Audio

I have had a long and interesting experience with music.

At the time of my writing this, I have two sub-pages for bands I spent a lot of time and effort in:

Plastination
&
Specimen

My training in music started in grade school when I began learning flute.  I continued playing flute in various forms of school bands up through and including highschool.  I even spent many years getting private lessons and even stretched out my woodwind reach to piccolo.  Not the obvious starting point for some of the musical paths I ventured down…

I began playing electric bass in my highschool jazz band.  At the time, this was not a real class, but only something a small group of dedicated musicians decided to partake in.  We showed up for evening rehearsals where I taught myself how to play electric bass with only contra (standup) bass class books to guide me.

Learning bass was a launching point for me.  I quickly moved on to guitar and then, for those who know me, the obvious move into electronic music.  (I had always been drawn to the tools; I could make the music I heard in my head without trying to wrangle other players.)

At UCSB my friend had an excessive MIDI setup.  At the time, it was not something you would expect a freshman in college to have in his room.  I was lucky to have a small general MIDI box along with a very basic sequencer.  I had no controller and composed all of my music exceptionally slowly with mouse clicks.  I’d go to my friend’s room and write songs while he slept.

This exposure to real MIDI synthesizers sealed the deal.  In my mind it seemed like the perfect solution to what I wanted to do with music.  I finally got to spend some time with the gear and the reality oddly matched my perception.  I then set out to be a musician.

I have since become a song writer, producer and yet another person who can pump out albums from his bedroom.

Here are some of the bands I’ve worked with:

-5,000 Fingers
-Monitor
-Plastination
-Scar Tissue
-Solo acoustic work (i.e., “T.bias”)
-Involution
-Specimen
-Jake Flood
-Phix
-Zeitmahl
-The Kraquehaus Experiments
-The Manual
-St. Turpentine
-Hooks’n’Heels
-Ambersalt

I miss playing live shows (last live show, aside from performing with the Indonesian embassy’s gamelan) was with Specimen at the DNA Lounge in 2006.  At the time I had just spent a few years playing every club in San Francisco with Plastination, so it was nice to get off the stage and get offered a record deal with Metropolis.

I am in the process of working on a new project with my great friends and cohorts from Scar Tissue: Ambersalt.  Hopefully more news of this new project will come soon.

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

Curious of twitter June 6, 2010 at 11:24 am

So how do you pronounce your name?

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Tobias June 6, 2010 at 5:22 pm

“Toe’buy-us”

Some say it like this though:
“Tea’buy-iss”

Others will shorten to just “Tea”.

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Tbias June 7, 2010 at 3:37 am

For the record, my reply about how to pronounce my name was using the mobile WP client for the iPhone. Apparently they have some work to do…

(I also must say that WP really needs to get their act together and produce a real iPad app!)

Sorry, obligatory WP complaint.

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T.bias June 10, 2010 at 12:14 pm

Didn't realize this was on my "Audio" page. I write about my name on the "About" section:
http://tobiastenney.com/about-me/

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