Grandpa Mojo

I was born in the 60's on the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming. Coming from that environment, it's hard to imagine that I would eventually find my way to trip hop, downtempo, and acid jazz. But that's exactly what I did.

Throughout my life, musical influences have come from varied and obscure sources. As a baby, it was listening to my mother's recordings of swing bands and operatic tenor Mario Lanza. As a child, it was listening to old, old country: Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, Hank Williams, and others, on very scratched 45's in the basement with my brother. Throughout grade school, I would hear traditional Shoshone and Arapahoe music when I attended pow-wows with my Native American schoolmates. In junior high, it was The Jackson Five, Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind, and Fire. In high school, it was jazz: Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Woody Shaw, Dexter Gordon, and Chick Corea. In college at North Texas State, it would continue to be jazz, but with the addition of funk, punk and world music. After college, I would play with all types of groups, from classical orchestras to indie bands.

In 1999, after numerous stints with various recording and touring groups, I turned my attention to trip hop and downtempo. I felt kind of stupid, to be honest. This stuff had been around for years, and I had only recently become aware of it. But I didn't waste any time. I couldn't wait to be a part of it, so I began creating ideas for tunes and then hooked up with my long-time friend Kip to flesh them out.

One thing that is different about Grandpa Mojo's music, is that rather than sampling other artists' grooves and beats, I tend to play my own grooves and then use that as my source material.