My Musical Influences
Andrew Berlin
There are a lot of ways to get a head start in music - natural talent, great teachers - but one of the best is growing up with a best friend who lives and breathes it. For me, that was Andrew Berlin.
We've been close since we were two years old, and in my eyes growing up, he had all the talent in the world. What looked like pure natural ability was really intense curiosity, focus, and persistence - most of it happening when I wasn't looking. But to me, as a kid, it felt like magic.
Andrew was passionate about music: about instruments, recording, sound. Every time we hung out he had some new instrument in his hands, and by the next time I saw him, he had somehow already figured it out. And he always took me along for the ride.
I still remember when he brought home his first four-track recorder and showed me how you could layer guitars and vocals. I'll never forget how that four-track sounded. My fascination with instruments, recording, with the idea that you could understand music all traces back to Andrew.
Andrew would meet his amazing wife, move to Fort Collins, start a beautiful family, and begin working on projects by many of my musical heroes. He joined Bill Stevenson and Jason Livermore at The Blasting Room in 2003, and in 2020, he was nominated for a Grammy for his work on Gregory Alan Isakov's album Evening Machines.
To say I lucked out having a best friend like Andrew would be an understatement. We played in bands together, I recorded an album with him, Jason, and Bill here in Fort Collins, and eventually, I even got to work alongside him at The Blasting Room - with the very musicians who shaped so much of the sound I loved.
Jon Gonzales
At some point, fate introduced me to skate punk - the Warped Tour, Fat Wreck Chords, Epitaph Records, and bands like NOFX, No Use For a Name, Unwritten Law, The Bouncing Souls. I fell in love with the rawness, the energy, the lyrics. From then on, it shaped everything about how I expressed myself musically.
I met Jon through mutual friends and local punk shows, where his band was often playing. I remember leaving those shows amazed - at the fun, the number of kids packed into VFW halls or church basements, the way everyone screamed the lyrics together. The rooms were loud, alive, lined with band merch and Anti-Racist Action tables, full of kids who cared about the music and had things to say.
Eventually, Masterplan, Jon's band, needed a new bassist, and I was offered the spot. I had only recently picked up the bass and was completely intimidated - especially since the bassist I was replacing was far more skilled. But for some reason, I said yes.
That small moment of saying yes, despite the fear, ended up giving me the greatest four of five years I've ever had musically.
My whole story has revolved around the people I was lucky enough to be close to, and Jon Gonzales was one of them. Like Andrew before him, he was incredibly gifted and driven. With older brothers who were musicians, he knew how to do everything - from booking shows, planning tours, and building a musical community around him. There were a hundred things he handled that I probably didn't even notice at the time.
This was the first real period where I began expressing myself as a musician - where I started finding my voice and my own abilities. And it through my relationship with Jon that so much of what would make me a professional musician later on actually began.
Looking back, so much of the fun and success from that part of my life was because of Jon - his dedication, his passion, his work ethic, and the way he threw himself into every opportunity. We became best friends, inseparable for years, and I learned so much from the time we had together.
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My Story
My First Band
