CLICK PLAY BEFORE STARTING TO READ THE REST OF THE WEBSITE

Music is one of the many things that unites people together.

Hi, my name is Jonny. Welcome to my website and my area called Music Up Hood Down!

I have been a huge fan of music since I was younger, I still remember when I got my first CD player. I actually got it by winning a challenge at my church. I didn’t grow up with a lot of extra money to spend on things like CD’s and music. After I won, that didn’t mean I had any CD’s so I didn’t get my first CD for a few weeks/months after that and that was because we (my brother and I) convinced our Mom to buy us a Happy Meal from McDonalds, where at that time the promotion was giving out CD’s in the Happy Meals, I can’t remember all the other artists but the one we happen to get was Tina Turner with “What Love Got To Do With It”. I was so freaken stoked to get my own CD and must of listened to it a million times. Read the lyrics printed inside the trifold sleeve, learned as much as I could about it. Up until that point, music was whatever my parents listened to, that was mostly worship music and country (Some old rock on there sometimes). Well, I wanted my own music and if it was Tina, then i’ll gladly take it. That slowly progressed into listening more to the radio (106.7 KROQ K-Rock, 102.7 Kiss FM, Star 98.7,) and started to bleed into finding music videos on TV and I had the oppertunity to get ahold of the TV remote. Thats where I found MTV & TRL and whatever else I could find. Once my mind was brainwashed from MTV it all went down hill from there. I vividly remember walking to a friends house and finding a CD in the gutter, It was Blink 182 “Enema Of The State”, I brought it home and would you believe it, most of the songs worked. Now, Tina, Blink, Radio, MTV, I was hooked and I wanted more! The next step that I remember being a pivotal point was saving up my own money and walking down to my local record store, Bionic Records. With only a small handful of cash and change I scrounged together I bought 3 cassette tapes (They were a lot cheaper then the CD’s) and I got: Nirvana - Nevermind, Social Distortion and AFI. Wow, what an amazing next round of music to indulge into. I listened to each of those tapes, for hundreds of hours. At this point I found a used walkman at a yard sale, so now at this point I could listen to music while skating to a friends house. Things progressed pretty fast for me, I got a job and having some money coming in more consistently, I was able to progress a lot faster. I got really big into collecting music, old vinyl records, cassette tapes, 8 tracks, CD’s, Demos, EP’s, you name it, if it was about music, I wanted it. At one point, I converted my bedroom into a functional record store and actually had people come to my room to buy some music. My Dad wasn’t to happy about it. My Mom was always into music, she played the guitar and piano, and had my brother and I learn the piano, recorder (Flute), Accordion, from what I could remember. So music has always been there, just not the “cool” thing to do at the time. So after finding music on my own path, listening wasn’t enough and making music came back full circle. Turns out I was naturally really good at playing the drums. So once again, I started a new musical path on learning how to play the drums, I dabbled in guitar and bass but drums were my go-to. I ended up joining a few bands, The Shenanigans with my best friend Rick Murder, The L-10 Project and then The Belts with Rick and Mike Slutz. . When I played with the L-10 Project we actually played 2 dates at Warped Tour. It absolutely sucke but we can say we did it. The Belts was a really fun band, we played a bunch of shows all over Orange County, CA. Skate shops, clubs, bars, house shows, back yard shows, beach shows, we all loved playing and just had a love for music. Long story long, I ended up moving to Pittsburgh, PA and that put an end to my band days and with getting married and having kids, the music was put on the back burner, definitely for good reasons. Well, the kids are getting older, the chaos is settling down and it’s time to get back into the swing of things. Bring music to the front burners.

My mindset has changed over the years, now I am a husband, father, welder, fabricator and metal artist so my music taste, goals and drive has changed yet again. I think it’s always good to keep progressing and advancing. So now, I still play the drums, but just for myself. I rock a 5 piece Ludwig kit, collect venal records, still have a pretty sweet CD collection but now I have almost every song at my fingertips with Spotify, Radio, YouTube, ect and now I incorporate music into new ways in my life. When I’m working in the office I always have music playing in the background, My weld shop is always blasting something new (or old). At our house. we even installed a bluetooth speaker/light in our bathroom so every shower is a rock concert. Music is a big part of our family life. Now I get a chance to share music with my kids and I am so excited for them to find their own sounds that they like. Until then… they are listening to my jams.

Wheewww, if you made it through all that, pat yourself on the back. Now, lets get into why were here.
One day I had an idea for a sticker design “Music Up Hood Down” that really defines me, my shop and how I like to work, Welding has quickly attached itself to me and now its time to combine welding and music. After coming out with the sticker design I started to pay more attention to people in the welding industry that would talk about music and I quickly realized that a lot of welders play instruments. Before I knew it I was making lists of welders actively in the welding industry that also were great musicians. As the list started to grow, I decided to make a playlist on Spotify so I could listen to it while working and naturally I named it “Music Up Hood Down Playlist”. There are a lot of playlist out there featuring songs about welding and the is not that. This playlist features welders making music. A lot of welders making music don’t sing about welding and a lot of people singing about welding are not welders. I saw that gap and decided to fill it. So welcome to my playlist.