And the Hello and welcome to Soda Jaker on songwriting I'm Brian here with Simon and joining us for episode

249 is an impossibly talented American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist

as well as a founder member of celebrated funk band, Wolf Peck.

In March of this year via his own 10 Good Songs label,

he issued his truly special fourth studio album, Be the Wheel,

recorded live to tape in his Cinnamon Ranch studio in the wild of Michigan.

We are delighted to welcome the excellent Theo Katzman to the show.

Theo was born in Manhattan, New York in 1986 and grew up in Manhass at Long Island. Music definitely ran in the family. His mom, though a graphic designer by profession, was also a talented singer and the daughter of professional classical musicians. While his dad Lee was a respected jazz trumpeter who played with the Carson

era Tonight Show band, the Benny Goodman band, and the Stan Kenton Orchestra to name just a few.

Four-year-old Theo would sometimes attend his dad's rehearsals, although he was mostly retired by that point,

and seasoned jazz cats were often dropping by the family home. Though his parents didn't pressure him

into becoming a musician, he started playing piano age seven, switching to clarinet in the fourth grade.

However, drums were his first love and inspired by hearing Led Zeppelin's John Bonham

on the Ocean picked up the sticks in earnest age 12.

When he hit his teens he added guitar to his arsenal and began writing songs,

as well as forming a covers band in high school

and was told by one of his 10th grade music teachers that he had serious potential.

After graduating high school, Theo moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan in 2004,

where he majored in jazz and contemplative studies at the University of Michigan. Whilst

there, he joined the band My Deer Disco, which also boasted Future Wolf Pet Bandmates,

Joe Dard and Joey Dosek. Having flown the My Dear Disco Nest in 2010, Theo

independently released his first solo album, Romance Without Finance, the following year.

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