Brad Jacob: lead guitar & backup vocals

My musical interest started early on when I listened to the music my parents used to play. They were into the popular classic rock bands of the 60's and 70's. Whether driving in the car or setting up the Christmas tree at home, I was always in the company of great music. I especially remember being moved by Pink Floyd. The sound effects and dramatic statement their albums made had a lasting effect on me. For me, music has two equally important sides. One involves writing & playing, and the other is the recording end.

I think it was around 8 years old when I first wanted to play the guitar after watching a doctor (that my mother worked for) play a red Gretch in his jazz band. I fell in love, but the affair was short lived. Why? Because playing the guitar with any degree of success involves practice. And this was something that I just wasn't about to do. Then I got my first boom-box radio. I never bothered to listen to any music on it. No, I'd rather create these little comedy skits - complete with sound FX that I expertly crafted and recorded. This was no doubt, the foundation for my love of recording.

My brother who is 3 years older than me was then going through his heavy metal discovery phase. And what kid doesn't get influenced by his older brother's music? I was already into Black Sabbath by the time I was in 5th grade. So when Ozzy released Blizzard of Oz, I was already on board. During the next couple years, my love for music continued to grow. And being the early 80's, MTV certainly played a crucial role in my musical development. Over the next couple years, I got more into bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Nazareth and Motley Crue. Then came 1986 and Metallica released Master Of Puppets and things were never the same.

I dove head first into the world of heavy metal. I couldn't get enough... Then someone suggested Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. Well, needless to say, it helped to bring back the interest in playing guitar. And after a few time watching an old friend's garage band, my past love of the guitar re-surfaced with a vengeance. I soon bought my first guitar. Like Scott, it was a (red) Yamaha Strat copy. After that, I couldn't put the damn thing down. My grades suffered and all I wanted to do was become a rock star. After graduating high school, I put together my first band, Left Of Center with my buddies. This was the time grunge hit and all we wanted to do was be the next Alice In Chains! We wrote all our own music and played some pretty cool gigs in New Jersey clubs like Studio-One, Club Bene and Hill Bowl. It was nothing spectacular, but still, pretty cool. Things lasted until 1992, and then we split up.

Over the next couple years, I got into a broader scope of music. I became interested more in vocals, lyrics and production. Likewise, my interest in recording began to grow - pretty easy to do when you have no band. By the late 90's, I was very into recording and wanting to put together my own studio. I had an Alesis ADAT recorder, one multi-effects unit and some Yamaha monitors. Always one to adopt new technologies, I quickly made the jump to computer recording with Pro Tools and Macintosh computers. Since then, I bought my first home, got married, had two kids and built my own recording studio.

It was 2002 that I moved to Pennsylvania and began to write more music and played in a few local bands. The next couple years I got to meet and play with a variety of different players and even got record some of them. Currently, I'm one of the main writers and play guitar for my band, Ghosts of The Parting. I enjoy being in a band with open creativity and with players who I respect.