Welcome to Shaun's (Bass) Web Site!

i'm Shaun and as you can tell, i am a bass player. I'm also a musician, photographer, designer, tinkerer, lifelong learner and in general a human being that loves being alive.

My Musical journey began at a young age watching my uncle , david, play CCR covers on his old gibson hollowbody. it moved me in a way you cant do justice with using words to describe. i believe from then on i was a musician whether i played an instrument or not.

Then came my explorations of all things music, the radio, was my first instrument. i can remember listening to all the radio stations in greenville and memorizing the words to song after song as a child. mostly when you are young you have to listen to what your parents play in the car or wherever you happen to be. Until i got my own tape deck! anyone remember those? uh yeah..anyways...i wore cassettes out like you wouldn't believe.

My dad bought me tapes of the "monkeys", yes i loved them because of the show, but i loved the music also.

(i used to watch them on nickelodeon - when, before the invention of reality tv -super-crapola there were good programs for kids - like "you can't do that on television, "double dare" and "mr. wizards world")

and there was of course mtv, when before "the real world" started a trend than has since ruined it all.
 
i also used to listen to wierd al and huey lewis and madonna! haha. somehow those sounds influenced me and my playing even today!

I'll never forget my first real unknown musical purchase after looking at the tape section for hours and hours trying to find that "one" that would enlighten me. somehow i placed my hands firmly upon a rather odd looking cassette with a deathly pale person with lipstick and crazy hair surrounded by surreal flowers. i just had to know what kind of music could be inside a tape case like this! in case you dont recognize the description, the tape was the then newly released 'the cure - disintegration"

the cure have continued to be a musical favorite of mine.

At age 13 i met two of my former best friends the first day of middle school wayy back in 1991. my dad had just died that march and when school started in the fall... well; i cant say i was happy about anything at that point in life. becoming a teenager and then losing a parent all in the same year didn't help, but we all have our own journey don't we.

So these guys were heavy into comic books and music and all the "cool" things, and i wanted to be like that (unfortunately in some ways).
Someone had some drums and the other had a guitar and they said we need a bass player, and i said i had a bass. (i did have a bass, by a weird chance of other worldly fore shaddowing, my dad had actually bought me a bass when i was around 10 years old, that i never played, i just strummed along to the radio knowing nothing, it was a cheap kay that actually wasn't fit to use and mostly just sat in a closet for years.)

i asked my mom for a new guitar at first, but that didn't feel right in my hands, so i asked for a bass specifically after that. from the heights of pawn shop heaven the new bass descended. a wonderful aria pro II. 

From that day forward i have been and always hope to be; a bass player.

There was then the typical teenagers fascination with all things, rock and roll!
The three "cool" kids formed a band and played nirvana and pearl jam covers (grunge had just hit the mainstream, with the release of  nirvana's hit "smells like teen spirit". we listened to soundgarden and all the rage seattle had to offer us!) there were also many late nights, fighting sleep, trying to stay awake for "headbangers ball" back when there was actually music on music television. what a concept. this wonderful show introduced me to one of my lifetime favorite rock bands, "the ramones". the one and only time i ever saw a ramones video on actual tv was on headbangers ball, for the song "pet sematary", promoting the movie of the same name. i promptly fell in love with them.

Now skip to age 16 and my first taste of miles davis! i was accepted into the fine arts center, in greenville,  to learn jazz and i had never even really heard jazz before. so i went to my local music store and picked up miles davis' greatest hits. the first cut on the cd, "move" had my head spinning(it still does that to me). i felt they way i've heard miles describe how he felt; when he heard dizzy and bird play! man i gotta get that sound in me, some how and some way.

 so began my journey again, until i heard jaco pastorius! again there aren't words  to describe the feeling of hearing music like that. all i wanted to do is play that way; to be able to express what i hear inside of me, in the way those great players did!

That's what im still trying to do. i hope that you can feel that way about music, when you hear something that makes your soul ignite with all sorts of emotions. That is the power of music.