Stephen Spaise:  

Life NO pets, NO kids, LOTS of drums. About the rest: I have been a professional musician for 21 years now, playing guitar, bass, hand drums and drum kit, also now teaching Arabic percussion. For those of you who were actually paying attention back when, this shouldn't be a surprise... Having moved on from the world of rock in the mid-80's, I play Arabic, North African, Flamenco & Indian music, whether it's Trad, Classical, Folk or Pop music. I also played in two different Irish Rock Bands (92-98 and 01-02), also an Indian Subcontinental Prog Rock band (2005). I am currently playing with the bands Touareg, Saharan Nights & Rai Action Collective. As if three bands weren't enough (I maxed out in 2005 with a whopping EIGHT bands) my old friend Pete Super and I are getting one together to promote the CD of his songs that we've been working on for the past two years, which is at the manufacturing plant as I type. After all this other stuff it will be interesting to play rock again. I produce and/or engineer live music events and recording projects, and facilitate drum jams. I am on the working staff and Board of Directors for the Indian Music Society of Minnesota, and a 19 year veteran performer of the MN Renaissance Festival - also having performed at the Arizona, Colorado, North Carolina, and Southern California Renaissance Festival/Faires. I have been in quite a few theatre productions in the Twin Cities, from working with In the Heart of the Beast Theatre in the 80's and 90's, to Jawaahir Dance Company & Fuego Flamenco productions... Before I started playing full time I was a co-owner/head baker of that notorious hangout called the Hard Times Cafe from 1995-2000 and also worked at a diner called The Uptowner for about the same timeframe. So, yeah, I had a real job, once. I was married, but that didn't work out. w00t! Some of you may recall that I was FAT. I lost it all in the mid 80's, kept it off until now. The recent close relationship with my PC has seen a return - lots of my work with music, strangely enough, keeps me immobilized in front of the PC for hours with mixing, artwork, promotion... Look for me on mysp*ce: isfahani_drums School If I could do it all over again I would rather grow up in St Paul and go to St Paul Open School, one of the rare examples of an educational environment in that era which actually encouraged individuality and self-awareness at an early age. I had to bail out on public school in ummmm what was my 2nd time through the 8th grade. My decision, too: Get out and stay alive. After getting sent to truancy court when I stopped going to Plymouth Jr High (of course, going on strike at Sandberg caused a swift transfer - it didn't help!) I was court ordered into a General College program at the U of M, effectively graduating me through Senior High and entering me into the University. All this seemed quite overwhelming at the time, I didn't really like the structure so I left to hit the streets and go to the school of hard knocks. There weren't that many of those before I started learning the ropes of the music world in the tiwn cities, at least as it pertains to bars... starting out as a roadie and soon enough adding lighting and/or sound tech duties. I worked for some of the Twin Cities most popular bands of ...Expand for more