I was exposed to many different styles of music as a child, from Fats Domino and Elvis Presley to Andy Williams, Perry Como and Henry Mancini. When the Beatles appeared on the music scene in the early 60's, I knew then what direction I wanted to follow, to be able to play guitar and write my own songs. My family wasn't able to afford to buy my sister and myself a decent guitar so we put our imaginations to work and constructed our own guitar out of spare pieces of wood, floor tile and rubber bands. As long as we had something enabling us to imitate the Beatles and make some noise in the process then we were happy, at least temporarily. Seeing that both my sister and myself would be stopped at nothing in pursuing our fascination with learning to play guitar, my parents bought us a full-sized plastic guitar with nylon strings but it soon met an early demise when we first saw The Who performing "My Generation" on an early TV clip.

My first serious attempt at learning to play began when I was 13, on a classical guitar that my sister was given as a birthday present since she had become part of a folk group in high school. I then went out and bought a Beatles song book containing all of the songs from the "White Album" and I learned to play guitar by following along with the album. A few years later, my parents bought me my first guitar, a Yamaha classical. It was around this time that I was persuaded by my sister to join a three-person guitar group to accompany a former classmate of hers who had already become a very accomplished classical guitarist. We played at one mass every Sunday, which was held in the school cafeteria mainly to accommodate the overflow of people that couldn't fit into the crowded church. Soon word of mouth spread and the number of people attending the mass in the school increased every week. I played there up until around the time I graduated high school and this was to be the only group that I played with prior to forming "Senses" in 1994.

I began working as a veterinary assistant when I was 17 through a work/study program that had been started in the high school that I attended. After graduating, I worked for several years as a veterinary technician before finally deciding to leave in the mid 80's to devote all of my time to raising and breeding Jack Russell Terriers and showing Great Danes under the name of Aaronoff Kennels, while also making a commitment to seriously pursue my intentions of writing and playing my own music.

In the early 80's I was given a 1940 Sohmer upright piano by a very good friend as a birthday present. I immediately started playing it every spare moment that I had and proceeded to form my own unconventional way of playing piano. Instead of taking lessons or getting books on the subject , I decided to just use notes to form the chords that I liked hearing and from there I began to write my piano-based songs.

Over the course of the next several years, I continued to write music using both piano and guitar and during that time wrote some 100+ songs. I would find a lot of enjoyment in just playing through several of my songs in the evening by candlelight to an audience made up of my several assorted dogs and my moluccan cockatoo "Buddy", who was more than happy to dance and sway to the music while in her cage, reminding me of one of the go-go girls from the music show "Hullabaloo".

In the spring of '94 I finally decided to try to form a band with the intention of having my music listened to by other human beings besides myself for a change and I put an ad in a New Jersey music paper looking for another guitarist, to start with, to set the band idea into motion. Soon afterwards I met Joe, a guitarist who played with a couple of bands in the 70's that had recorded two albums and toured Europe. We proceeded to work on several of the songs that I had written while continuing the search for a drummer and bass player to complete the band. In September I finally received a response from a drummer who seemed to share a similar interest in playing the type of music that I had written. He had also played in several bands which were mainly cover projects and wanted to get into a worthwhile original situation. Mike was not able to join Joe and me until he fulfilled a prior commitment with another band and we began working with him one month later in October. Joe made the request to continue working with me on a one-to-one basis one day a week so that he could learn as many of my songs before the addition of drums and bass. One Saturday while we were working, I very excitedly introduced to Joe a brand new song that I had just written a few days earlier by the name of "Free". I didn't realize when writing it that this song would present a bit of a challenge to a lead guitarist who was mainly used to playing three-chord rock songs since "Free" has seven different chords at the start. Joe sat next to me and listened to me play and sing through the song twice and then he threw the music back at me and told me that he refused to play that shit. As I sat there in amazement, I couldn't believe what I had just witnessed. I certainly thought that he would have been eager to try something a little bit different and really couldn't understand the reaction that I had just received. Prior to this day, Joe had started showing reluctance in his desire to play some of my piano-based songs which had many more parts to them but I tried to compromise and decided that these other songs could wait for another time. After meeting with Joe's reaction to "Free" I quickly came to the conclusion that there was a BIG problem there and on the following Monday I called to tell him that I didn't think it would be possible for us to continue working together and so we agreed to split.

I started meeting with Mike to discuss the music and he asked me if he could introduce me to a friend of his by the name of Barry, who was also a guitarist and songwriter. I of course agreed, since just splitting with Joe, so Mike, Barry and I met one evening in November '94 to listen to each others music and talk about the direction that we wanted for this newly-formed band. We started rehearsing the music in the living room of my house and just after we began, Barry told us that he wanted to try playing bass guitar,since we were having such a tough time finding a bass guitarist. Since Barry was able to play some lead guitar he incorporated that style into his bass playing and it fit in very well with the style of music that I had written. We continued rehearsing twice a week and then in September '95 we decided to go into the studio and record a four-song demo. At this time we started to think about playing gigs to see what kind of reaction we could generate but that's also when the conflicts began. I wanted to play at clubs in New York City where original bands were being booked at the majority of well-known places, while Mike and Barry didn't share my desire and wanted to only play at local bars that mainly booked cover bands so we ended up putting all of that on hold for the time being and I devoted most of my time to submitting our demo to every record company that was willing to accept it. We managed to generate some interest but nothing that we really felt worthy of pursuing.

Around this time I began writing even more "progressive" keyboard-based songs and was very excited about wanting to introduce them to the rest of the band. Once again though, I was met with a less than enthusiastic response, I think mainly out of the frustration of their not knowing how to play with this new material even though this subject had been thoroughly discussed prior to our working together. I was then requested to totally change the structure of these new songs to accommodate the playing styles of the rest of the band and of course, being the stubborn person that I am, I refused to change the music which was written as a direct by-product of my emotions and which I felt was very exciting and challenging to play. From this point on the fate of the band steadily declined and then on one evening in May '95 we met to discuss several issues that could no longer be pushed into the background. After sitting through three hours of being yelled at and falsely accused of having no desire to play their material when I had asked them several times to bring me a tape of their songs and then being told that they wanted to be named as co-writers on all of my songs, there was no turning back, at that point, and the first installment of "Senses" officially came to an end.

I took some much-needed time off from trying to start looking for new band members and in August '95 I decided to once again give it another try and start over. I first met Dave, a lead guitarist and he bought his friend Don, a bass guitarist into the band. Both Dave and Don had played in many cover bands and were very interested in becoming involved in an original project that would provide them with a musical challenge. Drew, on drums, was added shortly afterwards and "Senses" was once again a band. We played together for about 9 months when we decided that we were ready to start looking for gigs. We mainly played in any of the New Jersey clubs/bars that would accept original bands and also played a couple of places in New York City. The response that we received was very positive and we soon began discussing plans to record and release a CD.

We started once again experiencing some frustration, first from Drew who was starting to have some difficulty with the different timing changes of the keyboard songs and then from Dave. Tension was on the rise and I was being met with opposition and impatience from the rest of the band because of having to play at clubs with not enough of a draw while trying to interest a record company in possibly being able to assist us with financing our CD project. We kept on forging ahead and finally booked time in a local studio for the first weekend in October 96'. We were still playing gigs at least twice a month and everything was moving along pretty well until we were booked to play a small club in northern New Jersey on the last Saturday in September 96' The weekend prior to this we played a gig at a small club in my hometown of Roselle and it was on that night that Drew made it known to everyone, with the exception of me, that he didn't want to play at the gig that was scheduled for the following Saturday. I received a call early Friday morning from Drew saying that he was sick and wouldn't be able to play the Saturday night gig. Being the never- say- die person that I am, I decided to try and hire a drummer to fill in for Drew even though it was on pretty short notice. I located a drummer who agreed to help us out and I played our tape for him over the phone so that he could get an idea of what would be expected of him. Maxx had a very easy-going personality and he was used to playing all different styles of music, being that he also worked as a session player, so he was more than happy to play with us and I was very happy to have found him.

Dave, Don and myself arrived at the club the next night and we set up all of our equipment and waited and waited for Maxx until we were forced to go on without him since we were only one band of four that was scheduled to play that night. Dave then made it very clear that there was no way that he was going to play without a drummer and the fiasco began. I told both Dave and Don that I would go on by myself if necessary because there was no way that I was going to back out on the commitment that I made to the club owner to play there that night. Clubs that would allow original bands were becoming very few and far between and I just couldn't bring myself to canceling out on someone who was willing to give us a chance especially when we had no following. After downing several beers prior to our scheduled time of playing, Dave reluctantly agreed to play and the three of us stepped up on stage to begin our 45-minute set. As I stepped up to the microphone and was preparing to begin the first keyboard song, I was informedby Dave that he wouldn't be able to make it to our scheduled studio booking for the following weekend because of having to attend a party.(Our studio reservation was made two months in advance.) At that very moment I think my heart fell to the floor. This was supposed to be the most important occurrence for the band to date. To be able to finally go in and record our long-awaited CD which we had been planning for the past year. I just looked down at the keys, took a very deep breath and asked Dave and Don if they were ready to begin. Then I proceeded to play the first song of our set. Maxx showed up midway through our set too late to play. He had called the club earlier in the evening and whoever he talked to gave him the wrong directions to the club. When we finally finished for the evening, which seemed like forever to me, I knew that once again the time that I had spent in the last year and a half was totally wasted and that "Senses" was no longer a band. I now had to decide whether or not to go ahead with my plans for recording the CD that I had been looking forward to ever since the start of the band two years ago.

I called Don Sternecker, owner and engineer at Mix-O-Lydian studios, and told him about the situation with the band and he put me in touch with a session guitarist and drummer. I met with Bruce Uchitel, lead guitarist, that same afternoon and bought him a copy of our tape so that he could get an idea of what would be required of him and he agreed to help me out and canceled a gig that he was scheduled to play in New York City so that he could work with us. I wasn't able to get in contact with Vinnie Denunzio, session drummer, until the middle of that week but he too agreed that he would help us out and play at our session on that coming Saturday.

At this time I was extremely nervous about the whole situation and was filled with anxiety about having to totally finance this whole project myself while being faced with the unknown. This would be only the second time that I stepped into a recording studio and the first time that I ever worked with professional musicians. Panic was beginning to set in but Bruce and Vinnie assured me that this kind of thing was not so uncommon in the world of music and that everything would be just fine once we got in there and started playing together. I guess no matter how much reassurance a person receives you still need to experience it yourself in order for you to really believe it.

Saturday morning came up very quickly and I awoke feeling a little nervous but had a very positive attitude that I was going to do everything I could to make the best of it. Don, on the other hand, had a very big decision to make. Whether to stay with the project and go behind the back of his best friend Dave, or to bail out altogether. I was very happy that Don decided to show up on that morning and honor the commitment that he made to the band and myself and to give it his best shot. I arrived at the studio at 9:00AM with Don arriving shortly afterwards. Both Bruce and Vinnie were already there and having the levels checked on their equipment. BothVinnie and Bruce had very easy-going personalities and were completely sympathetic to our situation. It was very reassuring to me to find out from them that they had also experienced several bad times within bands and that conflicts were more usual than not. On arriving that morning, I learned that Don Sternecker's wife had to be rushed to the hospital the night before and so he would need to have another engineer filling in periodically throughout the day. With the luck I had been having lately, this bit of news really didn't even phase me.

It took a couple of hours to get everything set up and by 11:00AM we were ready to record. We decided that it would be best to start off with recording the guitar-based songs which we anticipated being easier for Bruce and Vinnie to get a feel for since this was the first time that the four of us had ever played together. We played each of the three guitar songs two or three times to practice with the guys and then we recorded them. We got through recording the basic tracks for these songs in about three hours and then were forced to take an hour break because of problems with the recording equipment. A few calls from the engineer to the support center, a screwdriver, several choice expletives, and we were once again ready to go.

We decided to resume recording with "Burn The Candle Down", the least potentially problematic of the three "evil" keyboard songs. I decided to drop the instrumental introduction that I had written for the song which was entitled "The Flame". I had only just completed it a few weeks prior to our recording date and Don never really had a chance to work out his arrangement for it so I thought it would be better to just let it go this time around. The recording for "Candle" went very smoothly and we decided to take a dinner break afterwards. Both Don and Bruce were experiencing flu symptoms throughout the day and so we thought it would be best that they try and eat something before they both faded away on us. Also, the two remaining songs would take a lot of concentration and we didn't want to be thinking about food during them.

We were ready to once again begin recording after finishing our pizza and discussion of past band experiences. We played through "Under The Weight of The Rain" several times as Vinnie paused at intervals throughout the song to make notes and chart out the drums. This song proved to be the most challenging of all of the songs on the CD because of the quick time changes required. Luckily Vinnie was experienced in Jazz and Classical music and so he had a feel for what was needed. There were times though, throughout the recording of this song, that I think he would have gladly strung up the writer if given the opportunity.

The last song for the session was "In Light of The Moon/Reflection/High Tide, three separate songs that actually flow into each other. Everything went very smoothly with the recording even though everyone was extremely tired at this point. We finished at 10:30PM and were originally scheduled to come back in on Sunday to record any overdubs and vocals but that had to be canceled due to the engineer's wife being hospitalized. It ended up working out for the best though because I had such a very bad case of laryngitis when I got home Saturday night and there was no way that I would have been able to record the vocals the next day. I hadn't even realized that I had just sung for a total of nine hours. We said our good-byes to Bruce and Vinnie and they both wished us good luck on the success of the CD. Even though I was dead-tired, I wished that this day would never end. I had never played with musicians of this caliber at any time in my life and it was from this point on that I decided to never again be forced into settling on musicians for the band.

I wasn't able to return to the studio until a month after the initial recording to complete the overdubs and vocals and I had no idea what the recording sounded like because we were so pressed for time that night and were unable to get a tape of the session. Surprisingly, I was able to time the acoustic guitar overdubs on my first try and then the recording of the vocal tracks were also completed on the first take. The only thing left was the mixing and I returned to the studio with Don on Friday night of that same week to complete the project of "Fields Unsown".

It was mid-November 96' when I began phase two of the "getting the music listened to by as many people as possible" project. Armed with 300 copies of the CD and a computer with internet access, I began submitting it to every college radio station and progressive rock radio program that would accept it along with countless numbers of music magazines and webzines. I was totally overwhelmed by the response from the majority of people who wrote reviews and from those who took a chance and ordered the CD from a then totally unheard of band. The many positive comments that I received, mostly from people whom I have never met in person, have provided me with a great source of encouragement during the past year when I was forced to endure several emotional setbacks and had seriously considered dropping out of music permanently but found that it was impossible for me to totally cut out what had become such a big part of my life without losing it all.

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