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I've been lucky to play with some really amazing people. Let me start at the beginning: I moved out on my own when I was 16, in Pennsylvania, and joined up with some locals who also didn't know how to play and were looking for a bassist. That band was called WASTED TALENT, and we did record a cassettte album. After that came 2000 MANIACS, who also recorded a hardcore EP, 11 songs in 9 minutes! Those were the days. Then, the guitarist and I moved to Richmond where we started UNSEEN FORCE with Dewey from Richmond legends WHITE CROSS. UNSEEN FORCE recorded a real album and toured the States in 1986, then broke up.Then I played in a buttload of bands including FOUR WALLS FALLING (I was their first bassist), KAL KAN (once accidentally set the stage on fire), the HURLY GURLYS (like you would think, a girl band) and DEAD BLIND GONE (featuring Mark Linkous from SPARKLEHORSE's brother Matt, also a prodigous talent). In 1994 I went on tour with DEBBIE HARRY, and that's when it dawned on me to move to NYC and actually try to make a career out of this music stuff. That was the beginning of 7 extremely tough years. But it was so interesting and challenging as well! Here are some highlights, with some mp3s, too. I TRY to provide a full-service website!

Debbie at City Gardens THE DEBBIE HARRY BAND
I met Chris Stein (Blondie's guitarist and Deb's partner for many years) when UNSEEN FORCE played in Lawrence, KS, where Chris was visiting and shooting holes in things with William S. Burroughs. We stayed friends, and when the D.H. band needed a bassist for a tour of England in 1994, I got the job! That's when I moved to NYC .Debbie is awesome and so talented! And kind and gracious, too. She let me stay at her place when I first moved to NYC. From her I learned a lot about acting like a professional, and that the show must go on. Recently I did an interview about that time in my life.

SQUEEZE BOX
It was thanks to Debbie that I got hooked up with her roommate Michael Schmidt's party, SQUEEZE BOX. Squeeze Box was a completely fabulous gay/straight/rock/glam extravaganza that went on every friday at my favorite club, DON HILL'S (where I also paid my dues as a coat-check gal for 4 years). I was the leader of the house band, and we had a different drag queen singer each week, and would learn 5-8 songs a week.There were some truly excruciating moments, but also a lot of amazing talent, like Joey Arias, Sherry Vine (one of my favorite performers and people ever), Nina Hagen, Exene, even Green Day came through there! Here we are with Cherrie Currie from the RUNAWAYS, with my darling David Matos on the far left. The Drummer, Pete, now plays in BANTAM. (pic: Bob Gruen)

L7: "THE BEAUTY PROCESS" ALBUM
 I was working at Don Hill's and playing here and there around town when I got a call from Donita Sparks, who I had met years before. Jennifer Finch had just left the band, and they didn't yet have her replacement, the totally ROCK Gail Greenwood, installed. So they invited me to fly out to LA and play bass on their "Beauty Process" album. I was thrilled to do it. I have the utmost respect for those girls, and they treated me just great.

JOHNNY FAYVA

Mere words can really not do justice to the one-man phenomenon that is JOHNNY FAYVA (yes, as in Fayva Shoes). He's an entertainment MACHINE, he has no fear and no shame, and I am proud to have shared the stage with him before he moved to LA to reinvent himself. Nowadays you can catch him at the "Club Freddy" shows featuring a cast of stars, none shining so brightly as FAYVA himself!

SUPLA

Supla is a big star back in Brazil, and SUCH an awesome guy! He is a born entertainer who is always running on 16 (randomly firing) cylinders, and the rest of the world just has to try to keep up. Our Bossa-nova punk rock band was a maelstrom of props, costume changes, different instruments and general mayhem, and I was really sorry to quit the band in order to go on the road with MOBY. We did manage to record a CD though, where I also sang backups and played keyboards, and one song, "MONKEYCOPACABANABEACHBANANA" appeared on the soundtrack to the movie "Bossa Nova". Supla finally went back to Sao Paolo, where he's doing SO well that there are SUPLA action figures! I really miss him!
THE NUNS: "GOD THAT RULES ME" ALBUM
 I don't remember how I met and recorded with San Francisco's legendary NUNS, but the drummer was the amazing THOMMY PRICE of BILLY IDOL fame. Thommy is the single most economical drummer I have ever met; there is not one high-hat out of place on his playing. JENNIFER MIRO, the singer/songwriter/goddess of the band, is very talented as well as being a prolific songwriter, and she treated us very well and respectfully. My favorite kind of gig is when the artist hiring you says "Just play whatever you want, I trust you" and that's exactly how Jennifer was. "WE WILL OWN YOU" and "THE HAUNTING" are 2 of the songs we did, and the CD is available on the NUNS' website.
LUCID NATION: "TACOMA BALLET" ALBUM
There's a joke that goes: "How do you get a guitarist to turn down?" "Put a chart in front of him." Well, how do you strike terror into the heart of any normal musicians? Put them in the studio with no songs and no rehearsal and tell them to make an album. That's exactly how Ronnie and Tamra of LUCID NATION operate! They love to work with people they've never even met, and somehow, it WORKS for them! They flew me out to Tacoma, where I got to meet and play with PATTY SCHEMEL of HOLE, and we invented 48 songs of bizarre, spooky, stream-of-consciousness weirdness in 5 days! It was EXHAUSTING. Ronnie and Tamra have a wonderful D.I.Y. ethic, a terrifically informative website, and are super-cool and interesting people. I like them a lot!
 greta, patty jpegsRonnie and Tamra
recording jpeg PIGFACE: TRACK ON "EASY LISTENING" CD
When I was on the last MOBY tour in Europe, I got invited by MARTIN ATKINS to play bass on a track called "Mind Your Own Business" for the PIGFACE "Easy Listening"CD. Martin is a very forward-thinking, wonderfully helpful guy, and naturally I was very excited to do it. And with the magic of modern technology, it was possible to do it from the road! Here's a pic of me recording the track onto RJ's laptop somewhere in, oh, I don't know, Denmark or something. Then, I went into a studio in Brussels, where they extracted it and burned it onto a CD. Then, I mailed the CD to the INVISIBLE office! If I was more of a technoweenie, I'd have been able to just e-mail them the file directly. What a world!

MOBY: THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE LEGEND
I have so much to thank Moby for. When he hired me to work the PLAY album, I had already been playing for 18 years, and been a session player in NYC for 5 years. But as soon as I got this gig, suddenly people realized that I was a serious musician! I It led to endorsements from all my favorite companies, and being interviewed in all the bass-oriented magazines. Plus, I got to see parts of the world I would NEVER normally get to, and I got to be part of a really huge, massive show that people all over the world REALLY, REALLY enjoyed! And Moby fans are some of the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. Thanks, Mo!

ATOMIZER: INEXORABILIA ALBUM
After the 3 1/2 year Moby tour finally wound down, I took a year off to play and record with my own band. This project was a wonderful chance to apply everything I've learned over the years and some of the people I've met too; ADAM LEVY from the Norah Jones band and GERRY LEONARD from the David Bowie band both appeared on the CD and we mastered it at MASTERDISK in NYC , where the NUNS CD was also done. Personally, I think it sounds bigger than God.

Sadly, the other members and I could not agree on how to do business, and I had to quit to come back to NYC and resume my career. You can hear some of the songs here, here and here.

AUTOMATIC SLIM
Back in New York City, I started playing with a power trio called AUTOMATIC SLIM. A trio has always been my favorite form of band; the dynamics are usually comfortable and these guys (Gelu on guitar and vocals and Nelson on drums) are really nice and fun to play with. And oh yeah, the songs Aren't bad either! In 2006 we did a very pleasant 3-week tour of the States, and I'm thrilled to report that there are still plenty of stinky, filthy, graffitti-ridden rock dives in this great country that haven't been crushed by Clearchannel. AND, there are lots of wierd, creative, totally FUN bands who will NEVER be on MTV, and who don't care! It was a very heartwarming experience.
JAYNE COUNTY: EP
I was tickled pink to get a call from my good friend Peter Auslan, the producer/soundman/awesome guitarist, one day. "Are you available to record an EP with JAYNE COUNTY?" Jayne, if you don't know, is a legendary Transsexual performer from the early days of CBGBs, who hung out with Blondie and the Ramones and all those folks. She wrote a book about her interesting life, and also appears in the book Please Kill Me, which is a really good read if a bit depressing; practically everybody in it is dead already. The recording session was a delight: no egos, no star fits, and the band (Peter on guitar, and Tony played drums on Dee Dee Ramone's last album before he died), united in a shared love of early B.O.C., clicked instantly. I played a little keyboards and did some singing too. Who knew I was so multi-talented?!?!
FUN IN THE RECORDING STUDIO
gang vocals
Peter the guitarist/producer; me; Jayne; Tony the drummer