I have gotten to work and co-create with some freakishly talented musicians… Call it luck, call it attraction or shared visions. It has been such a blessing to my life. I needed to become the best musician that I could become, and needed to “feel” my purpose of connecting to humanity thru entertaining with music.

Kim Kuzma, might well be my favorite singer ever. And I have been allowed to share a stage with her a few hundred times. She’s funny, beautiful, caring, has cool friends and as awesome a voice as anyone I’ve ever listened to on any recording. I started doing gigs with her in the middle nineties. Our first gig was a New Year’s date at some rich guy’s house in Whistler. He requested Puff the Magic Dragon, and 4 microphones all set up so his friends could all sing along with us, and then he passed our songlist around the room to be judged by his guests. Needless to say, we made it out alive and became friends. The best part of making music with Kim, isn’t the crowds or the great gigs. It’s the magic. I have such a huge connection to my musical essence when I work with her. I can usually intuit my way into setting her up for a great crowd response. I liken it to being the silver platter, she is presented upon.

This little video is one of my favorite tunes with Kim. We kick the living sh1t out of it, if I do say so myself. Video was taken at a Casino, so I can’t tell you where I got it. Casino’s never want people to see who is in attendance. This was taken New Year’s Ever, 2008/09. I have a few more songs from that show, and I’ll have a look to see if they work for this blog format too.

The guitar player I’ve known for 20 years. His name is Andreas Schuld and his Record Label is called Brouhaha Records. Andy and I were in a band together with my brother Shawn, when I met my lovely wife Sue. Sorry you can’t hear more guitar in the mix, let me assure you, he is fabulous too!

The drummer is one of my best buddies ever, Phil Robertson. I’ve also known him 20 years or so. We’ve written a bunch of stuff, and played 100′s of gigs w Kim. We may even have drank a little wine on occasion. In fact I even knew Phil’s wife before I knew Phil. His wife and I were in a band in the ’80′s. Phil’s oldest boy Jeff, even ran the video camera for some footage in this blog. Phil also has a great website about recording drum tracks called e-studio-drummer.

Usually, bands have a bass player. In this band (and many others that I work in), I have the responsibility of playing bass notes with my left hand, and being a regular keyboard player with my right hand. This is for trained professionals only. Bass players will not appreciate you trying to encroach on their market. I grew up doing it, and love it because the bass notes are so important to a band. You can’t fake playing bass notes, you have to be there on time, and the notes need to last the right length of time. For me, there is no greater connection to making music, than when I am the bass player, watching the singer for cues, and leading the band. It’s an awesome way to experience being in a band, as a keyboard player.

We don’t work together very often anymore, because Kim’s not around here much. But a substantial part of my musicality was developed by playing in that band, and I will always be grateful.

Honestly, people have paid me money all my life, just to play music. It’s pretty wonderful, unless you want to think about how much money I didn’t make, because I was a starving artist. Whew, sure glad that part is over!

Steve