Mike Nixon
Lead Guitar, Vocals
It all started when I was very young, and was purchased from wandering gypsies for 37 cents and half a kit-kat bar. They were really very shrewd gypsies and haggled long and hard for that kit-kat bar. My parents hated to give it up, but they had dropped it on the ground anyway and ... ahem. I apologize, I got a little sidetracked.
Anyway, born at an early age, cute baby, reading and writing when I was 6 months old, musical genius, blah blah blah. Ya know, a typical kid.
I started fairly early with music lessons and took 8 or 9 years of organ lessons. I'd like to apologize to my parents for the complete waste of their money that was as I can barely pick out a tune or read music anymore. Should of bought that vacation home they wanted.
I bought my first album with my own money, Black Sabbath Paranoid. Once I heard Tony Iommi, I dumped the organ as quick as I could - not easy, those things are heavy - and whined until I got a guitar instead. I took two whole guitar lessons, then struck out on my own, inventing a new more obscure and totally non-money-making style of guitar playing that I still hopelessly cling to until today.
I spent literally decades honing and perfecting(HA!) my skill in various basements, safe from prying eyes and ears and secure in the knowledge that I was doing my part for humanity by protecting it from my (cough) musical talents.
Then I met Eric, and he introduced me to gundo and Jason got in there somehow too. Then they were really mean and asked me to join Toyboat at a party where there was other people and pressure and I couldn't really say no without looking like a wuss, so I said yes. So not really kicking and screaming, more like whining and moaning, but it still happened and now it's too late to do anything about it so I guess we all just have to live with it.
So since it's pretty common knowledge that I have the least amount of musical background, experience, and other stuff in Toyboat, what exactly do I do there? Well, I can almost hold a tune most times when I "sing" so that's something. And I write down normal words in strange and weird ways that I am very rarely embarassed about. I can string a note or two together on the guitar and I seldom faint anymore on stage, so win for me.
I never wrote any music - and least not actual songs - until I joined Toyboat and my total output is exponentially less than Tom Smith did in his worst hour he ever had, but I must be getting better at it. My dogs don't try to bite me anymore when I walk near my guitar.
My musical influences are varied, but guitarists I really like are Tony Iommi, Gary Moore, the guys from Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, most of the NWOBHM guys actually. Pete Townshend, Mick Box and too many to recount. I listen to everything from WASP to Alice Cooper to ELOY and almost everything in between. If it's loud and has a beat, I'm there.
I have been a geek and a nerd before those were good things to be and I have the fossilized bruises and scars to prove it. I saw all the good Star Wars movies and all the Star Trek movies on their first day of release so that must say something about how full and varied my life is, right? I have been attending cons for quite a long time now, and have eaten my way through many a con suite. I was a listener of filk long before I was forced ... I mean before I tried my hand at performing. I still have no idea why they would want to claim me, but it could be worse for them I suppose. I could be a cross gender cosplaying furry. I'm sorry but I'm too broke to pay for your therapy. Bleach may help.
