I was born a small Japanese child in Okinawa, Japan. I felt a little out of place, what with my older brother and 3 sisters being born in the States. At the time of my arrival, Dad was doing gub'ment work on assignment, you see.

At two months old, my parents decided I was strong enough to hit the road, so they packed us up and we crossed the oceans, Virginia bound. The tobacco rush was over, so the folks settled for more gub'ment work.

While my parents were out solving all the problems of the world, big brother John and I were busy dreaming about being rock stars. He was a natural on guitar, and Eddie Van Halen was his idol. So he decided I would be his Alex, and for the next 13 years or so I practiced my drumming, and studied, and studied, 'til it stopped being fun.

So I found myself at the University of North Texas, halfway through a music degree and burned out on the whole thing. Not an uncommon occurrence around there. I changed my major and tried not to think about music much. But for graduation, what I wanted and what I got was an acoustic guitar. It's one of the best things that's ever happened to me.

I worked on it a bit, and got three or four chords under my belt. Shortly after, big bro' John let me borrow his collection of John Prine CDs, and I was hit by the proverbial bolt of lightning. I've got the scars to prove it. You see, I realized that we both knew the same four chords! And like mine, his voice was barely passable! But something in the way he used his ideas was stirring my soul and urging me to give it a try. This opened up a new world of music and creativity to me.

I feel very fortunate to be in North Texas now, with lots of great things going on in the little world that us singer/songwriter types inhabit. I can do my own little song thing, contribute my drum thing, and partake in the incredible creativity displayed by my similarly inspired friends. All this, and I get to meet some of my big songwriting heroes, and sometimes play for them and with them. It's like I'm 8 years old, and I get to play football with Joe Montana all the time!

JP lives in the countryside near McKinney, TX with college sweetheart and wife of thirteen years, Elizabeth, and their four dogs:  Moseley, Haley, Kiwi and Hemi.  In his spare time, JP enjoys cycling, restoring his 1968 Mopar and writing songs, of course!