For those who don't know, Bogus Rendition is a crusty old DIY zine that focus's on extreme metal in it's ever so many forms, as well as traveling, riding freight trains and anything else that I decide to include. The first issue was printed in October of 2004 and was for a while a quarterly publication. However, as the content and quality of this zine has increased significantly since then, putting out a new issue has leaned towards a once every six months to a year type thing. There is currently very strong distro in the New England area, as well as Florida, Pheonix, Phillidelphia, Miniapolis, France and a little bit in Turkey. To read some of the reviews that I've found that have been written about the zine, click here.

“Bio of Sorts” (from January 2005)

I’ve been creating art in all sorts of forms for as long as I can remember. The first time I ever thought of it in a serious sense, was somewhere in middle school when I decided that when I grew up, I wanted to be the next Todd McFarlane. Comics were the big thing for quite a while, along side making clay gargoyles, setting off homemade fire works, and an obsession with the Alien and Predator movies. School was usually last priority, although I miraculously never had to repeat a grade. Towards the end of high school, the comic book dream began to grow thin, although I didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do. The day and age I’d been born into bored the shit out of me, and I’d lost most of the patience required for sequential art. I wanted to be living the stories, not trying to write them as an attempt to sooth the dreams I’d had of living a life the way Han Solo did. So most of the art was put on the back burner for a while and the serious confusion, depression, love, drugs (prescription and non), and above all, heavy metal kicked in. All those fun things in life that are so good at changing us, and the way we think.
The year after high school, aside from dealing with the fact that I wasn’t going to the college I’d wanted to go to, and dealing with the notion of; “Ha! Not in school this year? Now you’ll never know what life can be like! Hahahaha…” my year was split between working in a warehouse and four months in Nepal, somewhere I’d always wanted to go to, and so I did. It is a time I look back on, and have a huge array of emotions, confusion more then anything. It played a major part in sculpting my brain into what it is today, and also planted a seed for disgust of western society in general. I didn’t convert to Buddhism or have some grand old spiritual movement, but I have never been the same to say the least. I can also say that coming back home was a much bigger culture shock then going there. Upon my return, in a very strange and warped state of mind, I found that my mom had applied to Maine College of Art for me and I’d been admitted. So I said. “Fuck it! What the hell else am I gonna do?” I went, and I hated it. Granted I had a pretty bad attitude, but hated it non-the less. I did learn a tremendous amount that first year though. Despite the fact that I don’t have a single regret about dropping out in the middle of my 3rd semester, I learned a hell of a lot, and I’m glad to have what I got out of the place today. I went back to work and took the occasional road trip around the states, continued going to concerts and found a new obsession, something I’d been into for a while, but not as much. Despite losing contact with the “art world,” I always kept sketchbooks, and they evolved and progressed as anything does. Somewhere in there, I discovered the work of this dude named Dan Eldon, who was killed at age 22 by a mob back in ‘91 or ‘92 while covering the crisis in Mogadishu, Somalia. His mother later had published a book that contained excerpts of the journals he’d kept, which were full of photos mixed with paint and every other medium one could think of. In my opinion, every artist these days, has ripped some one off. Dan Eldon is who I’d have to say I’ve ripped off, with the stuff I make. The fact that he didn’t give a shit about how sloppy the stuff came out, or even how it came out at all was a big eye opener. It let me tap into all these other forms of creation, which I’d always ignored, narrow mindedly thinking that comics were the only art for me. I also finally got into photography, thanks to my dad. That was all around fall of 2002, more or less. And more or less, that’s what I’ve been doing ever since. “Working on the Journals.” Now I guess that sounds like less then it is. “Working on the Journals” is just how I think of living life I guess. Does that make any sense? I guess another way to word it could be that I try to record as much of life as possible in those books. They are always six or seven times their original thickness when I fill one up. Anyways, like I said, I’ve basically been working and traveling on and off for the past couple years, always adding to the books, whether I’m in the Attacama desert in Northern Chile, or in good old Portland, Maine, it really is no difference to me. Lots of people I’ve met traveling always tell me I’ve got a hell of a nice travel log going and that they wish they’d done the same so that they could remember these “once in a life time,” experiences. I just say that I make these things all the time though. Life ain’t gonna be better just cause of where you are. For example: Nepal, pretty much the most amazing place I’ve ever been to in every way with a couple tiny exceptions. But ya’ know what? I was miserable while I was there. Depressed, (dare I mutter the word “suicidal” in a public space, and trust no one will freak out at it?), the whole sha-bang. Before I actually got there, Nepal, in my mind was a place I was going to run away to and live happily ever after. Life doesn’t work that way, does it? Many of us believe that it does though.
Gradually over the years, things have changed for me. I’ve lost interest in mosh pits/ hard-core dancing and replaced the key to the feelings they used to unlock with martial arts training. The whole concert thing has been a love/ hate addiction for me for a long time. I’ve found that the only way I can stay connected to it and not hate it is through the camera. I guess we all hit a point somewhere out there when we’ve been part of something so heavily for so long that there comes a time where we must either find something else, or find a new approach. Bogus Rendition was a band name that came to me a few years ago, driving back home from some show at the Palladium. We were talking about how so many bands have such shitty names. “Nora?” “Murder by Death?” “Every Time I Die?” Indeed. Even good bands like “Anal Blast” have stupid names. Musta had something to do with the fact that I don’t really enjoy emo-hard-core. Either way, Bogus Rendition was originally a band name, and there will be a band called Bogus Rendition someday when I get around to it. We’re gonna rock your fucking socks off. We’ll make Vital Remains look like pop rock, and at the same time, make Cephalic Carnage sound as technical as the first drummer for Spinal Tap, and even then, we’ll be catchier then Blood for Blood and Killswitch Engage combined. Yeah, we’re gonna rock alright. But for now, Bogus Rendition is the name of my zine, something else I’ve just always wanted to do. The zine for me, like I said, is a way for me to stay connected to music and still be content. Now granted, I still enjoy tearing it up every other blue moon when some of the old favorites come to town, and nothing can replace crowd surfing, but for the most part, that part of me is released through other things now. The martial arts, the mountains, the freight trains, and of course the journals. Bogus Rendition is in a way just a bi-product that came from the journals, only now has become its own thing. And shit! Now it’s on the web! Hot damn! Anyways, what else does one write in a “bio” for their website? I think the CIA will find me if they ever wanted to, regardless of whatever dorky info I give out. You just have to have a savings account and they’ll find you. Hmmm…. My favorite color is blue, Cephalic Carnage is my favorite band, EVER, my favorite movie is Jurassic Park and it is also my favorite novel. I think that the internet is a joke, but here I am, I’m straight-edge, but only because I got sick of smoking pot all the time, not because Earth Crisis said it was cool, I’m 23 as I write this, blah, blah, blah. If you really would like to know more I’m sure you can use you’re imagination in conjunction with the rest of the stuff on this site. ;o)