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THE REAL BIO OF JEREMY WOODS:
I am currently 26 years of age. I am the only child and product of two musicians that played everything from Rock to Gospel. And a closet with a collection of over 1,000 (vinyl) records in all. You can quote me on that one. I started drums when I was probably five.. My father had a garage band, I was fascinated with beating the hell out of things. I couldn't reach the pedals though, so I used to sit on his knee and play with my hands. I learned I could beat the hell out of things in 4/4 pretty good. (So there was rythm there...hmm.)
Long about two years later, when I realized everyone in the world was playing guitar, and the only way to make friends was to do the same, (this being because there was a different guitarist in and out of the garage almost everynight), I found a second generation beater in the spare bedroom that had strings on it created from remnants of the Civil War. (old) Nobody really had much time to teach me chords, we were pretty poor then as well, so I didn't get to take lessons. I sat out in the garage off to a corner and watched with my guitar... I noticed redundancy in the finger placements and did a kind of process of elimination, until it sounded good. Eventually I'd get a chord here and there taught, and I really didn't know what they were until the years went by. The better I got, the more Mom noticed.. I grew up learning in the eighties as well... We know what happened to all those guitarist... ( however don't get me wrong, put the crappiest guitarist from the eighties up against one of the best of today, ..they'd get their *ss handed to them.)
I think she knew then hairmetal would die. So out came the records from her day. Hendrix, James Taylor, Clapton, Doobies, The Who, Zeppelin, Bowie, Dylan, Mitchell, The Eagles.. You know, the roots man..the roots. She said she'd play hell before I was a shredder. I think the first song I learned was fire and rain.
ONWARD CLAPTON
Yes this is, and still remains, the single most influential man behind my muse. I believe there's a critical time in the learning process called, "Interest". Whether you keep enough of it or not to proceed to the next level depends highly on the fire and how high it burns.. You always have to add something to keep it going. The biggest brush on the flame for me was Eric Clapton. But we won't get into that. I'll sum it up with one word..."soul".
ONWARD ZIMMER
When I was about 14 I heard the ending credit score to "Rain Man". Composed by Hans Zimmer. Back then I loved it. I still love it now. I began to follow up in interest to Film Composing and learned about Hans' technique to film. I bought a keyboard for a hundred bucks, and learned piano. All the more in a classical aspect, it all binds together for this highly orchestrated approach to songwriting I acquired,... when I actually started writing my own material.
ONWARD NAVY
My parents got divorced when I was 17. I stayed home with dad to finish my high school in my home town.. That wouldve been too weird to pick up my last two years somewhere else. After I graduated, let me just say the only two things that came successful out of Indiana were Axl Rose, and John Mellancamp. Though even then, they didn't make it here. So, Not having the money to go to college, I signed up for the Navy. Over the next four years, I moved to Virginia Beach, and met a slew of great musicians out there. The scene was awesome. I eventually met two band members I'd call friends, one of which just happened to be from home in Indiana. A Drummer and a Bassist. I played Guitar, Piano, and Played the front man. The more we played, the more we realized, we were good enough to do our own thing. So we began writing. The first song we wrote was called "vague", sometime in the near future, I'll release that here on the page. From then on songwriting began clicking more and moreso than the one before.. Eventually they were discharged from the Navy and left. I kept doing my own thing in Virginia. Open Mic nights, ships band on deployments overseas.. My last gig with a band was one formed onboard my Carrier USS George Washington. Three Doors Down came aboard and put on a concert off the coast of Lisbon, Portugal and we got to open up for them. Great group of guys.
OUTWARD NAVY
I was honorably discharged from the Navy in January 2003. I came home with the promise of a job that fell through. Though I still write to this day regardless. I think my overall goal in this is to eventually be a film composer. For now however, I love writing whether it be songs or cues. If someday God deem it I have a major distribution deal, what a dream come true,.. but, if not,... I believe he gave me a gift to call my own. ( I keep trying though:) I don't have a band, so I do everything from conception, to performance, to mixing, to your ears for now. Many hours of time consumption.. But I love the pay-off. In the end it boils down the love of the art, for better or worse, for millions or for beans.
peace
jeremy |
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Acoustic
