Born into a musical family (mother played piano, father played trumpet), Richard acquired an ear for music at early age. But it was his older siblings who plunged seriously into the world of music and made it their profession. With so many guitars, basses, and amps lying around the family home, it wasn't long before Richard followed in his older siblings' footsteps, first taking up the guitar, and then the bass.

THE BASS-PLAYING YEARS:

Upon starting high school, Richard found tons of opportunities to join garage bands - rock music was ubiquitous in the 70s! "Everybody was into Hendrix in those days. I mean you'd walk into a party and someone would pick up a guitar and start playing Little Wing. Then down the street at another party, some dude would be sitting on a set of drums, stoned, and do the intro to Gypsy Eyes on the kick drum and hi hat, over and over! (chuckle)", reminisces Richard. 

THE PROG ROCK EPIPHANY:

May 1973, the Johnny Winter concert at the old Montreal Forum. A memorable rock & roll show, right? Yes, but not due to the headliner. Rather, it was the opening act, King Crimson, who captured Richard's heart. "They blew me away", recalls Richard. "It was as if Stravinsky came back to life, and put his hands on a Mellotron and a vast array of exotic percussions!". From that moment on, Richard turned his attention to progressive rock. It also had a big influence on his bass playing and music composition style.

THE SONG WRITING AND SINGING YEARS:

After several years playing bass in high school and college bands, Richard earned a business degree and began a long career in sales and client relations management. But music was never far away from his heart, and so a few years after graduating, Richard turned his sights towards writing, singing, and recording his own songs. "I was in a downtown bar in 1986, and the DJ played 'When I Think Of You" by Janet Jackson, and I thought - I can do this!", recalls Richard. His first album "Tam Tam On the Mountain Side" (Tunecore, 2019) provides a nice overview of his singing and writing style. It is no longer in distribution (a cost/benefit decision) save for a few tunes on Soundcloud. Richard still has several dozen copies of the album at home however.

MELODIC COMPOSING & COVER TUNES ON GUITAR:

As "Tam Tam .." was being released, Richard was already planning his second album. "When I was learning cover tunes", he explains, "I would do warmup exercises on my guitar, and suddenly a new original riff or melody would pop up, and before long each new idea developed into a full fledged instrumental song, no lyrics, just melody". Within a few weeks Richard had enough material for a whole album! During that time, Richard made a strategic decision to abandon singing and lyric writing, and just concentrate on melody. The product of this sudden creative burst is the new album "Country Weekend Morning" (Tunecore, 2022) and is now available for download or streaming on all major online stores. Most of the tunes could accommodate lyrics and vocals very well, and so partnering with talented lyricists or songwriters is the next step for this project. 

The next album - his third - will most likely be cover tunes performed instrumentally on an acoustic classical guitar. Richard sums it up this way: "It's fascinating to take a well known pop tune and transform it into a beautiful instrumental rendition. It's absolutely fun!"