:: A B O U T  K E N ::

I was born in Arnhem, Netherlands in 1969. I grew up in Basel, Switzerland and moved to western Massachusetts in 1979. I started playing guitar when I was 12 in 1981. I started with guitar lessons and learned how to read music.

Within a few years (in high school), I joined my first rock band, Flashback, as lead guitarist. A few years and bands later, I ended up playing guitar in a band called Vertigo. We were a Top 40 cover band with a few original songs. In 1987, we placed 3rd in the Drome Sound (Albany/Schenectady, NY) Battle of High School Bands. Our prize was recording time at a professional recording studio in Schenectady, NY. We recorded two songs and released a 7" record that received radio airplay on WBEC ROCK 105 in Pittsfield, MA.

During this time, I began taking guitar lessons with David Grover (guitarist for Arlo Guthrie). David got me started on the teaching path. Around this time, I also met and became friends with bassist Sean Hurley (Vertical Horizon). We played in a band together called The Luncheon Meats. I also kept busy playing guitar and bass guitar for several musicals at The Theater Barn in New Lebanon, NY.

In 1989, I enrolled at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. At Berklee, I studied with many great guitar teachers including Jim Kelly, Charles Chapman, and Mashi Hasu. During my Berklee years (early 90's), I met Reeves Gabrels (guitarist for David Bowie and Tin Machine). I worked for Reeves as a guitar tech (carried his heavy Mesa/Boogie amps and tuned his Steinbergers) at local Boston shows while he was playing with The Atom Said, Bentmen and Modern Farmer. I also studied guitar with him during this time.

After graduating from Berklee with academic honors in 1992, I played in the Boston club scene for a few years with the band Firepig (we were finalists in the Yamaha Soundcheck competition in 1993). A few years later, I moved to Nashville, TN, where I joined local pop-rockers Blu Greene. We recorded and released our own CD, Kissing Booth (my first CD!!!).

In 1996, I left Nashville and moved to Atlanta, GA, where I started teaching guitar at Music & Arts Centers. I began working with Blu Greene keyboardist Jeff Bruner on a new project called Otherness. We wrote and recorded our own CD, Somewhere Between Something and Nothing, which was released in 1998. That year, Otherness opened for Real Life at Gibson's Café Milano in Nashville. In 1999, Otherness opened for ex-Cure member Laurence Tolhurst's new project, Levinhurst, at the famed Exit/In in Nashville.

In 2000, I joined Atlanta rockers The Stimulants (featuring Sue B from Salome's Wish & Lost Continentals drummer Mike Hammer), playing gigs at Atlanta venues such as The Echo Lounge, The Star Bar and The Masquerade.

Early 2001 saw the second full-length CD from Otherness, Apology For The Truth.

And then. On July 7, 2001, I was nearly killed in an auto accident when the driver, bass player for the Stimulants, decided to drive into some trees after a show. The driver was fine, whereas I (a passenger in the vehicle) suffered a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury). I was in a coma for about ten days. Fortunately, I did not die and am recovering remarkably well (considering the severity of my injuries).

The plot thickens.

On August 5, 2002, while still recovering from my near-fatal accident, I was in another car accident! I was on my way to work when a vehicle driving in the other direction crossed the median and crashed into me. My car suffered more than I did (it was totalled), but I still got stuck spending another night at the same hospital as before, and had to return for a month's worth of physical therapy, etc. I am still recovering from my injuries.

I continue to teach guitar lessons at the Music & Arts Centers in both the Alpharetta and Marietta, GA locations.