teaspoon.art tompkins~stevers productions

I grew up with classic early 50s and 60s music my mom listened to, and later the Motown sound. My favorite coming of age artists are mostly later 60s psychedelia and early 70s folk rock. My college years brought prog rock and jazz fusion. Then, of course, I was a disco dancer lol. I got a degree in psychology from Ohio State University, working for grad students on the terminal of an early room sized computer with punch cards. I also studied dance and choreographed and performed. My musical taste is eclectic and now spans nearly 7 decades. Some favorites: the Beatles, Crosby Still, Nash & Young, Cat Stevens, Joni Mitchell, Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, Bowie, T. Rex, Pink Floyd, Yes, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Vangelis, Eno, Grace Jones, Black Box, Madonna, the Cure, Mickey Hart, MGMT, Tame Impala, Robert Rich, Boards of Canada, Bonobo… to name a few.

My early life was full of music, on both sides of my family. My grandmother played piano, originally for a church, and was able to read some music, but mostly played from memory. She would show me a chord or phrase until I could learn an entire song just by watching and listening. My mother and all of us sang, a lot. My mother taught my sister and me to harmonize when we were very young. She spent her later years singing in a church quartet. I spent my youth writing poetry, sometimes submitting work to Nashville for use as lyrics. Throughout my youth, I played on the piano and keyboard, almost entirely by ear. I would figure out how to recreate a song by lifting the needle on my 33 LPs and repeating over and over until I had it all. I played percussion in the high school marching and concert bands. I learned some chords on the guitar my father gave me for graduation, and played in parks on the college campus while groups of friends sang along with me. In my later 20s I continued to write a lot of poetry, making futile efforts to get my manuscript published. But I stayed creative.

Later in my 30s I sang in some musicals at large sober gay conventions, including solos in front of hundreds of people. I acquired a MIDI keyboard in the mid-90s and got an analog sequencer. Using that rudimentary equipment with a double cassette deck, I created early electronic music - basically figuring it out on my own. That older stuff is pretty quaint to me now. I had a dry spell for a decade, during which time I met my husband Paul. At that time I was a Web developer. We moved from the Bay Area to Phoenix, where I had another career. Then we decided I could retire and my inspiration was renewed, so I bought an M-Audio keyboard and Logic Pro software. I attended the Audio Production course at a local community college and began this phase of composing and producing the electronic music I am sharing and distributing now.