I'm asked two questions on a regular basis, that for most people are easy to answer.

Where are you from? What kind of music do you play?

My usual response is....everywhere and everything. But that's a bit vague, so I suppose I'll do the rundown here, so I don't have to bend your ear at the bar for an hour.

I was born in Nashville and my ties to the country music capital end there (apart from a brief stent in my life when i was into Garth Brooks, though I'm inclined to think that affair had more to do with puberty). My family set up shop in Birmingham AL for close to ten years or so and like most families my first exposure to music came from them. I listened to whatever my parents listened to...which meant: Phil Collins & Cat Stevens if my dad was driving, Whitney Houston & Hall & Oates if my mom was driving. Hall & Oates rules! Mustaches like that are hard to come by these days.

My mom was responsible for my first concert experience. I think i was the only ten year old who went to see Tina Turner that day. My parents were always good about indulging my musical whims but they weren't the only ones influencing my tastes...unfortunately my peers in those days didn't know any better and I even less so I got into hair rock. A Steady diet of Poison, Skid Row, Motley Crew & Faster Pussycat allowed me to fit into the best stone washed jeans and hyper colored shirts. About that time we moved to Ft. Lauderdale. This is when I went through the aforementioned Garth Brooks phase. It ended. Thank God. For some reason my interests turned 180 degrees when I heard gangsta rap. How I went from Garth Brooks to N.W.A. is beyond me. I also had a neighbor from Trinidad who introduced me to Bob Marley, thanks man. In fact when one Christmas I went next level and recieved a discman the two CD's included in the gift were "Legend" by Bob Marley & "The East Coast Family Compilation"...can't fuck with The Playground...y'know!

Then we moved to the other side of Florida. I kind of got more eccentric and started listening to everything from Pearl Jam to The Beatles & Dr. Dre to the Violent Femmes. It was also at this time that I began perfecting the art of the MixTape. I've managed to whiddle a little room in many a girls heart in just this way. It's also for this cause that I may have listened to the occasional Indigo Girls.

At fourteen my family and I moved across the globe to Taiwan (no I wasn't a military brat, my family was in the witness protection program...sshhh). -

TO BE CONTINUED

- Nick Smith