim, garnering near-perfect reviews and creating a stir with the band's brilliant recreation of the Genesis hit, "That's All." Say Us expands upon the ideas put forth with Sounds Like Zeus, showing even greater range and diversity. The first single, "Marching Through Your Head" has already been declared "a strong contender for pop song of the year" by Exclaim Magazine. Say Us was recorded and produced by Mike O'Brien and Carlin Nicholson in their Toronto studio and mixed by Robbie Lackritz (Feist). As astute students of the history of rock n' roll and purveyors of a sound that cross-references the British Invasion with '70s southern U.S. rock, Zeus' debut album demonstrates a band with an innate ability to create powerful and infectious music and do so as though it's an entirely natural process. Say Us is an album for the ages.