I started my interest in music when I was 7 or 8. My mom had me take piano lessons and singing in my church youth choir, I did this off and on until about the age of 11 or 12. When I was 14 I picked up the Bass and started a band with my child hood friend Raul Bianchi and Cameron Hanson called Eternal Boner. I hardly knew how to play the bass but my musical interests grew and I started messing around with the drums.
My dad helped me buy my first drum set. It was a shitty set, but it did the job and I only wanted it in case we ever found a drummer. Our friend Kevin Lemon had started playing the bass and he had a bigger amp than I did. When my friends and I would try and jam, I was the only one that could sort-of play the drums. So a bigger bass amp and the fact that I was the only one who could keep a beat, I was quickly forced into becoming the drummer. Raul, Cam, Kevin and I started actually playing complete songs, sometimes with vocals. We would play really bad long covers like "House of the Rising Sun", "Brown-Eyed Girl" and the occasional surf and blues tune that we made up. It was horrible, but a lot of fun. I remember the feeling I'd get when we would get a song down and it actually sounded OK. I thought "hey I kinda like this!"
Another mutual friend of ours, Geoff Weers, was a pretty decent guitar player for the jazz band in high-school and he would jam with us sometimes. Geoff was really the only one who knew how to actually play his instrument. We would always joke about how we sucked and how we were EXPENDABLE. Not having a name for our band Geoff suggested we name our band The Expendables. We liked it and asked him to join the band. He accepted and we had three Guitar players and a new Band name.
We played a few parties and school events and soon graduated High School. That summer we played our first Real show at the Catalyst in the main room. To me this was the biggest thing that could ever happen to us. I had seen so many huge acts play that stage while growing up. It was what I thought would be the highlight of my career and back then it was. The show was great and we actually had a really good turnout. Unfortunately that fall, Raul,Geoff and Kevin went off to college. We never actually ended the band officially but had no future plan of ever playing again. Later that fall we got a gig with Eek-a-Mouse and I convinced Geoff to drive from LA and and Raul was close by in Palo Alto. Kev was in Alabama a little too far away. We found a fill-in bass player and played the show. This went on for months.
Eventually we met a kid from a local high school named Ryan Demars. He played both punk and reggae and really fit our style. So Cam and I jammed with him a few times and he became our new bass player, still to this day. Ryan, unknowingly to us at the time, was a great song writer and quickly added a new aspect to our sound both lyrically and musically. Shortly after Ryan joined we recorded our first real album "No Time To Worry". and then a year later Open Container. Cam eventually decided to hang up his guitar and ended his music career with The Expendables. Both Kev and Cam still remain great friends with me and the band. They are actually my roommates right now. And that’s how it all started!
