Kevin Holbrook

Although my roots were in metal growing up, I have grown to love improvisational funk & fusion.

When I was 15 I picked up my first bass, a used Epiphone, from a friend of mine.

I immediately started playing in a metal band "Nepolinski Crier" with Dave Matthews (no, not that one), and continued on for a few years, from garage to garage. Throughout this process I found my style as a busy, fingerstyle bass-player in the Cliff Burton mould. Although we never played out, these were the formative years in my musical development.

A year later I began taking bass lessons from my hipster bass-playing jazz band teacher. That guy was a trip, but he really helped me appreciate the bass as an instrument. I sort of knew when I first saw him play that I would end up playing jazz (or fusion, anyway) on a six-string just like he did.

When I turned 18 I discovered a whole bunch of things in very quick succession, among them the Beatles and 4-track recording. That led to me & Troy Bennett (lifelong friend & drummer) hole-ing up in his basement experimenting with overdubbing, track bouncing, and all the joys which that $369 POS brought us.

From there I was involved in several bands with Troy, one of which (Hughes, Cruz & Terrio) auditioned Mike Travers for lead guitarist. We could feel the chemistry immediately. We quickly threw together a set and began playing it out, putting some great shows to tape in the process. Numerous factors doomed HCT, but we kept in touch with Mike while lining up occasional jams.

Through Mike I was introduced to Brad Piche, Mike's long-time friend and keyboard player. I began talking with Brad about collaborating, and organized a jam with me, Brad & Troy. In this session we layed down a copy of Brad's tune Thursday Night Binge, and it was clear that we needed to put something together.

In early 2001, Bamboo Spoon was formed with me, Mike, Brad & Troy. We focused on free improvisation, recording everything we played, and distilling the most inspired jams into songs. This proces yielded some great songs that we are still playing to this day. Although the Spoons broke up in 2003, everybody remained in touch and in 2006 we started talking about a breaking of bread, which quickly led to the long-awaited reunion.

I try to balance family life, career and music, as I value all three, and I look forward to making more great music with what is, and always has been, the most talented and psychotic group of improvisationalists I have ever known.