Doug was classically trained on piano and spent many years singing in his church choir. He has perfect pitch and can play just about any instrument he puts his hand on. Ask the band about the Geebah-tar.
He also learned about the power of political activism at a young age, accompanying his mother as she fought for women’s equality and choice. So, Doug arrived at Columbia an experienced musician and fully politicized. He gravitated to the Grafeful Dead scene and fellow Dead Heads.
He and Willie became close friends and constant jamming partners. At a fateful jam in Luke’s room in the Columbia dorm McBain with Willie and Matt Luke handed him a Bass and set him on his path as a Bass player. Columbia dorms would play a profound role in his life and the arc of dreamspeak. Months later down the hall in McBain, Doug, Billy and Biily‘s HS buddy Jimmy Gannon, would pen the first two collaborative dreamspeak songs.
In the Spring of ’85, his suite in Hartley, the Russian Suite, would be the headquarters to the Blockade of Hamilton Hall, the protests to get Columbia to divest from South Africa. That protest action was formative moment for what would be dreamspeak. It informed the band with a sense of community and that the band and it’s music are connected to people and action.
After the semester ended Doug headed out to Long Island to form dreamspeak. First playing as the backing band for Sean O’Brien’s group, Pure Instinct. By the end of the summer, dreamspeak was a band and Doug was the bass player, a song writer and vocalist.
Following dreamspeak’s break up, Doug made his way to SF and then onto LA, where he played in many great bands. He was a regular in the Kibbutz Room at Cantor’s, when that scene had some of LA’s hottest players as regulars. He returned to college at UCLA and got his degree. Then, went on to get his MBA from Anderson. All the while continuing to jam regularly.
He briefly formed the Jam Band Saturn Returns with old friend, Doug Grean and for that band wrote several collaborations with Billy, the first in many years. They are currently working on a new tune. When we are not in lock down, Doug gigs regularly with the always busy Rich Sheldon. He looks forward to the next dreamspeak reunions in studio and on stage