In 1989 in Camden, New Jersey - a struggling post industrial wasteland just across the river from Philadelphia PA - I was born to a musician father and an artist mother.

In this city, and across the music world at the time - the echoes of a once-thriving music industry still lingered - though barely. It just so happens that by coincidence or fate around 100 years earlier, this city is where the recording/music/home entertainment industries were born when the famous Victor Talking Machine Co./Victor Records launched its brand new invention; The disc RECORD and Record Player - which would be marketed under the brand name ‘Victrola’…accompanied by the now legendary ‘His Master’s Voice’ slogan - birthing the global music industry we know today.

As the music industry began a steady decline in the 1990s for musicians, my home life became effected as we lost our ability to keep basic necessities in the house. Soon, my parents split apart - and I was raised in a single parent household. In this, I started to play drums, piano, and later guitar - soon learning the arts and sciences of recording/music production utilizing older tape machines in our basement and becoming a one-man band. Soon, I assembled a band to play live shows around the Camden, Philadelphia, and New York areas that would help to fund my career, and support my desire to maintain rent and a decent refrigerator. I moved out aged 16, though I still continued to goto school until I graduated in the year 2007. During this time, I founded my first production company utilizing funds from performing - and it is this company that would evolve with me to the modern day. 

By 2010, I made my Broadway debut in ‘RAIN’ - a production about The Beatles that premiered at the Neil Simon Theater (and later moved to the Brooks Atkinson Theater). I learned left handed bass for the show - knowing i’d be much more likely to pass the audition that way. In 2013, I returned to Broadway for a similar production at The St. James Theater for a show called ‘LET IT BE’. It was a wonderful gig that paid well! During this era that I continued to write and record my own music while operating our first recording studio in Camden County NJ which we had opened in 2008 (myself, and so by default…the band!) - we landed several high profile appearances at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia Folk Festival, World Cafe Live, The Apollo Theater alongside artists like Dionne Warwick, James Taylor, The Doobie Brothers, Steve Miller Band, OAR, Peter Frampton, and i’m sure many, many more. One double edged sword of my personality is that, i’m not particularly interested in ‘fame’ (or famous people…even people whose work I admire!)…they’re humans and i’ve worked with far too many that ruined their own work inadvertently by existing in a state that wasn’t consistent with how I may have idealized them (and this is not their fault, either!…mine wholly.)

I had made enough from touring, playing shows over the years, selling songs, production services and studio time - that I had enough to do a full album. To my surprise, the album did very well in the Triple A market (Adult Album Alternative) - effectively where musician musicians live as compared to what was then the Top 40 pop market in radio. It is 2023, and this dynamic is all but going extinct. None the less! It did well enough to land a hot spot on an early Spotify streaming end of year most played list - and soon; I was face to face with the beast…major labels were hosting meetings in Hollywood California - and I had to go and speak to them because; thats what you DO!

I was immediately disenchanted with the idea of altering a product to fit in with the likes of Bruno Mars (nothing against Bruno…but it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.) You’d never ask a painter to repaint in the style of another artist if they already had had success in their own field. To me, it seemed that the goal of the ‘major labels’ was, in fact, to cater the product to the markets they already understood - and even worse; get the artist to pay for it by finding financiers. It occurred to me that these labels were no longer production based - they were not investing in products made by artists; they were elevating products with marketing services largely paid for by a third party - or as a one of the heads of Virgin Records said to me ‘a rich uncle’. I assure you, I have no rich uncle - or father, or mother - and so there was virtually no way I’d be able to enter a deal that wasn’t effectively just giving away all rights to my music in return for debt - with no real guarantee of any success. If I was going to invest in anything, it was going to be me - investing in myself and people I love to create something greater for the music I’d wanted to make (or hear) and that I felt others wanted to hear. In that moment, I declined to work with ‘the majors’, opting instead to continue growing a platform that could place the heart of the music industry in the Philadelphia area. 

I began to search for ways that my studio production company could expand when I learned about brand and company acquisitions from a stage door manager on Broadway. Later, I attended a brand auction where I paid a small sum to acquire the rights to Victrola®, the brand I knew originated in Camden as not only a brand of home entertainment - but of a record label itself. From here, i’d spend 10 years reeling and dealing to reform The Victor Talking Machine Co. from its ashes - along the way establishing Victrola® turntables as a major driver of the 2010s/2020s vinyl record revival and bringing an entire industry back from the dead - helping to skyrocket revenues that musicians could make off of physical music once again and destroying the CD once and for all. Those years were not something I would ever care to repeat - but when all was said and done, we’d successfully placed millions of Victrola®/Victor® record players in homes worldwide - and fought several multinational corporations successfully (hey, not bad for a straight C-D grade high school barely grad!) 

Expanding from recording studio production services, Victor Studios, to Victor Records Group label operations was one thing; but entertainment product manufacturing with Victor Record Pressing and Victrola Home Entertainment manufacturing/His Master’s Voice technology products, created an entirely new dynamic for our budding ‘craft beer’ music industry. We were now in control of the total experience of taking a recording home and listening to it - in addition to the creation of the music in the first place. Several years went by, and as it turned out - we had bet properly! the Victor legacy still lived in the hearts and minds of the Philadelphia/Camden area - and we opened The Victor Vault as a facility to showcase new products, employ musicians, and keep Victor Records Group’s extensive catalog secure. Soon we began to open manufacturing facilities, studios, and eventually offices back in the old home city of Camden, NJ - where it all started.  

Producing music, performing music, recording music, designing/engineering musical products and home entertainment systems and tools, innovating creative technology to assist our imaginations and the imaginations of others - the relative complexity of what I have the immense privilege of being able to do as CEO of Victor Musical Industries - which is all things music - makes it very difficult to name specifically. If i had to, though, I would say; I’m a musician, composer, producer - first and foremost - that uses the skills of engineering, manufacturing, design, and invention to create musical experiences in the world and at home that enhance the beauty and impact of works from yesterday, today, and tomorrow. 

For a brief moment at those major label meetings, I saw my own future flash before my eyes as I remembered that dog listening to the record player - something felt warm and familiar about it and I felt strongly that I wanted to be part of music and sound - not just pop culture media industry - I felt music itself needed fighters for craft in the face of technological changes…and I carry that philosophy to now. I believe we (as a society) stand at the intersection of past and present, and desiring to be a torchbearer for a new era of musical exploration, I seek to redefine the music industry, championing artists who, like me, believe in the transformative power of authentic musical expression. A craft music industry is upon us all - a new chapter in the enduring saga of sound.