Interview with The Linder Avenue Band

I was raised in a musical family where guitars and drums were household staples. My mother and aunt were multi-instrumentalists and multilingual singers, and my father was a jazz drummer. I started out, as many musicians do, by playing in my neighbor bands. In my other life I have a background in finance and real estate.

I am a co-owner in a real estate business, and I like to exercise. I am always thinking about what my next recording project may be.

The Linder Avenue Band is not a “band” per se. I am a singer, songwriter who plays guitar and I have assembled local Las Vegas musicians, as well as musicians from Chicago, to record with to bring my writing alive. The musicians who played on my sessions are outstanding players and singers and they have made their own creative contributions to the tracks. https://linderave.com/the-musicians

My roots as a musician go back to Chicago Illinois. However, I have lived in Las Vegas for over 20 years. Las Vegas is an entertainment mecca filled with first rate musicians. I have been influenced by the iconic bands of the 70s and 80s. My music is where the heart of rock’s golden era beats with a modern rhythm.

I grew up in a musical home on Linder Avenue in Chicago. The sounds of my family playing music nurtured my interest. The basement of my childhood home on Linder Avenue is where I honed my skills as a musician, and it inspired the name of my recording project.

Starting out, I played in cover bands, and with bands that wrote their own music. The bands I have been with played at the usual venues. At school functions and bars. The Linder Ave Band is a studio project. I do not have a touring band.

Band members will typically find each other because they listen to the same music and hang out with the same crowd. A band is a collective of different personalities. A common problem bands have is keeping their egos and/or insecurities in check and being respectful to one another. Some advice that I would give to my younger self would be, “Don’t be so easily discouraged.”

I think the advice I would give myself would be, “Never forget why you started playing music.” I started playing music because I loved it. It brings me joy and gratification. It gives me purpose.

A song I am currently writing, and have been writing for years, is a song about a lost love. I lost my childhood sweetheart to an illness. The song is titled “Me Without You.” It has been an emotional struggle to finish this song because it’s so real to me.

As with most authors or songwriters, I draw on my own life experience and observations for inspiration. I try to incorporate elements that I like to hear in a song. Such as vocal and instrumental melodies, vocal and instrumental harmony, and interesting rhythmic ideas. I also try to take my listeners somewhere unexpected and back again.

I hope my music stylistically transports listeners back to a time of catchy melodies, interesting harmonies, and loud guitars. I try and use relatable topical lyrics. I hope to create music that is both refreshingly new and nostalgically familiar.

The producer that I’ve worked most closely with on the Linder Ave Band project is Bobby Ferrari with Skeleton Key Recording. Bobby has worked with Tommy Tutone, Michael Grim, Geezer Butler, Alan Parsons, Debbie Gibson, members of Tower of Power, Quiet Riot, Dee Snider, George Lynch, Todd Kerns, just to name a few. We have a professional and fun approach to the way we work together, and we grew up listening to the same music which makes communicating ideas easy.

My next release should be out on June 7th. I have lived in Las Vegas long enough and it is about time I wrote a song about the Las Vegas Strip. Although the song could be relatable to any hotspot in any city. My next release is called “Midnight Mischief.”