Long fucking time ago
In late 1999 I began plugging away beats and melodies on my Roland MC-303, an all-in-one 8 track midi sequencer. I recorded my first album into a portable minidisc recorder amidst MOS certification at US Army TRADOC post Ft. Gordon, Georgia. Where I also got said equipment confiscated for putting on my first live PA gig out the window of my barracks and pissing off a neighboring company's Drill Sergeant. Good times.
Dabbling in Digital
The 21st century rolls around, I land my first duty station in Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, and I get my first retardedly overpriced Gateway computer (800mhz, 256mb RAM, 19" CRT.. shit was baller son). I also expanded my equipment selection and began recording and tracking my second album into (then Sonic Foundry) Sony Acid 2.0. I was involved in several online music based social networking sites, primarily mp3.com, and sometime mid-2001 I was contacted by Ken and Josh Fanene of 'Rebellious Records'.
They picked me up as a producer to help write beats for radio commercials for Macy's and Liberty House stores. Josh and I worked closely on these pieces and our styles meshed perfectly with him being a classically influenced metal-head and me being the commercialized beat junky. A few months after completing some of the projects, I hit up Josh to come over and collaborate on some original pieces. The resulting breakbeat/new age/trance influenced track "Liminal Space" would mark the beginning of Negative pH.
Over the next few years we wrote several tracks across a wide spectrum of genres, experimenting in everything from whiplash inducing barrages of epic drum and bass pieces to 20 minute soundtrack arrangements. The end resulting collection would be aptly named "Liminal Space" and was released in 2003 across several digital distribution partners.
4 Year Hiatus
In the same year, I ended my tour with the military and moved back to Las Vegas to begin exploring other creative outlets (photography, videography). Simultaneously, Josh jumped ship and found shelter in San Jose. During this hiatus we both were writing sketch ideas for future Negative pH tracks. Sharing ideas and techniques that we have developed that would help take our music to the next level and further down the path that we had originally envisioned for the band.
It's February 2007, we coordinated for Josh to come to Vegas for a week so we could bang out an album from the massive collection of half finished sketches we accumulated in the 4 years since 'Liminal Space' was debuted. We successfully completed several tracks and remixes that week, but it wasn't enough to call an album or even an EP.
"Know that I am the Overmind; the eternal will of the Swarm, and that you have been created to serve me." - Zerg Overmind, StarCraft.
A few months later I pulled the plug on what we'll call "Life" and moved to San Jose. We immediately started working on more material and after amassing a CD+ worth of tracks, we loaded up and flew out to see Chris Papa in Chicago to mix and master the album. The resulting album was a collection of some of our most aggressive and experimental work yet, we called it 'OVRMND' with a slight nod to the Zerglings. 1000 copies pressed and printed and digital distribution at every outlet available, OVRMND quickly surpasses Liminal Space in digital and physical sales and receives excellent reviews and feedback from fans and supporters.
