Biography

I'm a worship leader at heart, so much of the music I play and write centers on Christ and His amazing gift of grace and salvation. My passion is to pour out my heart for Him in all that I do. It's my hope that the music and videos I create are a blessing and encouragement to you.

My purpose is to create music that points to Jesus and connects with people. I believe music is a universal language and can create a connection between even the most different of individuals. My hope is that the music I write connects hearts with others as well as with our creator. 

I am married to my best friend in the world, Heather, and we have four incredible kids. Ethan, Isaac, Aubrey, and Owen. After my walk with Christ, my family is THE most important thing to me on the planet. Music comes in after that in a solid third place.

I am very involved in my local church as worship leader and director of music. I also have a day job... yep, gotta pay those bills. I work as a marketing director doing photography and graphic design. 

I was born and raised in Michigan and grew up on a farm. Although religion wasn't a focal point of my upbringing, my parents took my sister and me to church on Sundays and gave us opportunities to get involved in other church related activities. I'd say I had a pretty normal childhood.

As early as I can remember, music was a huge part of my life. My parents always had the radio on. In fact, there were radios inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, in the garage, in the barn, all tuned to the same station. Maybe I'm exaggerating just a little, but seriously, no matter where you were at our house, there was music. My Dad listened to The Eagles, Bob Seger, and Smokey Robinson, among many others. My Mom's musical taste included anything from top 40, to country, to Broadway Musicals. For me, it was Rock-N-Roll..., loud guitars and big drum kits all the way!

Making my own music was something I did from a very young age. I was around 7 or 8 when I wrote and recorded my first song. My cousin and I used pencils and coffee cans for drums, grunted out guitar parts and sang. It was awesome. I took one tape deck and recorded a guitar part, then played that back while recording another tape deck singing. I went back and forth layering sounds that way until I sounded like a whole band! Not too much has changed since then. The tools have become more expensive, but I basically do the same thing!

I got my first guitar when I was 12. It was a no name electric with a little amp. I plucked around with it here and there, but didn't really figure it out. It wasn't until I turned 18 and I got my first acoustic guitar and a chord book that I really began to develop as a musician and song writer.

Jump to my 20's... I was in college and was introduced to Christ in a new way. I fully committed my life to Jesus and naturally the music I wrote and listened to shifted a bit. My love for rock music and other contemporary styles didn't change much, in fact it probably got stronger, but the content of the lyrics became my focus. I started writing a ton and filling notebooks with songs that reflected my life experiences and faith in Jesus.

In my late 20s I met my beautiful wife, Heather. We were married after two years and she encouraged me to pursue my music more seriously. I approached a drummer named Nate Winkelman who I didn't know personally at the time, but I knew he was a very active Christian musician on campus at Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant MI. He and I started a band called Without Excuse with Derek Turcsanyi and Joe Oprea. Heather joined the band a little while later as a vocalist.

Four years went by. Without Excuse recorded two albums and played concerts all over the state. Things were moving along well, but we were all growing in different directions. We decided to break up the band, but we supported each other completely. And still do!

I spent a few years focusing on starting my family and writing music at home. Then I met a few talented musicians through the campus ministry at our church and put together a little group; Jake Davis, Mike Taylor, and Lance Ransom. We called ourselves MiddleTree, and quickly started booking gigs. We put together a few demo CDs, but stayed so busy playing live, that we never made the time for a serious studio recording. History does have a way of repeating itself. MiddleTree moved in different directions with our families, day jobs, schooling, etc.

That leads me to where I am today! Singing, writing, recording, worshiping, parenting, husbanding, working... you get the idea. Hopefully this website and my social media outlets keep you up to date with what I'm doing and I hope you like the music!