I was brought up in a house of music. My surrogate uncle was a man named Eddie Freeman who’s house was full of guitar lessons, guitar building and Flamenco performances. Weekend evenings were open house for Flamenco. Regular guests had their own beverage bottles in the cupboard, the owners name on a piece of tape. It was crowded, clouds of cigarette smoke and the explosive sounds Flamenco – singing, dancing, palmas and guitar. I was six years old before I was allowed a 3/4 size guitar and formal lessons. Once study began it was allowed to be in the workshop to watch Eddie build guitars which fascinated me for many years.
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- Eddie in the workshop
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- Eddie listening to a student
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- An evening like many
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- My mother with Paco and Tom
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- Eddie and his buddy in the later years
At the age of ten study of the trumpet began and continued for two years. During this time I flirted often with the drums before and after band practice.
At twelve years I got a trap set and began drumming which continued through high school.
At fourteen I began study of acoustic finger style guitar as well as acoustics.
At seventeen, the beginning of St. John’s College, I traded the trap set for a vintage Martin guitar.
At St. John’s I studied Liberal Arts with classical literature, no text books, only the original works of Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Herodotus etc… – which translates roughly into the history of western thought and philosophy.
At Embry Riddle Aeronautical University I studied Aeronautical Science which led to becoming licensed as pilot.
I obtained an Airline Transport Pilot & Flight Instructor Licenses: Airplanes, Helicopters and Gliders.
I began soldering and modifying audio gear during helicopter flight school (1984).
Flying career developed into operations in USA, EU, Somalia, Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Seychelles, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, and Indonesia. This included African field operations for foreign aid, Emergency Medical Services & Sea Search and Rescue. Factory Test Pilot & Instructor with Bell Helicopter, Kawasaki Helicopters and Dornier Flugzeugwerke.
I began designing and building tube amplifiers and horn speakers in 1994 and started a small company with these products in 1998. The company continued in parallel with the flying career until I retired from flying in 2016.
We moved to countryside France, and began full time development of our current products.
In 2021 we moved to the wood production region of Northern Portugal to a city which is listed as an Unesco City of Music.
My wife Camila and I live among vineyards with two 140m² workshops dedicated to music reproduction design and manufacture. Our team consists of my wife, Camila, who is an architect and designer, Joabe who is a CNC specialist and wood worker, who joined our team recently as the business expanded, and myself.
Our focus is to bring authentic music into peoples homes, to bring the human experience and expression in recordings back into life.
