Ignition-live.original.music

Jim started playing cello in 4th grade, was playing semi professionally by 16 including a european tour with the orange county youth symphony. started playing bass around 15, basically self taught on bass...although able to read and write music from the classical background.

played in various hard rock bands/heavy metal/experimental/progressive between 17 and early 20's joining with the original line up of ignition, (then called 13th floor) in early 90s.

influences:
kind hard to say, im pretty self influenced by my fevered imagination but long term influences would include:

Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, al dimeola (hell yes!), fish bone, mr bungle, merciful fate, primus, Pj Harvey. Tool, Live, Oingo Boingo, Curve, Chili Peppers, V.A.S.T, and.......craig, kelly and tim!

the most influential element has been my long term work with drummers in drum and bass projects, most of my earlier years playing included an o.c. drummer with ongoing bass/drum progressive music writing rehearsal and have continued with kelly and tim.

why i have been in ignition for 1000 years...ignition has always been an environment to freely work in any musical style whether its alt, jazz, rock, metal, prog, funk or a combination of all the above. the balance of the style and sound of the ignition musicians has always been unique and challenging. to me ignition is an ongoing project band with the simple goal of writing/recording/performing our own style of music.

Jim plays:
    Tobias 5 string bass
    (also has a pre cbs fender P bass)
    SWR amp and cab
    Trace Elliot stack
    lone effect: Flanger

Past members....

(Kelly) see bio below...Kelly is off to Nor Cal....we wish him luck!

Oriiginal Drummer was Bert..then:
Johnny (1)
Johnny (2)
and there were some other drummers I think....hmm...

Keyboards...way back when i swear we had a keyboard player also named Johnny...wtf?

Kelly started playing drums at the early age of twelve when just stepping into middle school. He took private lessons during this time while playing in marching band and was also involved in orchestra. He then continued drumming all through middle school and then onto high school as well. Playing with marching band, orchestra and then joining the school jazz band during his senior year. After graduating a musical life of drum corp. style discipline, drum coaches obsessed with accurate tuning, endless hours of chop building warm-ups and countless miles of marching, Kelly soon moved onto strictly drum kit playing.

For several years Kelly dabbled in many garage bands, party gigs and drunken jam sessions which mainly kept him playing just for fun. This let him encounter a variety of  musical and musician styles along the way. During the mid 1990’s he played with a church band for a short time giving him experience with an all acoustic band. Not long after that he discovered and joined an amazing band named “13th Floor”. This was a great happening that enabled a totally new level of creative freedom and style in Kelly’s drumming. Not long after joining the group, the name was changed to “Ignition” in light of a new evolution in the band’s music

After four fantastic years of gigs, events, demos and musical mayhem with Ignition, Kelly stepped out of the band and went on his own crazy adventures. During the absence from ignition, he took up middle eastern style hand drumming while performing with an outstanding belly dance troop and teaching some workshops as well. Kelly also learned to play a funny instrument called a ‘punji’ which is also known as a snake charmer horn. He also found himself sitting in as a temporary gig drummer for death rock band that played in L.A. goth clubs.

During the middle of 2008, Kelly reconnected with Jim and was soon reunited with Ignition. And this, yet again, brings a new level of style and evolution in the Ignition experience.

Kelly’s musical influences are: Jazz, Rock, Metal, Electronic, Industrial, Trip-Hop, Punk, Ska, Drum-n-Bass, Death Rock and a variety of other unique styles.

Favorite bands and artists of Kelly’s: Portishead, Helmet, Bjork, Depeche Mode, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Oingo Boingo, Devo, Primus, Meshuggah, Mr. Bungle plus quite a few other oddities of musical artistry.

Kelly plays:
    Tama Drums
    Pork Pie Percussion
    Tama Pedals
    Sabian Cymbals
    Gibraltar Hardware
    Aquarian and Evans Drumheads