Originally from Monterey, CA, I lived and worked in San Francisco for 10 years before relocating to Los Angeles in 2014 to continue and expand my multi faceted music and teaching practices.  For the past 33 years, I have played in bands, written original music, toured the world, and been involved in every aspect of music and performance production.  

As a young man, I played in countless punk and indie bands. I began writing original music, leading bands and engineering my own recordings straight out of the gate. Experimentation and creativity have been my main impetus from the beginning.  

I spent most of my twenties concentrating on solo finger-style acoustic guitar, a la John Fahey and the American Primitive school. In this time my music was featured on several full length solo and ensemble albums as well as countless compilations. I toured the US and Europe extensively in support of these releases. 

I rediscovered the electric guitar and joined the band Citay to tour and record as lead guitarist from 2008-2011.  In 2013 I was included in Rhys Chatham's 100 electric guitars orchestra.  Before relocating to Los Angeles, I led the psychedelic space doom metal trio, Twin Trilogy, which explored high volume and analog sound manipulation.  I am currently focused on my new project, LFZ, which explores further into analog effects through long form experimental compositions and improvisations for electric guitar and synthesizers.

This diverse background led me to teaching music, which is now a passion on par with being an artist.  I have been working in schools and privately for many years, in which time I have developed a dynamic and patient approach that reflects the interests and learning styles of my students.  

TEACHING BACKGROUND

I began teaching privately in 2005.  These were mostly fans of my music wanting to learn finger-style guitar. In 2010 I started teaching at ViBo Music Center in San Bruno, CA.  I held around 30 individual and group lessons for all ages per week.  I concurrently worked at the San Francisco Rock Project teaching lessons, running rehearsals and directing for the performance programs and was the director of the House Band. After moving to Los Angeles in 2014, I was the Program Director at School of Rock for 2 years and began a mobile teaching business conducting lessons in people’s homes until 2020 when everything went online for a bit. I then shifted to having lessons in my back yard and have now settled into a new studio in Pasadena as of May 2024.