Ascent — About

I learned to build under pressure
before I learned to code.

Before there was a terminal, there was a stage.

My career didn't start in technology.

It started in a recording studio when I was 15 years old, where I got my first opportunity as an intern.

I worked my way through the trenches—recording bands, setting up sessions, troubleshooting equipment, working with artists, and learning what happens behind the scenes when an idea becomes something real.

I learned by doing.

And I've been doing that ever since.

The Studio

I started as an assistant engineer.

That's where I learned how people made records.

Mic placement. Pro Tools. Backup management. All of it.

I worked with local bands overnight, from 12 a.m. to 7 a.m., while the rest of the studio was dark.

Staying up all night to record music was the exciting part.

Then I got involved with the Goo Goo Dolls.

Over the years, those early lessons turned into bigger responsibilities.

I eventually had the opportunity to manage the buildout and day-to-day operations of a private, multi-million-dollar recording facility associated with the band.

I wasn't just working in the room.

I helped bring the room to life.

The project involved the technology, infrastructure, people, systems, and countless details required to make a complex creative environment work.

That experience taught me something that has stayed with me throughout my career:

The best systems disappear into the experience.

When everything works, nobody thinks about the infrastructure behind it.

They just get to create.

The facility and its work were eventually featured on the cover of Mix magazine.

June 2008. Inner Machine, in Buffalo.

More info on the studio

The Road

That studio experience eventually took me on the road.

I was asked by the Goo Goo Dolls to join their touring operation as a playback and drum technician.

The studio had taught me how to build and manage complex systems.

Touring taught me how to make those systems survive the real world.

Night after night.

City after city.

In front of thousands of people.

I worked with redundant playback systems and learned to design around failure rather than hope it wouldn't happen.

When you're running technology in front of 50,000 people, there's no refresh button.

If something breaks, you don't get to open a ticket and come back tomorrow.

You diagnose it.

You solve it.

You keep the show moving.

That experience fundamentally changed how I think about technology.

I learned redundancy.

I learned troubleshooting.

I learned preparation.

And I learned how to stay calm when the system isn't behaving the way it should.

A Different Kind of Comeback

After years of touring and production, I eventually stepped away from the road and moved deeper into web development.

Then music pulled me back in.

I had the opportunity to work with Alanis Morissette, which led to what I think of as my own small comeback tour.

It was a reminder of something I'd never really lost:

I love working where technology, creativity, and people intersect.

Along the way, I also worked on productions including the JUNO Awards, worked as an RF technician, and recorded a live Pro Tools session with Phil Lesh.

I don't think of these experiences as a list of credits.

They're chapters in an education.

Every production taught me something about reliability, communication, systems, troubleshooting, and working with creative people under pressure.

The Creative Process

The most valuable thing I brought with me from music wasn't a technical skill.

It was learning how creative people create.

I had the opportunity to work around musicians, producers, engineers, and pioneers of music who had spent their lives turning ideas into something people could experience.

They didn't always know the answer when they started.

They experimented.

They listened.

They challenged assumptions.

They tried something.

They discovered what didn't work.

Then they changed it and tried again.

Eventually, I realized that wasn't just a music process.

It was a problem-solving process.

And it's the same process I use today.

Creative processIn motion

$idea

01Start with the idea.
02Understand the problem.
03Build something.
04Test it.
05Listen.
06Find what's wrong.
07Iterate.
08Make it better.
09Then ship it.

From the Stage to the Stack

Eventually, I realized I could apply that same mindset to software.

File management and workflow were already how I worked.

In the studio, that meant keeping sessions, backups, and versions in order so the work could keep moving.

Those habits carried straight into web development.

I also watched other developers and learned from the way they built.

Today I'm a full-stack web developer building modern applications, SaaS products, ecommerce experiences, backend systems, cloud infrastructure, data-driven applications, and AI-powered products.

My toolkit spans technologies like:

React · Next.js · Node.js · JavaScript · TypeScript · AWS · Google Cloud · Databases · WordPress · Ecommerce · AI

But technology is only part of the job.

The real job is understanding the problem.

Designing the system.

Connecting the pieces.

And creating something people actually want to use.

Let's build something.

Whether it's a SaaS product, an AI application, an ecommerce platform, or a completely new idea, I'm most interested in the same thing I've been interested in since I was 15:

Taking an idea and figuring out how to make it real.

Start a project

I learned to build under pressurebefore I learned to code.