I was born in Dallas, Texas on February 24, 1969. My parents introduced me to music at the age of three when they bought me a toy drum set. The next year I began taking piano lessons, which continued through third grade. The next year I started playing trumpet and tuba in the school band. By the time I hit my teens I was thoroughly bored with brass instruments and decided to focus on the guitar. I began recording songs on a cheap 4-track recorder by the age of fourteen and was playing in cover bands (covering obscure sixties tunes, punk songs, and whatever else that might have been cool, dark, and not of American origin, at least in terms of contemporary music).

In 1987 I graduated from high school and moved to Austin, Texas to pursue a degree in Radio-Television-Film at U.T. I immediately started a band in Austin upon arrival and continued my experiments with the four-track. In time the band began to write more songs, get more gigs, and make more recordings. I was in charge of recording the songs (which we used to get gigs, we really didn't try to sell 'em), and as time progressed, became weary of the quality of the cassette medium. I decided to graduate to a quarter-inch eight track recorder. My interest in recording now piqued, I took an apprenticeship with Arlyn Studios (a successful 24-track studio in Austin) for a period of 9 months. During my apprenticeship I began to work at various clubs on Sixth Street as sound engineer and developed professional relationships with a few different local bands. By this time I decided to call it quits with my band and focus my energy on sound, recording and school. I was soon being hired to tour with bands as "sound guy" and for a few tours worked double-duty as road manager (which I soon discovered I didn't like too much). Some of these bands then asked me to record them at various commercial studios in Austin. I found a few studios, which had the right ingredients for decent recordings and began to become a regular as a freelance producer and engineer.

I ceased touring work and began to work in the studio full-time in 1991. One of my last jobs doing live sound work was in 1991 at the Cannibal Club in Austin during that year's SXSW conference. Bob Mould played a show on a Saturday night, which happened to be my first time working with him (although I didn't meet him personally until 1994). After a few years of studio work, primarily at Cedar Creek Recording in Austin, I answered a phone call from Bob Mould. He had recently moved to Austin and was scoping-out places to work. We met and became friends rather quickly. He offered the engineering job for the Magnapop record a few days later. I have worked with him on every recording venture of his since (excluding the mixes he did for Vic Chestnut).

By 1996 I began to get antsy to play again. A few collaborations with some band friends of mine led to more regular playing, rehearsals and recording. I picked-up the bass guitar for the first time as my primary instrument with a couple of bands, but soon found that I could not commit as bass player full- time due to my career as a recording engineer (which could take me out Austin for months at a time).

In 1998, upon finishing the mixes for The Last Dog And Pony Show, I half- jokingly told Bob that I would play bass on his next tour. He called me about a month later and told me that I had the gig if I wanted it.