Built on punk
Forged in metal
Where do I start?
As a kid I never had any real desire to play guitar. It just sort of happened. A friend of a friend sold me a cheap, ‘Zenon’ guitar. I always assumed he stole it, but that was never verified. It was garbage, barely stayed in tune. That didn’t matter much; I didn’t know how to tune it anyway.
After about a year of fiddling with it I started getting better and took it a bit more serious. I ended up selling a keyboard my mom bought me for money to buy an amp. 40+ years later I’m about three scales and four chords better. 😉 Enjoy
Originals
Covers
Too Tough To Die
For about ten years, I was in a band that never stood in the same room.
Too Tough To Die, named after the 1984 album by the Ramones. It felt fitting. Simple, direct, and built on attitude.
It started when I decided to record a few Ramones covers. I had done plenty over the years, but this time I wanted something more than just another solo track. I found a guitarist online who had posted a few Ramones covers of his own. I reached out to see if he’d be interested in collaborating. One message turned into many. He knew a drummer. The drummer knew a bass player. Before long, four strangers agreed to form a band dedicated almost entirely to the Ramones.
The twist was that we were scattered across the globe. I’m just outside Buffalo in Lancaster, New York. Our drummer, Ad, was in Canada. Our bass player, Clark, lived in Brazil. And our guitarist, Martin “Woody” Woodstra, was in Amsterdam. Everything was recorded remotely. Tracks were sent back and forth across time zones until, piece by piece, it sounded like a real band.
We didn’t stop at audio. We created videos to go along with the songs, doing our best to make them feel authentic rather than stitched together. Some people could tell we weren’t in the same room. Some couldn’t. It was never about tricking anyone. It was simply four guys who loved the same music and found a way to play it together.
Over time, life began to shift things. Ad went through difficult times and eventually passed his drums on to his son. Clark got married, had a child, and stepped fully into family life. Woody’s health declined, and communication gradually faded. As of now, I believe he’s still with us, though we’ve lost touch.
Too Tough To Die never played a live show, never loaded gear into a van, and never rehearsed in a garage. But for nearly a decade, from Buffalo to Amsterdam to Brazil to Canada, we built something real. Ten years of Ramones songs traveling through fiber-optic cables instead of amplifiers. No stage, no spotlight, just friendship, creativity, and a shared love for fast, loud, honest music.
And for that chapter of life, that was more than enough.