I've always loved music - one of my earliest childhood memories is sitting in a small lawn chair, "rocking out" to Bobby Vinton's "My Melody Of Love", an old 45 that my Mom would play every now and then. (For those of you too young to know, "45's" were vinyl, flat, spherical objects - also called records - that were about 50% larger than a CD and played music when used with another back-in-the-day device, a "turntable". You would place the "needle" from the "arm" of the turntable onto the 45, and it would emit sounds out of the turntable's speakers. Crazy, huh? There were actually 2 sides to the 45, an "A" side for the main single, and a "B" side for a lesser known track. In addition to 45's, there were also things called "33's" - better known as albums - and 78's…but that's a whole another story and it's time to get back to my bio.)
Sure, a Bobby Vinton polka classic isn't exactly rock out material, but hey - I was like 4 at the time. As the 70's went on, I heard a lot of classic rock - I've got 3 older brothers, and they listened to everything awesome: The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Foreigner, Ted Nugent...I can go on and on here, but you get the idea. It was around this time that I thought it would be pretty cool to be a rock star. A few instruments in my arsenal included:
A 6-chord organ - was able to play "Silent Night" pretty well on it.
A drumset from Sears that was called "Big Sound".
And a 1-string "electric guitar" - battery-powered - called the "Star-Maker Guitar". I was pretty adept at playing the beginning of "Smoke On The Water" with it.
Electronic Days
Then came the 80's - and synthesizers became more mainstream than ever before. Even rockers used them aplenty (ever listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" or Van Halen's "1984"?). As I entered my teens, I embraced the electronic sounds that only synths and the like could bring. While I did manage to buy an actual electric guitar from an old buddy of mine in the later 80's, I still couldn't get past the intro to "Smoke On The Water"...so I decided to stick with synths and eventually ditched the guitar and amp to another friend for $30. :) Some of the instruments I used at this point included:
Mattel's Synsonics Drums - I'm happy to report, that these are still in fine working condition and were actually used on "Fun Drum Thing" on Digital!
A Casio CK-500 keyboard - this thing actually had an FM radio and dual cassette deck built into it, and in 1986, I started making my own "albums" on cassette tape.
A Casio SK-1 keyboard - this had a 1-second-or-so sample function, and now you can find this synth on eBay, all decked out and re-wired.
A Yamaha SHS-10 keytar - I still have this oldie-but-goodie, too. Like the Synsonics Drums above, I used this on "Fun Drum Thing" on Digital.
And a Yamaha PSS-680 - This was my "flagship" synth in the very late-80's (at bottom right in the above pic).
Into the 90's
The 90's brought me to my senses - I had too many little keyboards! While each of them had somewhat minor league-cool features, I needed something that sounded professional...so in March of 1990 I purchased a Yamaha SY77 synth. Even though you can now probably get one on eBay for about $450 (give or take $200 or so), it was THE top-of-the line synth from Yamaha at that moment. I was now free to create pretty much whatever I could think of - music with soothing melodies, music with experimental sounds, music that sounded like an arcade game, etc. - and by the mid-90's I decided to make my very own album, Lakefront (on cassette - this was before the mp3 era and it was not yet affordable to burn CD's at home). I made my own inserts, too (see pic, above). Only about 5 copies were made, though. :) Hey, it took some time to put those things together! Lakefront was inspired by the sights and sounds of Lake Michigan.
A couple more years passed by, and it was now easy and affordable to burn CD's at home. I bought a computer and re-recorded Lakefront onto a CD. I then re-designed the cover with some free clipart and proceeded to burn as many copies as I could...and put the discs together one at a time. I did this for Canvas as well, about a year and a half later (see artwork "drying out", at left). These 2 CD's were "released" under my real name, Kevin R. Osborn. I sent a bunch out to music industry folks, but remained an unsigned independent musician (and happily still am, I must say).
Beyond the Millenium
In late 2000, I picked up some Cakewalk software, and started working on my first "official" album, under my artist name of KevOz (a nickname many friends call me). I decided to work with Disc Makers and had 1000 CD's pressed, along with 11" x 17" posters. A family friend designed the artwork for me this time around, and I released Into Orbit in the Summer of 2001. I also put together this website to coincide with the release. I had to learn some HTML...and I'm still learning. :) Around this time, mp3.com was all the rage. Or at least, it seemed like it was at the time. There was no iTunes yet, so this was THE big thing for independent artists (other than the old school version of Napster, but you didn't get paid if your music was on Napster in those days). So uploading Into Orbit to mp3.com was my first foray into the digital world of music.
In 2003, Sequences Magazine in the UK - who had recently given me a great review on Into Orbit - asked me for some unreleased tracks for possible inclusion in a CD sampler. I gave them 6 songs, and those 6 songs ended up being the 2003 release, A Sampler. These 6 songs were a mixed bunch, tossed together to showcase the various styles of music I create - electronic to new age, dancey to ethereal. I then followed up by re-releasing Lakefront and Canvas in 2004, under my artist name of KevOz. Currently, Lakefront is my bestselling album at CD Baby; one of its tracks, "Electric Waves", was chosen - and currently remains - as part of Apple's iTunes Essentials - Yoga.
A couple years passed by, and the music business landscape had completely changed. Record stores started closing, major labels were having a tough time, iTunes became a major player in the music scene, etc, etc. But with all of this going on, it also became easier and easier for independent musicians to put great music together and get it out there into the world. The largest independent music store on the web, CD Baby - whom I had worked with since the beginning - enabled artists like myself to get heard on iTunes, and dozens of other digital download retailers (even a reformulated Napster). In March of 2006, I released Return To Lakefront, a "sequel" of sorts to Lakefront. In addition to writing and producing all of the tracks on the disc, I also merged a couple personal pics of mine together to form the cover art (the top half is a sunset pic from Carol Stream, IL, and the bottom half is from Paradise Island, Bahamas - see album cover artwork at right). Later that same year, I decided that it would be really cool to put together a Christmas album, as it's my favorite holiday. So, in late 2006, Christmas Spirit was released. It garnered huge attention on iTunes, and that inspired me to create more music than ever before. I guess you can say that these are very prolific times for me, music making-wise.
Recent History
In the Spring of 2007, I started work on a more experimental electronic disc...I wanted to do something a lot different than I had before. I also wanted to add a few tracks to the usual 10 that normally show up on a disc. So, in July 2007, Digital was released. It's a 15-track opus inspired by the likes of Moby, Tangerine Dream, and Art Of Noise. Some of it is very groovy and catchy, like the first track, "Whoo!". Other tracks are spa-like, such as the ultra-relaxing "Unheard Wishes" and the piano/orchestral/trip hop drum beat of "You're Not Here". And others are just...out there ("Artful Noise", "Rising", and "Hang Glider" to name a few). While I love every song and every CD that I've created, I must admit that I'm really psyched by how Digital turned out - it's really cool stuff. And, I'm not the only one who thought so...eventually, Keyboard Magazine took notice of Digital in its February 2008 issue. They even named me their "Unsigned Artist of The Month"! So hey, I guess I had a right to be psyched about it. :)
In early November 2007, I released a follow up to 2006's Christmas Spirit, titled Holiday Fun. It offers 11 tracks - 10 traditional holiday favorites, and 1 new original song written by me. I have a blast putting my own spin on popular Christmas tunes...chances are, Holiday Fun will not be the last Christmas album I release...gotta love the holiday season!
Sure, a Bobby Vinton polka classic isn't exactly rock out material, but hey - I was like 4 at the time. As the 70's went on, I heard a lot of classic rock - I've got 3 older brothers, and they listened to everything awesome: The Stones, The Beatles, The Who, Led Zeppelin, Boston, Foreigner, Ted Nugent...I can go on and on here, but you get the idea. It was around this time that I thought it would be pretty cool to be a rock star. A few instruments in my arsenal included:
Then came the 80's - and synthesizers became more mainstream than ever before. Even rockers used them aplenty (ever listen to Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The USA" or Van Halen's "1984"?). 
As I entered my teens, I embraced the electronic sounds that only synths and the like could bring. While I did manage to buy an actual electric guitar from an old buddy of mine in the later 80's, I still couldn't get past the intro to "Smoke On The Water"...so I decided to stick with synths and eventually ditched the guitar and amp to another friend for $30. :) Some of the instruments I used at this point included:
I could think of - music with soothing melodies, music with experimental sounds, music that sounded like an arcade game, etc. - and by the mid-90's I decided to make my very own album, Lakefront (on cassette - this was before the mp3 era and it was not yet affordable to burn CD's at home). I made my own inserts, too (see pic, above). Only about 5 copies were made, though. :) Hey, it took some time to put those things together! Lakefront was inspired by the sights and sounds of Lake Michigan.
A couple more years passed by, and it was now easy and affordable to burn CD's at home. I bought a computer and re-recorded Lakefront onto a CD. I then re-designed the cover with some free clipart and proceeded to burn as many copies as I could...and put the discs together one at a time. I did this for Canvas as well, about a year and a half later (see artwork "drying out", at left). These 2 CD's were "released" under my real name, Kevin R. Osborn. I sent a bunch out to music industry folks, but remained an unsigned independent musician (and happily still am, I must say).
So, here I am. Still living on the Northwest side of Chicago, enjoying life, love, and music. I've been putting together tunes for well over 20 years now. And I still deeply love music - all types of it - and I look forward to creating melodic pieces, experimental soundscapes, electronic trance-like tracks, and/or whatever else strikes my fancy for as long as I am able. Influenced by everything and without boundaries, I'll continue to make innovative instrumentals. And if by chance you - or someone else - happens to enjoy a song or two of mine along the way, that will be awesome icing to an already inspiring piece of chocolate cake.