After graduating Yale University in 2003, I moved to Austin, TX to start a band with my brother Tim (aka “Bonesaw”) and two others. Full Service toured nationally for 15 years until we amicably disbanded in 2018. Bonesaw and I continued on under a newly-branded Two Player name, but on a part-time basis, especially since the pandemic and since the birth of Bonesaw's daughter, Mo.

During my Full Service years, I nurtured and developed various interests that ran parallel to (and in service of) our music career, especially recording engineering and video production. In fact, in 2009, I edited a full-length documentary called “Takeover” (shot by my longtime friend and co-collaborator on this project, Morgan Betz of Red Pup Films).  “Takeover” told the story of an absurd, risky, but ultimately very successful, stunt in which Full Service followed a huge arena tour (311 and Snoop Dogg) and played in the parking lots for fans before they went into the venue. The idea was not to “get noticed” and invited in by those bands; rather, it was to scale up our fanbase exponentially by putting ourselves in front of so many people in major city markets. In the end, we succeeded in that goal and a “moonshot”: we did end up getting noticed by 311, and ended up opening for 311 on several tours and events.

This was happening when most streaming platforms were non-existent or just starting out, Myspace was dying, and Facebook and Instagram were just a glimmer in Zuckerberg’s eye. So, when we finished the film, there wasn’t as much of an internet to promote it on or streaming platforms to sell it to.  Instead, we hit the road and booked our own screening tour as a way to promote our new film and our band. That promotion worked well for us, but our focus on progressing the band left little time for filmmaking as a distinct business line.

When Full Service hung it up in 2018, Bonesaw and I resolved to dive into other pursuits alongside our new Two Player musical project.

For me, that meant running a recording studio we’d built on our property in South Austin in 2016 and recording and mixing music professionally for other bands out of what we ended up calling The Dream. I also started getting gigs as a freelance videographer and video editor for projects ranging from full-length documentaries still in post-production to mini-documentaries and promo pieces for bands and business.

I also launched a fun business during a global pandemic called Puppet Telegrams (think “Cameo” but with puppets. Puppets that aren’t famous). It quickly took on a life of its own and did $10,000 in sales over the course of a year. That might be the thing I’m most proud of, and someday I’m convinced it will bring in millions. But I’ve pressed paused on that while I see the Torched project through.

For Bonesaw, the disbanding of Full Service meant using the managerial and business chops he honed over those heady band years in new ways. In 2018, he and two others (Rachel Yeager and Andrea Esparza) founded the first-ever professional women’s Ultimate Frisbee team in Texas; the Austin Torch.  He followed that up by co-founding (along with Maddy Frey, Angela Lin and many others) the first-ever women’s/non-binary professional international Ultimate Frisbee league; the Premier Ultimate League.  

As for me, I built my second act around my other passion: filmmaking and film editing. I've done brand promo pieces for social media (Dulce Vida Tequila, ATX Family Dentist, Duff Co. Plumbing, St. Thomas Episcopal Church), sports highlights and player profiles (Premier Ultimate League, the Austin Sol, TUSC Ultimate camp, Nike Ultimate camp), band documentaries and promo pieces (Pale Blue Dot, Badfish, Full Service), weddings, and the list goes on.

Back when brother Bonesaw launched the Austin Torch in 2018, I began filming their journey, as I suspected there was a story there. As the years went by and the life of the team and league survived financial woes, a global pandemic, and myriad DIY growing pains, I found my film.

It is my directorial feature length debut, and while I'm excited to see where Torched goes, I already have my next documentary planned. It will tell the story of a professional Rwandan cyclist born in the middle of the 1994 genocide who, against all odds and after a devastating leg injury, became the first Rwandan to win the Tour de Rwanda. A national hero, he has recently moved to Austin, TX to start a new life for himself, learn new skills, and lay the foundation for his new dream; starting a cycling academy for Rwandan youth.