Dave Finkelstein

Born in Atlanta, GA and raised in Rochester, NY, Dave has always been surrounded by music. His mother, a singer, always encouraged him to take up an instrument but after a short stint on clarinet at a young age, Dave soon lost interest in playing music. This interest was soon restored when he discovered rock music and soon had ambition to play guitar. At age 12 he began guitar lessons only to have his teacher decide to stop giving lessons, leaving Dave only with the basics of guitar. Years later, he began lessons again, this time with a teacher who truly saw his goals in playing and encouraged him to learn through the music he loved instead of tedious exercises. This method kept him interested and after 3 years of lessons, Dave had learned many hard rock and heavy metal songs by such artists as Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Ozzy. At age 18 Dave left for college in Buffalo, NY and had to stop taking lessons. In college, Dave was exposed to many different kinds of music and soon became interested in acoustic singer/songwriters such as Dave Matthews and John Mayer. In the summer of 2002, at age 19 Dave purchased his first acoustic guitar and soon thereafter found inspiration in his life to begin writing lyrics. After writing a few songs, he began to find his style and learned how to channel his life experiences into the songs he was writing. By the spring of 2003 he had nearly 15 completed songs and began working on a 6 song demo which was completed by the summer. Dave continued to write and experiment with different sounds on guitar based on the type of music he was listening to at the time. This added variety to the songs he was writing. In the summer of 2004 with over 20 songs written, he entered the studio to record his independent debut acoustic album. Dave felt that keeping the album acoustic sustained the intimacy of playing to a small crowd, an aspect he felt important to the music. After recording 12 songs with producer Mark Roland in Cicero, NY, he continued to mix the album remotely from Buffalo throughout the fall and eventually put the finishing touches to the album. Releasing in December of 2004, In Headfirst is a journey into the past 2 years of Dave's life, taking you through his delight and hardships, questioning life, love, and the future along the way.