Keith Trimm Biography

Rocking On

Since the unfortunate ending of the Bootleggers "Long live the Empire" tour, which didn’t last all that long, I have been concentrating on getting back to my roots as a hard rock guitar player and song writer. I have about 10 new songs posted to my second music site (I’m actually on about 12 sites but I use this one as my main one) that people can listen and download for free.
I play all the instruments on these songs and recorded them at my home studio. I think all together I have about 50 songs posted not including 25 or so I did with Bootleggers. At this time those songs are still available for download at download.com under the name Whiskey Runners where we were chosen as the editors pick for Contemporary Country.

For now my plans are to keep writing and recording and using the live playing time I had over the years as an influence in my music. When things are rocking and the crowd is a hopping, nothing beats playing live, but then there’s the drive home at 2am in the snow to look forward and unpacking.

A Brief History of Me

I thought I’d add a short biography about my music and art so folks who listen to my songs and look and my art might know where I come from and what makes me tick. My first memory of drawing/painting goes back to when I was in the first grade. I remember I painted a tree in tempera paints that won first place in some sort of first grade art contest. 20 years later I am attending the University of Nebraska to be an art teacher/graphic designer. After 4 years I was burned out and recently married so I didn’t finish my studies. It was during those years that my music career started in a dormitory in Kearney Nebraska.
My first memory of the guitar was when I was 10 years old. I remember watching Star Trek seeing Spok playing some sort of Greek harp and asking my mom if I could take guitar lessons. After some badgering, she sent me down the street to Mrs. Bliss who gave guitar lessons on piano. I remember hating trying to convert what she was doing to the guitar and the lame songs we were working on. I think the lessons lasted about 2 months. Later on when I was about 14, I bought a "how to" book and taught myself the notes and chords, plus I had some music training in band on the trumpet.

Move ahead to 1990 and I meet up with a music student from Scotts Bluff Nebraska who plays bass and wants to start a band real bad. At the time I owned a 4 track recorder and was into my 120th song and had no real desire to start a band from scratch but with his insistence, I found us enough people to get things going.

That band "Dirty Work" turned out to be the best band I ever played in. We started with two guys in a dorm with nothing and ended with a 5 piece rock band that played most of the decent bars in central Nebraska. That was the golden time, when I was playing what I wanted with the guys I knew I could count on.

Then one day that ended and my wife and I needed to move on since we were newly wed and didn’t think Kearney had what we wanted. In 1995 we moved to Fairbury where I was met a week later from the boys from Mother Tung. If you are familiar with Mother Tung, they had a reputation of being the bad asses of rock and roll. I know that at least 3 of them were the assholes of rock and roll, and I played bass with them for about 6 months. (I had to learn bass back in the Dirty Work days due to our bass player moving to Wyoming to chase a girl he met online)
After the Mother Tung incident, I joined "Midnight Run" which turned into "The Repeat Offenders" which thinned down to "The Bootleggers" over time. The one person in common to all three of these bands, other than me, was Kent Siebe. I played both guitar and bass in these bands and ended up playing country music as well.

All during these musical journeys I kept up my song writing and recording and managed to record a couple cd’s worth of music for the Bootleggers which ended up with the Editors choice on Download.com’s web page, and I think I have probably written and recorded over the years about 200 songs of which about 100 are online at this time.

I don’t want to say a whole lot about the fine folks I played with over the years since there was quite a diverse bunch, but one thing I have noticed is that musicians as a whole have ego’s that are large, easily bruised and there is usually one guy in the group who no matter what, thinks he runs the show. I have had the most fun I have ever had in a band and probably the worst crap in one as well which has really soured me to the whole live playing experience. I used to say that the only thing fun about being in a band is the 4 hours you spend on stage, the rest sucks, including putting up with assholes, tearing down at 1 am, driving home in the snow and unloading and fighting with the sound guy so that you aren’t buried in the mix.

I really enjoy the process of song writing and recording and have become quite proficient at it. I usually start off with an idea and write the song as I record the different tracks on the computer. I can then digitally manipulate anything I want in the song and double, triple or whatever I want to get the sound I want. Most of the songs were never played live or were even conceived until they were finished.

I really enjoy the way it allows me to do the bass lines, rhythm parts and the leads so I can put into the song, all I know how to. I have recently added a keyboard to the mix and have been working with a drum sequencer to get a realistic drum kit sound.

As far as my art goes, I have about a hundred sci-fi fantasy works listed on my main site along with 2 novelettes I wrote back in 1995. I haven’t returned to writing for the mere fact it takes a long time to write anything worth while and I am an instant gratification kind of guy. I want to add that I designed the famous Escape band "No pussy rock" cat logo back in the early 90's. I have also done many band posters as photographer and artist.

Keith Trimm (edit)