Phonola
Born in 1960 in a small town in Ecuador - South America -. At young age, music was already a big part of my daily life. I could clearly remember at age of 7 how I used to spend most of my time with a small transistor radio, trying to get the frequency signal by getting close to an electric pole to listen to any available radio station from the closest metro area.
I owned my first guitar in 1972 when my father came home with a Martin acoustic guitar and said: "the first one who gets to play a melody for me, will keep it". Three days later and after trying my best to create a decent melody from it, I played for him my first piece ever, which consisted of the F chord in a D position on the 5th fret and all I did was roll it down fingering the same D position on each fret until hitting D minor, and it was mine!
I played mainly by ear and with no problemI was able to get tunes from my major influences such as: James Taylor, John Denver, America, Bread, CSN&Y, Pink Floyd, Yes, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix, Santana, etc. On 1986 my father offered me a paid trip to USA, and came to New York to learn the main facts of life - work, work,work... but, never giving up music, and never will. Here, I was able to get my first acoustic guitar - Washburn - by trading an expensive Ralph Lauren scarf on Christmas time to a good friend of mine from my country who was living in New Jersey. Not too long after, I also got my first electric guitar, a Gibson Custom Les Paul, for which I paid $200 bucks (case included). What a great deal that was!
I've played and played, and wasted much time going out with the wrong crowd of "musicians", until in 1998 after getting sick and tired of doing nothing productive musically, I brought back my influences going from James Taylor to Pink Floyd and after listening and playing most of their main tunes, I decided to break through with this style. I guess I reached the point when I had to make a decision by analyzing which direction I should take. I did so and here I am, playing what I like, what comes out of me, what gives me satisfaction.