The musical elements on your new album "The Lost Dream" are varied, encompassing jazz, rock, and new age. Who have been your biggest influences musically as you have matured as a player?

From the early sounds of Motown Records to Bob Seger to Anita Baker.

Do you remember one song you heard or one performance you saw in growing up that became a major catalyst for you to pursue music as a career?

Jean Luc Ponty as a live player has blown me away on many occasions. The energy, technical skills and overall good band sound does it for me.

The bass guitar is your instrument of choice. How did that come about?

Actually by default. There was a lack of bass players in Detroit, and when I was in school I played Tuba, so I was familiar with the bass cleff and started reading and playing right away.

How do you describe your style of music to people?

I describe it as progressive new age jazz. This doesn't do it justice because of the smooth jazz influences that I have but it's a good short answer.

Your compositions seem to be a reflection of a range of personal emotional states. Could you walk us through the writing process, in other words how those emotional states end up being converted into melody and sonic textures?

Well being an instrumental artist you must look at yourself as taking a painter's canvas and then choosing your colors that you will be using, in this case those are my instruments, then choosing a theme which I want the art to fall in (smooth jazz, new age, jazz-rock fusion). And like the painter with his brush strokes, I put down the notes. In the case of the Lost Dream I had a concept. The concept of The Lost Dream is to experience that moment of intense sadness when one realizes that the hopes and dream that were very live and real have gone. Whether it be a relationship or the bigger picture when our country lost its innocence on 9/11. Then, putting down in music through the use of particular instrumentation and melody. In this case it was the sax and a retro 50’s vibrato guitar trading licks back and forth in a minor key, then a unison crescendo to intensify the feeling.

When you're not involved in musical pursuits, what other things in life do you feel a passion for?

Right now I have strong political feelings. I would like to think we can change as a country for the better in our lifetime.