Bios

Tim Bradley - tim@backbeatmusicstudios.com

Tim Bradley‘s passion and love for music continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Since taking up the drums at the early age of 7, his accelerated growth on his instrument continues to this day. After an amazing educational experience as a music/percussion performance major at The Ohio State University, which included jazz ensembles and big bands, concert band, orchestra, percussion ensembles, and snare drum for the marching band (the one famous for Script Ohio), Tim headed east to Boston to pursue his dreams of becoming a professional musician. He was fortunate enough to support himself as a professional musician through his private teaching practice, a commercial teaching position, recording sessions, and multiple day and night gigs throughout the Boston area. Tim received numerous calls for gigs with many faculty members from the famous Berklee College of Music, which turned out to be an invaluable experience in how to be a true professional.

After leaving Boston and living in Hawai’i for a few years, Tim returned to the mainland and has called Denver his home since 1996. Since that time, he has accomplished many of his musical goals. Tim built a digital recording studio in his home, performed live with many bands, and graduated with honors from the University of Colorado’s Audio Production program. Most recently, Tim has built a state of the art Pro Tools HD2 studio at Backbeat where he is the head audio engineer. In addition, he now has an ever-expanding private teaching practice. He is blessed to have an amazing group of kids, teens, and adults to teach on a weekly basis. You can see Tim play drums with his band Dragonfly Jones and they are also the live band for the internationally known hip-hop artist Bionik Brown (www.myspace.com/uptownbionikbrown) . He also gives special thanks to Clark Hagan for his internship opportunity with a Grammy Award winning audio engineer.

Fortunately, Tim met Rob Caviness in their Music Theory Level 4 class the semester before graduation. Since then, they have combined forces and are looking to make their musical and business dreams come true with Backbeat Music.

Below are frequent questions that Tim gets after performing live or in conversation with students.

How long have you been playing drums? 27 years.

What kind of drums do you play? DW drums and hardware, Zildjian cymbals, and Roland electronic drums.

Who are your top five drum influences? It’s hard to pick just five...

• Max Roach
• Steve Jordan
• Tony Williams
• Vinnie Colaiuta
• Alan Evans (Soulive)

Rob Caviness - rob@backbeatmusicstudios.com

Rob Caviness is one of the most creative and innovative guitar instructors in the Denver Area. One thing Rob prides himself in is being more than just a guitar instructor to his students, but also a life mentor using the tools of music as his guide. Rob has created guitar programs for the City of Aurora, the Trails Recreation Center, Sunshine Peak Academy Charter School, and his first music company Righteous Cypher Music. Through instructing classes and private lessons Rob has reached well over 1,000 students of all ages and levels, constantly developing a unique style of teaching and an ability to relate to his students.

Rob has always been involved in music, and began performing hip-hop at the age of 10 years old. Throughout his teens, Rob developed his skills for producing music by mixing and composing music branded as funk based hip-hop. As a guitarist, Rob was originally self-taught, and began playing while serving as a machine-gunner in the Marine Corps stationed in Hawaii. Rob picked up the instrument very quickly and began performing for small parties and on the streets of Waikiki only months after he had started playing. Also within the first year of his guitar career, Rob began teaching private lessons, and also recorded his first CD, with Russ Myrick, called “Jazz Thunder”. Since then, Rob has picked up the keys (the Hammond B3 organ is his favorite instrument aside from guitar), bass, and drums (thanks to Tim).

Rob continues his own guitar training and is a semester or so away from obtaining his B.S. in Music with and emphasis in Guitar Performance from University of Colorado. Rob has written, produced, performed, and engineered multiple projects in genres such as hip-hop/rap, jazz, solo guitar, pop/rock, alternative, music therapy and others. He also produces nearly every band that records at Backbeat Music, and also produces beats. Rob performs both professionally and for recreation around the Denver metro area. Rob looks forward to working with you, and is excited to be able offer you the services of Backbeat Music.

The FAQ’a of Rob:

How long have you been playing: 6 years

How did you learn guitar so quickly: (Rob) I have to accredit practice time to most of it. In my six years, I probably average a practice time of 6-10 hours a day (as much as 16 at one point when I was injured in Japan). But a lot of it also has to do with constantly playing with people that are more advanced than I am, and my instructors, like Dave Devine, Paul Musso, Drew Morrell, and Russ Myrick have been key. Lastly, it just comes down to having an extreme passion and dedication to the instrument and to my music. Most of the time this boils down to doing whatever it takes to be able to play what I hear in my head, regardless of how advanced it is.

Who are your top six influences (just couldn’t fit it into five):

• Grant Green
• Jimi Hendrix
• Jimmy Smith (B3 organ)
• Charlie Parker (sax)
• Stanley Jordan
• Soulive (Neal and Kraz)

What Guitars do you use:

I have about 10 guitars, but I usually perform with:

• Jay Turser JT-140 jazz hollow body
• Fender USA Made Telecaster
• Takamine acoustic steel string
• Ibanez EX-160 electric
• Ibanez classical nylon string

Grace Bauer - grace@backbeatmusicstudios.com

Grace, the newest member at Backbeat Music Studios, comes to the team as the head of operations. Grace’s interest in music flourished when she took up the violin at the age of 9. She quickly grew to love the instrument, as well as her music education. While growing up in Texas, she performed in the Children’s All-City Honors Orchestra for 3 years in a row.

After moving to Colorado in 1998, her love for music remained, but after six years of playing the violin her focus shifted to vocal and choral music. She progressed through choir at Smoky Hill High School, and had the opportunity to be a part of Smoky Hill’s citywide known “Pop Show.”

In her senior year of high school, the Symphonic choir at Smoky Hill received first place and accoladed remarks at the state-wide CMEA conference. Grace’s love for music has now become an education and career choice for her. She started her exciting college career at Colorado Christian University as a music major, but has since transferred schools, and is currently attending the University of Colorado at Denver as a Music Industry Studies major with an emphasis in business. Grace comes to Backbeat Music Studios with a lot of musical knowledge and an eagerness to be a part of the music business.

We are very excited to have Grace as a part of our team. She is now the head of operations for Backbeat Music. Grace is now your main contact regarding any questions, comments or concerns that you may have about scheduling, payments, marketing and advertising.