MATTHEW PARRA- Bass guitar player for Bypassing Oblivion. 

I was born December 25, 1964 and did not come to properly appreciate music until I was introduced to the music of Queen in 1980 by my best friend. A few years of being an outspoken and unpaid music critic led me to start taking guitar lessons in 1984. 

I had been in a Christmas choir at my church in the winter of 1977 but never learned to read music, play an instrument, or continue singing. I can only wonder how my voice would have held up after puberty if I had continued singing. I had pretty good range and pitch but I will never know as it has been years since I risked inflicting vocal punishment on those who are around me. 

I did not practice guitar enough but was interested enough in music that I took a Beginning Music Theory class at Sacramento City College in 1986. I could read pitch reasonably well but had been lazy about the rhythm values of the notes. That got cured quickly in this class as I practiced playing the recorder ( a flute-like instrument ). I also began playing my guitar more often and once improvised some blues during a lesson with one of my instructors that sounded like decent Bob Seger guitar work. 

Unfortunately, my lack of discipline led to about 10 more years of solo practicing with no performing experience. During this period I did some work on two songs including one for solo banjo but only once did I play with other musicians. This improvised trio occurred on October 1, 1994 exactly 10 years to the day before meeting our gifted young drummer John. 

In 1999 I returned to college to face the academic demons I had fled from in 1988 and in 2003 I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Economics from CSU Sacramento. During these years I almost never practiced but did become friends with an amateur musician and co-worker named James. In 2001 he began writing and recording extensive amounts of material and even would do solo performances at our workplace and at open mics around Sacramento. 

I thought it would be exciting to do what he did but figured I would never have the discipline to be good enough to play in front of others. He was a solo performer but his Led Zeppelin and Stevie Ray Vaughn musical roots were fueling his desire to have a band to properly perform his material. Eventually he decided that when I graduated from college that I should be his bass player despite my complete lack of experience. About two months after graduating, in February 2004, I bought a Fender Squire Bass pack which came with a 15 watt practice amp and began figuring out the simplest of bass lines to a couple of James songs. We finally met at his house and continued meeting twice a week for about 2 hours each time. Only five months later I was performing in front of my brother Tom and some close friends at a coffeehouse called The Brick In Marysville as the bass half of a duo called Playne Brown Wrapper and even had the show recorded by one of the attendees. 

A HUGE amount of credit goes to James for making sure that rehearsals were not missed and were productive. I still cannot believe that I made that much progress in only five months. I was surprised at how few mistakes I made during that show and how much fun I had. Nervous yes but when you nail your parts during a hard driving song the excitement and energy could make the most humble of people want to strut around and revel in their own musical greatness (or mediocrity in my case ). 

There were two drummers early in 2004 and then in October 2004 we were blessed to find drummer John. One month later Danielle signed on after seeing Bypassing Oblivion, the trio, perform at Old Ironsides bar the night before Thanksgiving. She was even more rushed as we already had the January 2005 show (Once again at The Brick) scheduled. 

Six weeks later she showed no stage fright and added nicely to the vocal stew at that show and we have the recording to prove it. My musical goals are to progress beyond the U2 simple bass lines, learn many more of James's songs, and to bounce around as much on stage as I can without missing my notes like the hyperactive monkey that I am.