Im going to stat at the beginning, and see where this goes. My apologies for rambling and any mistakes. Rambling seems inevitable.

I liked music as a kid. The first CD i listened to was Shine: The Greatest Hits by the Newsboys. I sang along like none other when i was six. In the summer before 1st grade, i had just moved to a new town. As an awkward little guy i didnt make many friends for a while, so i read and listened to music. One of my first friends got me really into a band called Relient K. I have great memories of us singing the songs from the first CD i actually owned, The Anatomy of the Tongue in Cheek, all the way through middle school. He burned me a copy of about every CD Relient K ever made. The first concert i went to, Relient K played.

They shaped me, got me into music.

I started as a percussionist in the school concert band in 5th grade. I got a crappy drum set for $40, which marked the beginning of my real plunge into music.* I kept with drums and took a few lessons from a couple guys, but never stuck with lessons. I mostly taught myself by playing along with my CD player.

In the summer before freshman year i took a few guitar lessons but mostly learned by playing with friends. I got my own room for jamming, which is a jungle of drums, guitars, amps, cords, mics, and now a keyboard and laptop.

A friend showed me Mixcraft, which got me started on creating music digitally. We both downloaded the demo and would make each other songs using the premade loops, but i never really got into making my own music (outside of the drums) until Christmas of 2009. I got an Axiom 49 keyboard and an Ableton Lite demo, officially kicking off my foray into electronic music.

In the high school bands, i kept improving in my skills as a drummer, and actually really started paying attention to what the conductor was teaching the other instruments.** I didnt (and still dont) understand much about melodies and countermelodies and harmonies and all that gobbledygook, but apparently some of what i was trying to grasp stuck in my subconscious. I started composing little ditties and exploring the vast possibilities opened to me by Ableton, in addition to growing musically. Over the course of my freshman year, i made a lot of music but few songs that i was really proud of, but despite this i feel like ive made a lot of progress.

I keep getting better.

*For a few early years, i took piano lessons from an old lady--but i didnt learn anything. My mom made me do it.... It was a bad affair.

**I actually had to play quads in the high school drumline when i was in 8th grade. I went to a small school and there weren't enough percussionists. Im in the concert, jazz, and pep bands.