via Damien Riley Music Bio | Damien Riley Tunes.
This post is lifted almost 100% from my tunes site. I’ve had quite a history with music so I thought I’d set down the basic history of all that to fill you in. In addition, you can get music updates including free MP3 stuff over there. Have a read and head over there if you are interested or just bored.
Here’s a few lines from one of my songs, “People,”
“Been searchin’ high and low
Everywhere I mean to go hope I find someone real,
I wanna know how the people feel.”
You might say people are what music is all about to me. I’m a singer/songwriter in the high desert of California born in 1969. I’ve been a guitar player as long as I can remember. I think I learned my first chords from my dad around age 7. I played Kenny Rogers’ “Coward of the County” at my fourth grade talent show. Since then, I was hooked on the power of music. I witnessed the way it connected people like nothing else. I listened to albums over and over again to learn the guitar stuff I play today. There were many influences but The Alarm and REM are up there toward the top.
I played in my first band at age 16, the Resolution. After that experience ended, I did a lot of playing with the church. After that experience ended (and during at some points) I played with some extremely talented people through the years including Dave Sharp, Eric Stefani, and others whose names you might not recognize because they aren’t famous. All I have played with have influenced me though some more than others.
Now, I keep my music a little closer to my chest. I became a public school teacher in 1997 and have been doing that as my career ever since. I married my beautiful and supportive wife Sarah in 2002 and we now have 3 children: Brandon, Isabella, and Julianna. I still write songs though and post them on Youtube or here on my tunes blog. I play live once in a while but not as often as I probably should. I mean, a guy with a website showing off like that oughta get out there and be boo’d once in a while I figure. Well, if it were all that easy.
I am always thinking about music though and I go through stages of recording and posting new stuff to the web a few times a year it seems. Sometimes I detest the idea of going down to the local coffee house and playing to people who barely listen as they buy their lattes. Other times, that’s the only thing that I want to do! I may be funny that way but I guess I’m a little fickle about pursuing my music at the advanced age of 42. Once in a while I publish a “garage concert” online. These mostly happen in the Summer since I use my garage as a studio. The Winter up here is savage cold and I shake so bad out there the music sucks.
I hope to continue writing and for years to come but family, health, and teaching take a priority. Feel free to return here for music updates. I hope to keep putting new songs up here until I’m 80 or so. I get really excited when I write a new song or make a new video to share. Time will tell.
I have thanks and love in my heart for all who have supported me and my tunes through the many years I’ve been at it. I am still marching on, as the Alarm song goes. You can get the latest here on this blog about my music: what I am writing, recording, and where I am playing next. No imitators accepted (nor expected), this is the real deal! >>> Damien Riley Music Bio | Damien Riley Tunes.
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