media in his own words facts and stats
To define myself in this world, I would state I’m a blue-eyed, 5’10, 145 lb Kentucky kid with Irish / American pride, who feels passionately about the craft of writing and power of song. I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, February 18th, 1981, the son of an idea-blessed advertising and marketing mind, but moved to Louisville when I was three. There, tucked inside the slow rolling hills and quick urban bustling of the bluegrass state, my passion for music awoke. I heard the beach boy’s "good vibrations," on the radio, and life changed. The escapism, pop melody, universal theme, and beautiful harmonies quivered me with excitement, joy, wonder and thrill, looking out the window of my parent’s car, staring at the other side. I wanted more, became fixated. By 9 I took up drums, guitar at 10, attempting to memorize every scale to every Gun’s N’ Roses song in the catalog. I failed miserably. Fast, intricate leads and endless, solo caricatures didn’t fit my style and I became frustrated, disillusioned, quit. Then came 1992: "the year punk broke," and life changed again. The honest, stripped-down bands of the Northwest / Seattle music scene were like nothing I have ever experienced. For the first time, I felt power in music, a depth of feeling unmatched by any stimulant or intoxicant. I picked up the guitar and this time it stayed.
By and throughout High School I was writing music and playing in punk bands w/ hardcore overtones, and lived for the rush of hard hits and loud screams. But things were not good at home or personally, traumatizing events occurred, and I soon drifted into a long period of isolation w/ little self-expression. Fate turned my senior year, when, longing for an outlet, I was accepted into an exclusive creative writing course. For the second time in my life I discovered a bold and compelling new calling: writing. Combined with a passion for song, it took less than a year (and hundreds of poems and short stories later) for my brain’s psychological jigsaw to fit the two pieces together and unearth a uplifting and life changing realization: I WANTED TO BE A SONGWRITER. In January 2001, after graduating high school and exhausting all the music business courses at the University of Louisville, I dropped out of school - secured a basement studio and downtown office space - went to work. After writing and rehearsing ceaselessly, I paused briefly to carry out the next move: founding a three-person collective known as "The Vixen Red." <www.thevixenred.com>
Fronting a rock band for the first time was invigorating, what I had dreamed it would be, but writing the music + lyrics, paying for recording time, creating the artwork, designing the merchandise, building the website, booking + promoting the shows, showcasing at festivals, founding my own festival ("Forecastle 2002 / 2003 / 2004"), organizing our street team, networking w/ local + regional bands, spending thousands on band-related budgets and pressing the industry to listen, was exhausting. I couldn’t carry the weight alone. The vision I drafted and executed was not being embraced by other members and life in the band became intolerable. Desperate for something to call my own, I searched inward for answers. What emerged was an old, beat-up acoustic guitar, which had sat in the corner untouched, unplayed, and neglected, for years. So I picked it up - an acoustic, for the first time @ age 21. I infused my aggressive, punk-esque, hard-hitting playing style, combining it w/ clear cut storylines, poetry and vivid American landscapes, to create a stimulating new sound. Drawing inspiration from my newly found, band-free independence, I wrote my first solo record in a matter of weeks.
Since times of trial I continue to believe in the words, music, art, and imagery that surrounds the vixen red (I am writing this in the middle of recording "Sunrise and Nightfall in the Equestrian Sea") while believing equally in my potential as a solo artist. I have come to understand that both projects are one in the same, two halves of my single, schizophrenic, obsessive-compulsive personality. From the bright, pop / bluegrass inspired, solo ballad "Cry Goodbye," to the dark, Sabbath-obsessed, vixen red metal anthem "Revolver," my spectrum of musical and lyrical capabilities continue to expand and grow, while clenching tight to distinct values and worldviews. As long as I have myself I will continue on a solo path with a scouring eye endlessly searching for future minds of the vixen red, while incessantly focused on selling more records, booking larger tours, developing a stronger web presence, and building the indestructible "red army" into a multi-national force -> all while remaining grounded in my impassioned desire to write and write more....
~ jkm (may, 05)