"I started playing a drum kit when I was around fourteen.  It did not last for long.  I sold my kit after a year or two and did not play any instruments for years.  In the early nineties I took a great interest in hand drumming (Drums Page).  I spent countless hours playing in drum circles as well as in solitude.  I remembered many of the lessons from my drum kit days.  I used these lessons and came up with my own techniques and styles.  After several years of playing, rhythm became second nature to me.  In 1997 I heard the duo "Willie and Lobo" playing at a restaurant a friend of mine worked at.  If you have never heard these guys you should definitely check them out.  Willie plays the electric violin and Lobo plays flamenco guitar.  After the night I heard them play I decided I wanted to play guitar like that.  For Christmas that year my parents bought me a classical guitar.  I was fortunate because my mother had played classical guitar for about twenty years so she new what to look for when buying me a guitar.  I always thought it would be fascinating to see what would happen if you took a child and isolated he/she from any musical influences at a very young age.  Then give this child a wide variety of instruments from around the world.  What kind of music would the child produce?  I bet it would be incredibly unique.  I decided that since I obviously couldn't do this for myself, I would do the next best thing.  I would learn to play the guitar by myself, only what I could learn from playing the thing.  I promised myself that I wouldn't take a lesson or read any book.  I would just pick the thing up and fool around with it until I learned to play.  Just like with the hand drums I quickly became addicted.  I started playing the guitar three, four, even five hours a day.  I only played what I made up.  This strategy worked well for me so I decided to try it with other instruments.  The next instrument was the didgeridoo.  I holed up in my house for two weeks and did nothing but play the didgeridoo until I could circular breath.  I will continue to pick up different instruments the rest of my life just to see what kind of noise I can make with them."                                                         

                                                                                                                -Arix-