I soon found myself in 4 years of marching band (one of the best in the county, I might add) where I took home rookie of the year in the drumline my freshman year. Toss in 4 years of symphonic band, 2 years of pep-band, and 2 years of jazz band, and you might get the impression that I was actually a band geek and not the studly man you see in front of you now. Don't be thrown. ;)

Now as far as marching and symphonic band, I had great experience with the percussion aspect of drumming. However, it wasn’t until the summer after my sophomore year that I started getting into playing the kit. I spent the first part of the summer pulling myself away from the pop/rock style that was ever-present and getting into music that I had heard my parents play when I was younger.

My first big "break away" cd was Rush’s 2112. Ironically, this was the cd with which I proceeded to teach myself to play the kit (yes, I am self-taught). I was allowed by my dad to use his kit (which I later purchased from him) to waste away the summer learning how to play exactly what Neil played on that cd. After feeling that I had reached a peak in my learning curve, I stepped back and started to dive into other musical influences such as Deep Purple, Triumph, Dream Theater, Journey, Queensryche, Yes, Van Halen, Boston, The Who, Zeppelin (honestly, anything with a prog feel - there’s just to many to name them all!) to the present influence of The Flower Kings.

After "progressing" for a year I joined up with a Chapel Hill band called We The People. After a year of hard rockin’ and getting my Bonham phase out of my system and learning the ropes of the live music scene, the band ended and I was left with doing a few side studio projects for friends to keep my chops up. While on this hiatus from live playing, I finally sat down and started focusing less on replicating other drummers and more working on my own to learn new styles and techniques to put in the tool box for future band opportunities. One eye-opening year later, I was contact by Jonn through an online ad I has posted. The style was what I had been looking for the whole while. So here I am - Ronnie Bullshit, brand new drummer (with bad stage name and everything) for Land of Chocolate.