Just in case you wanted to know a little about me, I've taken the time to write down a few things. I mean, on an Earth that's over 4 billion years old, with my life story representing just over 30 years of that, amidst over 100 billion people that have ever been born, I'm sure to be remembered. So, why not?
For the press who we're told only has 15 seconds to read this kind of information, go to the FOR PRESS tab for downloadable bios in varying lengths.
For everyone else who actually cares and wants to know about the musician behind the song…here's SJ in his own words...
My music journey is a very personal journey, and that's the simplest way to state it. Every day I get to share it with the people who have been a part of my life to date, and at this point at least a couple hand-full of newbies a week. That is the coolest thing ever. Because of all that, I’m trying my best to remain in touch on a first-person basis…even if the writing appears on the surface to be a little less “official.” (I debated with referring to myself simply as “the man”, but upon a lot of reflection, I figured that that wouldn’t be appropriate for my genre). So this bio is, nonetheless, riddled with my personal touch of sarcasm, a bit of irreverence, and my poor attempts at ironic humor as I give you some facts about me and my music.
Through my music, my life, thoughts, memories and feelings are just right there, on my sleeve so to speak. They may be couched in metaphorical lyrics or just the melody of the song, but every word and every chord is thought out and meant to represent my experiences and interpretations.
I didn’t plan to have a career in music, but music has always been there. I’ve played the guitar for about 18 years, and pretended to play it long before. When I was a kid in Phoenix, Arizona, I used to run around in my full-blown cowboy outfit playing air guitar and singing Willie Nelson songs. Throughout college, I was content enough to play in makeshift jam bands with great friends and put together Dave Matthews acoustic cover shows at quaint little cafes and parties. I never thought that I could have a career in music, but I never thought that I couldn’t have one – it was something that I just did. I never thought that I really could or should share my original music with people. I definitely had some sort of serious and dangerous blockage in my brain. It literally took a very long time to get the courage to record my original music.
I’ve dabbled in everything from folk to rock to flamenco to classical to alternative/grunge guitar. The acoustic guitar along with its simplicity and character, however, has always been the most expressive and personal to me. I even like how my fingertips hurt sometimes after a 3-hour set of pressing steel to wood again and again.
People often say that my music reminds them of the music of Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Jason Mraz and sometimes Nick Drake, but with my own unique twist (hopefully). Those guys are all great in my opinion, so that’s really cool. I have many influences and listen to a lot of artists in many different genres - many of which will never make it to the mainstream so more people can hear them, unfortunately. I don’t know how I fall where I do with my music, but it’s basically whatever is in my head and how it comes out. I have music in my head almost all of the time, and always have since I can remember. In any event, I'd recommend just listening and forming your own opinion. I could spend hours coming up with some elaborately written adjective-heavy prose, and even bring in a copywriter to add more adjectives, in order to describe my music. But I'm not sure of the point. I'm told that many music editors now specifically instruct their staffs not to write CD and song reviews, because people would rather read a short note posted along with a YouTube video uploaded by a band depicting them doing something totally stupid and unrelated to music. So, I'm going to work on the latter.
What else? I thought you’d never ask …
My vision is to share my music with as many people as possible, and to be able to perform throughout the world doing so. Once I work those kinks out, I hope to help other selected similar artists pursue their dreams independently as well. (After all, I did spend nearly nine years in school and have over a decade of legal experience, and helping emerging artists instead of billing hours on mind-numbing deals for Fortune 100s seems a little more worthy and fun to me. But to each his or her own.)
If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you are among the elite. But, I understand that even if you have made it this far, statistically there’s a good chance that your attention span is surely waning. So to wrap it up, I’ve left a few fun facts below, bullet-point style, to make things easier. And I'm sure that after reading all of this you will definitely feel as if you know me - SJ, the person - in such great depth so as to be inspired to write an essay full of engaging psycho-analysis. Alternatively, you could just listen to my music, join the mailing list and my Facebook Fan Page, and spread my music to your friends, which is most appreciated.
Here are your fun facts! I tried my best to brush upon at least a few of those areas that the PR people tell you to avoid so not to alienate any sub-demographic of fans. Truthfully, though, if you don’t like my music because of certain things about me, then that’s cool. I won’t judge you back, though ;)!:
- Just weeks before he died, I asked my paternal grandfather the one main piece of advice he would give me looking back at a long life of varying experiences. He said, “give people a fair shake.” I think that's pretty good advice, and just about as simple and wise as it gets: go out of your way to treat people with respect. He was great a man, and an amazing musician. His initials were "SJ". It's part of the reason why that is the name I go by.
- I sleep at night because looking back at my life so far I know that for all of my flaws and mistakes, more times than not I have treated people nicely and gone out of my way to do good, even when it wasn’t to my optimal advantage. I understand that this means that I will likely never be very rich or powerful, and I'm totally, completely, utterly and absolutely fine with that.
- I am not religious, at all. The only “higher” power to whom I might speak now and again is the proverbial “universe”. The jury is still out as to whether she listens, but it doesn’t bother me either way.
- I tend not to think that things happen for a reason, but everyone always says that they do (usually when they are trying to be comforting), so I try my best to appreciate the effort at empathy inferred by that statement rather than my intellectual disagreement with its substance.
- I am severely disenchanted of politics, despite years of studying all of that and practicing law and business at some fairly high levels. I barely watch the news anymore, and if I do it’s The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, or The Onion. Basically, I think that those comedians are actually reporting the most accurate and real angles of things. It’s quite sad. I have never been registered with a political party, and likely will always remain an independent. I am greatly turned off by ideologues and platforms, rallies and group mentality, and narcissistic self-righteous talking mouthpieces that tend to dominate modern news media and politics. I'm not closed off to the hope of being inspired at some point, but I remain thoroughly unimpressed.
- I love playing sports. I’ve been an athlete since I left the womb and have played many sports. My college soccer career was more or less uneventful (and, to me, a disaster) due to injuries and a few bad choices, but I nonetheless have worked out most of my sports “demons” and just love to be outside (or inside) kicking things and knocking people around. Throughout my life I also found myself being pulled to train in various martial arts, which no doubt came from my father’s influence and was always a strong connection between me and him.
- I love blue skies and the sun. I really can’t live in gray areas of the world for prolonged times. I struggled with that all of the years I spent in Ohio and Pennsylvania, although the people there tend to be quite lovely and authentic. But...I’ve already got skin cancer once due to my fair skinned Eastern European roots. So, I suppose I have to be careful, especially if I change health insurance carriers because surely there will be a big fat rider on my policy.
- One of the best quotes I’ve ever heard and one I have found myself repeating often is: “there is a sea of difference between realizing and doing.” I hate the idea of being a person who realizes something but doesn’t try to implement that realization. Even if I fail, whatever that means, at least I tried.
- I'm super introspective and I ponder existential things constantly. Throughout my life, I have been told by several friends and people in various places that they have to be stoned even to think about the stuff that I rattle off on a regular basis. I don't know if that's good or bad, but it just is. It probably helps a lot with songwriting, but sometimes I definitely mess with my own head.
- I laugh a lot, all of the time. I laugh at myself, things, ideas, people, everything. I think everyone needs to laugh a whole lot more. I'm not the first to have said that, and I hope that I am far from the last.
- I find myself quite lucky to have the family and friends that I do. Really lucky. I'm also extremely appreciative of the new fans I meet every day now, and I think about all of that every single day.
- And, yes, of course...my measurements...how could I forget? After all, the SJ calendar will surely be out by next Christmas. I am not a small guy. I'm just over 6'3 tall, and my weight sporadically varies between a range of 210 and 230 lbs., mostly depending upon how much beer I'm drinking and bread/pasta I'm eating during a certain time period. These days, I really wish I could have the same waste line and abs that I did a few years ago, but more often I'd just rather have a beer and play music.
THANK YOU for following my music, insanity and ridiculousness. I'm glad to have you as part of the journey, and hope to see you at a show, online, or anywhere we can connect. -SJ