A Brief Bio of Dabido The Musician

Thought I'd do a quick Bio of myself as a musician, so you know what I did, where I was and why I am a nobody now. 1978 - After pestering my parents for about five years for a piano, my parents decided to offer me a compromise. They said if I'd shut up about wanting to learn piano, they'd buy me a guitar. On April the 14th, they bought me a cheap guitar as a B'day present ... my B'day is actually May the 31st, so I got the present early that year. I could already read music (as I had learnt recorder), so I took to the guitar like a duck takes to water. We moved from Perth to Adelaide that same year. I started writing songs on the guitar, but I only have one from that year that I have kept and still perform. 1979 - My father enrolled me in music lessons as he claimed I wasn't learning guitar properly, s all I was doing was playing Beatle tunes and Led Zepplin ... I didn't last too long in music lessons, as I realised that my guitar teacher didn't really care if I practiced or not ... he got paid either way. He also didn't care if I was good, or bad ... it was just a job to him. I complained enough that my father moved my to another teacher. This guy was an EX Music professor at an Adelaide University. He taught me Classical guitar for a year. 1980 - I was at 5th level by now. I left the classical guitar teacher, as I felt the guy was actually holding me back a bit. I was able to play the more advanced pieces in my music book, plus I had a small problem with the guys racism. He seemed to have a problem with 'blacks' and 'rock 'n' roll'. 1981 - My last year in Adelaide. During these years, my guitar had become my best friend. I'd been in and out of a lot of school bands and stuff. I found writing songs was a great way to curb my depressions. 1982 - Did music for my final year at school. Even though I could play Rock 'n' Roll, I was so good at classical guitar that many peopel thought it was all I could play. As such, all my performance pieces were Classical Guitar bits, which actually got me marked down. I wanted to perform soem Rock'n'roll pieces, but my teacher wouldn't even listen. This was also the year I slammed my index finger in a car door loosing my fingernail just before a recital. Talk about PAIN!!!! 1983 - I was hanging out with a group of muso's at College and wanted to form a band, but they al thought of me as a 'Classical Guitarist'. I did form a band with my younger brother and his friends, but basically it wasn't ever going to do much, with the keyboard player wanting to do all Synth type songs, and the rest of us wanting to do more guitar based stuff. 1984 - University year ... not much happening - though my reputation as a guitarist grew in some areas. 1985 - thrown out of home and living on the street - not much time for music. I did write some pieces out of my head and onto paper, as well as a little writing here and there. One of the pieces I wrote was called 'Holocaust' and was later recorded in 1987. 1986 - Off the street. Just writing. No bands or anything. 1987 - JACKPOT. Scored some time working in a studio. Was on the lowest rung, which meant they phoned all other musicians before they'd call me to see if I was available. It meant not much work, but at least I could pick up some here or there. Recorded about 5 or 6 of my own songs. 1988 - Played a little for the Ephesus Theatre company, more studio stuff and started 'Living Proof'. Recorded some more of my own stuff. Was told I should be charging $1000 an hour by the engineer. (I was cheap at $60 an hour). I bought a Korg M1 Synth. 1989 - Last year in Studio. Living Proof was getting some gigs and everytime we performed one, we got offers for five more. We were building a base. THEN, the bass player left (I was on second guitar and keyboards). I took over as lead vocalist and bass player. Still going good ... THEN, the lead guitarist left as he thought 'Heavy Metal' was going to make a come back. At that stage we were a 'pre grunge' outfit, playing stuff which would easily have been put into the grunge category ... if ONLY we had stayed together for another year! Waaah! We would have been ahead of the curve. 1990 - Got married and was BANNED from being a musician by the wife and mother-in-law. The Drummer and I still tried to continue with numerous members coming in and out of the line up ... but most were a bunch of noobs who thought you just had to turn up and everything would fall into place. The need to practice was lost on a lot of them, and to some, I am sure it was just so they could walk up to a girl and say 'Hey, I'm in a rock band.' Nirvana and Grunge took off, and we missed the band wagon! DARN IT! 1991 - Joined a more professional band. Started to perform a little. Really just a garage band. Was never really into them, plus had the Wife nagging me to give up and sell the instruments. 1992 - Wife constant nagging and refusal to let me play guitar while she was in the house. Some performances. 1993 - Was kicked out of band when the rhythm guitarists best friend wanted to join ... echoes of the wife's nagging resounding around in ears ... 1996 - Offered recording contract by a US record company (based on my old recordings). Wife nagged me NOT to take up the option. DAMN! I kept the contract (I think I copied four times or something), but alas, it's no longer valid. 1997 - Marriage breakup. Same week as seperation I phoned Sony to see about the price of their studios ... wife nagged me and told me off. I was planning on signing the recording contract with the US company. Unfortunately, I didn't have the money to record after the seperation (with the wife and her BF taking all our money and stuff). 2003 - Did some home recording. Here is a link to my static Music page with the song HOLD ON - it was written in 1983 & recorded in 2003. (Copyright 1983 &2003David Stevenson) It's about 3.7MB big ... but there in case you want to hear it. It's one of our songs from when I was in Living Proof ... (1988-1989) so if it seems a little dated, you know why. Wish I was a better engineer so that I could make it sound better. I'll try and load my other three songs up that I recorded in 2003 later. [PS I am loading this song up right NOW, so if you get to the music page and it isn't up yet, you have reacted too fast.] :-)