Who Am I and How Did I Get Here...
I am not like any other Uke player you've heard of. My music career has had a unique arc to it, and I have an interesting story to tell. I've been playing aggressive forward-reaching music for 45 years now and I still attempt to do just that. Trombone was my first instrument at age 10 quickly followed by bass guitar at 12. I was OBSESSED! I played 8 hours a day learning things that were either socially wrong (a particular Ted Nugent song comes to mind) or technically impossible like Brand X. I also played trombone, bass, drums, and sang my way through High School which kept me mostly sane and won me many music awards, which somehow never really garnered me any street-cred or position as my music career progressed (go figure). But I figured my way through it all and was playing with bands by the time I was 14 (Nightbird) and writing music a year later. I worked my way through a few folk, alt-rock and world music influenced bands usually with my older brother Vince playing guitar and co-founded Man About Town. Our first demo was done at Mau Mau studios in Nixa MO produced by members of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. I made friends with, and hung out with, amazing people like dUg, Ty and Jerry who were then called The Edge but are now internationally known as Kings-X. Amazing fans amazing followers and amazing bandmates many who I'm still in contact with made it a wild and wonderful experience.
Around the age of 20 we turned down a record deal with A&M Records, believe it or not, and shortly after that were off to LA to "make it". Along with our superhuman and indestructibly optimistic manager Paul "Manager Paul" Petersen. Paul had previous successes with bands in the 60s and 70s and he was "all in" with us for our big break... which sadly never came. We spent 10 years with varied success (and musicians) playing around the LA area until I got disenchanted with the endlessly, and increasingly corporate music scene and headed for Portland OR where I took my first break from playing in bands.
However it was in Portland that I embarked on an unexpected new adventure... FUNK! Encouraged by my new best friend/wife Angela I got a new bass and started a 10 piece funk band called DaFunk which made me more money than my first corporate job, crazy. But after that had a difficult ending, and my hard rock band ended negatively, and my jazz-funk band blew up in a terrible way I gave it all up again. 15 years in Portland playing bass/music director in my own bands and sub-ing for other bands just wore me out, the ROI was way out of whack. Hiking and outdoor adventures ruled the day for a couple years and my adventure blog did really well, I still work at it now and then, but I have been busy lately https://hibikay.weebly.com/.
After a couple of years I was "jonesing" for a musical outlet and had the idea to buy a cheap ukulele and learn The Cure's Love Song for my wife to be played during our 18th anniversary adventure trip. By the time we went I knew 12 songs. A year later I wrote 2 songs for our anniversary and started playing open mics. A year or two later, I was playing 70+ shows a year (pro-Covid) and working on releasing the first of three solo acoustic album exploring my varied influences from pop and reggae to folk and Americana https://derek.bandcamp.com/. After the 2020 pandemic forced me back to the workplace I decided to move to my favorite town on earth, Bend OR, and start over (again) there. Where I go from here is a mystery and sometimes I get nervous and frustrated, but that is all part of the creative process (it's a subjective beast). Mainly I want to make a difference, I want to connect with people, I want to create some acceptance within the music community surrounding the under-utilized ukulele. I want to support local builders, artists and other musicians, I may even want to have a band again, so what IS next?
Well, the rest is future history as I push the boundaries of my chosen musical tool and try to forge a new path. I bring all of my influences into the music I cover and the songs I’m writing, my new originals are some of the best songs I've ever recorded. My music never fails to entertain or surprise people so follow along and see where it all goes... cause I have no idea.
I am not like any other Uke player you've heard of. My music career has had a unique arc to it, and I have an interesting story to tell. I've been playing aggressive forward-reaching music for 45 years now and I still attempt to do just that. Trombone was my first instrument at age 10 quickly followed by bass guitar at 12. I was OBSESSED! I played 8 hours a day learning things that were either socially wrong (a particular Ted Nugent song comes to mind) or technically impossible like Brand X. I also played trombone, bass, drums, and sang my way through High School which kept me mostly sane and won me many music awards, which somehow never really garnered me any street-cred or position as my music career progressed (go figure). But I figured my way through it all and was playing with bands by the time I was 14 (Nightbird) and writing music a year later. I worked my way through a few folk, alt-rock and world music influenced bands usually with my older brother Vince playing guitar and co-founded Man About Town. Our first demo was done at Mau Mau studios in Nixa MO produced by members of the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. I made friends with, and hung out with, amazing people like dUg, Ty and Jerry who were then called The Edge but are now internationally known as Kings-X. Amazing fans amazing followers and amazing bandmates many who I'm still in contact with made it a wild and wonderful experience.
Around the age of 20 we turned down a record deal with A&M Records, believe it or not, and shortly after that were off to LA to "make it". Along with our superhuman and indestructibly optimistic manager Paul "Manager Paul" Petersen. Paul had previous successes with bands in the 60s and 70s and he was "all in" with us for our big break... which sadly never came. We spent 10 years with varied success (and musicians) playing around the LA area until I got disenchanted with the endlessly, and increasingly corporate music scene and headed for Portland OR where I took my first break from playing in bands.
However it was in Portland that I embarked on an unexpected new adventure... FUNK! Encouraged by my new best friend/wife Angela I got a new bass and started a 10 piece funk band called DaFunk which made me more money than my first corporate job, crazy. But after that had a difficult ending, and my hard rock band ended negatively, and my jazz-funk band blew up in a terrible way I gave it all up again. 15 years in Portland playing bass/music director in my own bands and sub-ing for other bands just wore me out, the ROI was way out of whack. Hiking and outdoor adventures ruled the day for a couple years and my adventure blog did really well, I still work at it now and then, but I have been busy lately https://hibikay.weebly.com/.
After a couple of years I was "jonesing" for a musical outlet and had the idea to buy a cheap ukulele and learn The Cure's Love Song for my wife to be played during our 18th anniversary adventure trip. By the time we went I knew 12 songs. A year later I wrote 2 songs for our anniversary and started playing open mics. A year or two later, I was playing 70+ shows a year (pro-Covid) and working on releasing the first of three solo acoustic album exploring my varied influences from pop and reggae to folk and Americana https://derek.bandcamp.com/. After the 2020 pandemic forced me back to the workplace I decided to move to my favorite town on earth, Bend OR, and start over (again) there. Where I go from here is a mystery and sometimes I get nervous and frustrated, but that is all part of the creative process (it's a subjective beast). Mainly I want to make a difference, I want to connect with people, I want to create some acceptance within the music community surrounding the under-utilized ukulele. I want to support local builders, artists and other musicians, I may even want to have a band again, so what IS next?
Well, the rest is future history as I push the boundaries of my chosen musical tool and try to forge a new path. I bring all of my influences into the music I cover and the songs I’m writing, my new originals are some of the best songs I've ever recorded. My music never fails to entertain or surprise people so follow along and see where it all goes... cause I have no idea.