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My first memories of playing music involve picking out tunes on my plastic Magnus organ when I was a kid. After a brief love affair with the trombone, I finally took a couple years of piano lessons in high school. But at the time, I was more interested in playing Billy Joel than Bach, so I stopped my lessons and began playing more pop music. I started writing music while at Rutgers in the early 80's and spent many hours in the piano rooms of the music building at Douglas College. After college, I moved home to Dover, NJ. I bought a Fostex four track and an Atari 1040 ST with MasterTracks Pro software. I started recording my music and have been at it ever since. I finally upgraded to a 20th century computer in 2002. It's amazing how far we've come in the area of home recording. As for bands, my first one was just after college in Rockaway, NJ. The first name of the band was "Six Weeks". We changed it to "Subject to Change" after getting a new guitar player. Pretty clever, huh? One of our two gigs was in a barn in Dover at someone's party. We played Zeppelin's "All of My Love" because my Casio had the exact string sound. I remember being shut down by the cops at some point for being too loud. Anyone else ever have this happen? Soon after, I moved to Somerville, NJ to live with my old college roommates. I don't remember how I hooked up with BNI, but I do remember our first gig together. It was the Energizer "Battle of the Bands" at Rutgers. We didn't win, but the crowd seemed to like us. I liked the idea of playing original music, but as Jeff said, it didn't pay that well. We definitely spent more to keep the band going than we ever made. But it was a lot of fun and I thought the band sounded good with its influences of Southern rock, the Smithereens, New Wave, the 50's, Psychedelic rock, Bruce and my Manilow contribution. It was eclectic but it seemed to work. The best gigs were at the Stone Pony on a Tuesday in mid-winter (great timing) and the infamous Circus show at the Corner Tavern. That was the most fun I think we ever had. But the fun couldn't last forever. I think I left the band in early 1988 to move home to Dover. I wanted to be closer to my girlfriend. How was I supposed to know she was a lesbian? Oh well. Live and learn. After BNI I played in some cover bands. "Newton's Law" played some gigs in Sussex County. We did Steely Dan, Joe Jackson, Squeeze, Todd Rundgren, etc. Just the kind of thing they go for in rural Sussex County. I married in 1992 and played in a band called "Tupelo Road" with my wife Maria. She sang lead vocals and could do a mean Stevie Nicks song. Our guitar player was Stevie Ray Schwartz. That's a long story. Mostly we played classic rock. I started to grow weary of smoke filled bars and sleeping through the weekends after late nights, so I quit the band and have not played out since the mid-90's. Following a divorce in 1998, I decided to pursue some of the things I'd always wanted to do. After all, I had no mortgage, car payments, kids or obligations of any kind. In 1999 I quit my corporate job. Fifteen years in the insurance industry is more than enough. That summer I rode my bicycle from Asbury Park, NJ to San Francisco, CA. Who hasn't dreamed of a cross-country bicycle ride? After returning home with no job, my piano teacher asked if I'd like to teach piano. I said sure and have been doing that ever since. I also went back to school and received my B.A. in Music from William Paterson University in May, 2003. In 2004 I took another bike trip from Bar Harbor, ME to Glacier National Park in Montana. Almost made it across a second time. I continue to write music and I am taking private composition lessons with one of my old professors. I hope to someday score an independent film or a commercial or something. That's the next goal. We'll see. The adventure continues.
John Kuzel |
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I
was born on a cold, snowy night in February 1963... The rest is not
so dramatic.