1986 Deutreaux
By late 1985, Brian had his first guitar, a black Kramer "Stricker", which he bought at Roosevear`s in Aberdeen with money he
had earned at McDonald`s. In 1985, Brian and & his friends Adam Stone, Tom Flood & Darin Wickstrom had taken part in a lip-synch
contest at the high school, doing a "Dokken" performance, for which they won first place. Brian, Adam & Tom also got together
occasionally in one of the band practice rooms and "jammed" for real. One of these jams was actually captured on tape. Brian
did all the vocals and guitar. Adam Stone did the drums and Tom Flood did the bass, which they had borrowed from a math teacher,
Mr. Hepp. (Tom didn`t own his own bass). They called themselves Deutreaux, after a substitute teacher`s name--Mrs. Dutro, but
they changed the spelling "to make it look COOL!!" One of their friends actually made a few home-made Deutreaux T-shirts!!
There were no gigs.
It was during the Deautreux days in the spring of `86, that a well-known local band, Sabre, had come to Montesano High School
to play at a dance. Brian got his nerve up and asked between songs if he could have a shot at singing a tune and they let him.
Sabre was a heavy metal band (more-or-less) and most of the band were looking toward changing their style to more melodic type
rock, (which was what Brian was into), but the singer wanted to stay heavy metal.
Finally, in August 1986, Sabre parted ways
with it`s singer and hired Brian, at which point, there was a name change to Nykko.
Nykko consisted of Brian-(lead vocals, keyboards, guitar), Bill Pitts-(aka-William Wayne) (guitars, vocals), Nate Whorton-(bass, vocals) & Darryl Harris (drums, vocals). The band occasionally switched lead vocals around (as well as instruments) for different tunes. According to Bill Pitts, the name came from a piece of stereo gear called Nikko, and Nate Whorton mentioned it came from a Japanese car part named Nikko. Both mentioned a change of dropping the i for a y. Nykko began playing lots of gigs and recorded bits here and there. According to Brian, the first gig was at the Blue Eagle Tavern in the south-side of Aberdeen, WA. in Sept. 1986. (It was torn down in Feb. 2002). They did original and cover songs. In the spring/ summer of 1987, they recorded a demo of cover tunes. Around this time, they also recorded four original songs, , "Behind Your Window" , "Sometime Ago", "Long Line For Love", and
"Too Late To Talk It Over", which was written by Brian and was the first song he wrote. These were recorded at Sideline,
in Aberdeen, Washington. Sideline was/ is an auto-wrecking business, where Nate worked at the time. His father owned the
business and the band would practice and record there. In the spring of 1988, they recorded another batch of songs at
Sideline, re-recording the four originals, recording 2 cover songs "No Time", and "No Matter What", and 8 new original songs.
They were "Reach Out", "Give It Some Time", "New World", "Positude", "It`s Too Late Tonight", "In My Shoes", "Worlds Apart",
and "When You Were Mine". They were good songs, but the finished tape didn`t sound the best, as the band had used too much
reverb. As Nate said, "we thought reverb was our friend, but it wasn`t."
In early 1988, Brian made plans to go to Musician`s Institute in Los Angeles, to "professionalize" his vocals and test to see
how far he could go. He continued to work with Nykko though most of 1988 & they recorded at Steve Lawson`s Studio in Seattle
on July 23 & 24th, re-recording "It`s Too Late Tonight" & "New World". In August of 1988, they recorded the last tracks with
Brian at London Bridge Studios, re-recording "Positude", "Give It Some Time" & "When You Were Mine" . In September of `88, Brian left Washington to move to L.A. The other guys continued together for awhile, but there were no more Nykko gigs. A final "Nykko" recording was made in late 1990, with Bill, Nate & Darrel, with 8 songs. The project was called "B.N.D." Mark Bowman played harmonica on one of these songs, whom with Brian would briefly work with a few years later. The others in the band are still active in music. Unfortunately, none of Nykko`s recordings were ever released, except the last version (Seattle recording) of "When You Were Mine", which was released in 1994, on the local radio-station release "KDUX- The Home-grown Collection". There are 2 Nykko videos known to exist. Nate has an interesting Nykko page, with some cool links of current projects with Nate and Bill, etc. It can be found at www.dudesrock.com. Look under the Nate Whorton section in the menu.
1988-91 The L. A. Years- Cascade, Ashen Chronicles, Bob Cameron, Les Coulter And The Dream Street Band, Tita Hutchison, Thunderbay,
Vic Trigger , Mark Evans. Ollie Olson
In September 1988, Brian moved to Los Angeles and began attending Musicians Institute, where he "professionalized" his vocal
talents. He met and worked with many well-known musicians there, including Tim Bogart (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus, Jeff Beck, etc.),
members of Toto, Quiet Riot, the Tonight Show Orchestra, etc. In March of 1989, he graduated from V.I.T. (Vocal Institute Technology)
at Musicians Institute, and in September of 1989, he became a vocal instructor there. While there, he recorded many demos
for different musicians, doing lead and background vocals. He performed with Les Coulter and the Dream Street Band at
Musicians Institute. Les had been Brian`s vocal instructor there. He also recorded 3 songs with Les of Les` material.
Together, they did vocals on an episode of the soap opera "Days Of Our Lives". He put lead vocals on a 4-song demo by guitarist
Roy Ashen, and a 3-song demo by Bob Cameron. He also collaberated on a demo with Tita Hutchison, doing a duet on lead vocals with
her on a song called "I Know You By Heart". He also put back-up vocals on recordings by Thunderbay and Ollie Olson. Brian and
guitar instructor (at the time) Vic Trigger, (who released an ultra-rare collectable record LP in the 70s) recorded a couple demo
songs for Tremaine Dance Company. The first one , "Wendy" (the Beach Boys tune) also featured Les Coulter. The second one,
"Georgia On My Mind" has unfortunately vanished. After Brian and Vic tried to get a copy, it was never located!! A British
cartoon company had Brian do lead vocals on a theme song for a proposed cartoon. The music was by Mark Evans.
"Under Neptune`s Flag" was never used though, to Brian`s knowledge.
He also had a project with Bill Raymond,
who also had moved from Brian`s hometown, and who had been a former drummer for Sabre. It was called Cascade.
They wrote several songs and put 3 on a demo tape. At one time, it looked as if Epic Records was interested, but nothing came of it.
Bill Raymond soon began working outside of L. A., and things were changing for Brian too. In January of 1991, Brian left Los Angeles to get married and start a family.
He was married in February to Tami Bozak, and had a son, Kyle, later that summer. His musical career was put on hold for most of
the rest of 1991.
1991-94 Plus Tax, Samson, Mark Bowman, Hall Aflame, Rick Girard, Shawn Bodiford, Steve Brown Band and Solo Stuff
After settling down back in Montesano with his family, Brian got back into music. In 1991, he did backup vocals on a locally
released CD by "Samson", a project by Sam Bruer. It was his first collaberation with ex- Metal Church guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof,
who played guitar on the CD. He also recorded with local musician Mark Bowman (later of Vanshurman) art Bill Pitt`s studio,
doing keyboards on "American Music:" At the end of 1991, he ran into some old friends who knew Brian from the Nykko days,
Duke Harner and Doug George, who were in a 3-piece band, Plus Tax, with guitarist Steve Brown. Doug and Duke had also
previously worked with Nate Whorton in Black Ice, which was before Nykko or Sabre.
Brian met Steve and they asked Brian if he
would join Plus Tax and he did, adding another demension with his vocals and keyboards, and second guitar. They were basically a
cover band, doing an original song by Brown here and there, but they were very popular on the Harbor. Brian did his first show
with them at the Pourhouse Tavern in January 1992. The band kept a very busy schedule the next few years. In the summer of 1992,
Brian put back-up vocals on a Hall Aflame song, "Lead That Horse To Water". This was Kurdt Vanderhoof`s band after Metal Church,
which had found a new drummer in, none other than Brian`s friend, Bill Raymond! Unfortunately, nothing ever happened with the demo.
Brian had also began writing his own songs and recording them. In early 1992, he recorded "Don`t You Worry" and "Smile" at
Kurdt Vanderhoof`s studio. He recorded "Happy To Stay Around" and "All Mine" at Sam Bruer`s studio. He also recorded several
unfinished songs (no vocals) at his home studio, including "Tell Me", and "No Way To Make It Right". Brian traveled to
Vancouver, B.C. twice to record lead vocals for Rick Girard in early 1993 and 1994. This resulted in two songs,
"Pictures Of Kay" (1993) and "Some Dreams Never Die" (1994--another song that has gone missing). This was not the most
pleasant experience for Brian.
Also, the engineer kept having him do take after take. Brian and Duke Harner of Plus Tax, did a 4-song demo for Shawn Bodiford
(also known as Shawn Johnson and other names.....according to Duke, his name changed as often as the bill collectors came)...in
March 1994. That month, Brian also appeared in a local anti-drug video made for schools by musicians. He also began appearing in
local radio commercials doing vocals in them. Around this time, a local CD from the local radio station was released, for which
Plus Tax went into the studio and recorded the old blues-rock song "Evil". The CD also had a cut by Nykko and other area bands.
They began playing "Evil" in their live shows. Promotion of the CD went seemingly well, and the band was as popular as ever,
appearing on local radio, and sharing the bill with Curtis Salgato and Foghat. But outside interests were creeping up on Plus Tax.
Brian had been working on his own material for some time.
In the spring of 1994, he released
(locally, although he did shop it around), a self-titled ten-song cassette of his own compositions.
The tape featured Steve Brown, Doug George and Bill Raymond. It was a great showcase for Brian`s talents.
The other guys in Plus Tax were also doing their own things. In 1993, Doug formed another original band called Charlie Horse,
who immediately began recording. Steve Brown was also working on his debut CD called "Lonely", although he had been recording
his own songs for years. With all the outside interests, and the band needing a rest, they played their last gig in
September of 1994. Late that month, Brian and Tami had a daughter born, Kasey. Steve formed the Steve Brown Band,
for which Brian and Doug played for in the last few months of 1994, before going to other projects.
1995-96 Brian & Gary, Fade To Blue, and solo stuff
In the Steve Brown Band, Brian had met keyboardist Gary Evans. In the start of 1995, they branched out and began appearing
in clubs such as the Eagles as "Brian & Gary". After a few months of that, they formed a cover band called Fade To Blue.
It featured Brian, Gary, John Meyers on guitar, and David Joines on drums. The band did fine locally. Brian also recorded
six of his own songs at Steve Brown`s Toybox Studios in 1996. They were "That`s What I Am", "Feels Like The Real Thing".
"Letter To A Friend", "I Don`t Care If You Like It", Tomorrow`s Answers", and "One Goes On". Toward the end of the year,
Brian learned that Fade To Blue was going to replace their drummer. Brian suggested Bill Raymond. After a New Years gig,
at the start of 1997, Brian was told by Gary and John that they were going to form a duo, meaning the band was history.
Ironically, a few months later, there was a newer, tamer version of Fade To Blue. Hmmmmmm.....
Read this with Scott Cokely on his webpage
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