When I was in seventh grade, my brother sat down with me and taught me that I was a real person and that I could think for myself, then proceeded to introduce me to many bands: Led Zeppelin, the Who, Elvis Costello, Talking Heads, Cream, Jethro Tull, etc.. When I got into eighth grade I got a drum kit and somehow already knew how to play it. I took it to the school band and said 'I'm not going to just play the snare anymore. I'm going to play the silly little songs with a drum kit by ear.' But really all I wanted to do was be Keith Moon, with the kick drum foot of John Bonham.

My friend Peter Augustino started introducing me to more underground punk rock music. We started our first band, the Screaming Hormones. We could not play. When I got into high school, I met a guy named John Atkins who decided to collaborate with the Screaming Hormones. There was about 10 people in the band; we basically took everyone in the school who was even remotely interested in classic rock or punk rock and put them in the band. It was perhaps the worst band that ever existed. Then John Atkins and I broke off from the Screaming Hormones and decided to spend the next four years of our lives together learning how to write and shape songs. That was the most influential part of my career.

I then joined a band with Jeremy Enigk called Reason For Hate. I got into some trouble just after graduating from high school. My friend Greg Williamson was looking for a replacement drummer for a band he was in called Positive Greed. It seemed like a good idea at the time because they were going to take me on tour, and I needed to get out of town.

Played in the Igloo Sect then formed a band called Chewbacca Kaboom with Dan Hoerner and Nate Mendel. Chewbacca Kaboom was the fourth band I was in at one time. I eventually quit the other bands, continuing to play with Chewbacca Kaboom, which became Sunny Day Real Estate after several other corny names.

While Nate was in Europe touring with another band, Dan and I formed a band called Thief Steal Me a Peach with Jeremy Enigk playing guitar and singing and Dan playing bass. Nate's return failed to dislodge Jeremy from the band, but it did return Dan to the guitar. This group was also called Sunny Day Real Estate.

Sunny Day Real Estate began to fail in mid-1994 with the conversion of Jeremy to Christianity, a condition unfamiliar with artistic tolerance.

"I was hanging out, depressed, in D.C. after Sunny Day Real Estate's final tour when Dave came up to me and said, 'Hey, how's it going?'"