Born in Fairfax, Virginia, Chad spent his first 8 years in northern Virginia before his family moved to Titusville, Florida. There, he would listen to his grandmother, Jeane Jackson, play piano and sing while he sang along right beside her on the piano bench. This inspired him to pick up his grandfather’s Cherokee Indian drum and play along with her or whatever was on MTV. By middle school, he already had his first band, named by his first girlfriend. Spontaneous Combustion was the name and Chad’s music career was born. High school saw Chad playing in a few bands, but mostly he concentrated on marching snare drum and symphonic percussion, with the hopes of making onto the drumline at Florida State University. During his freshman year at FSU, he got on the drumline but didn’t march, with the intent to be a “starter” on snare drum the next year. All this changed with his first professional gig with Remington Ride, then a blues band, mentored by Florida blues legend Charles Atkins. From then on there was one goal – find a way to play music all the time…

By his sophomore year, Chad was putting together his own bands with musicians he’d meet at jam sessions or through the FSU School of Music. His bands were playing at fraternity parties, house parties, bars and regional clubs. Not only was he singing, playing drums, recording, and writing for the groups, he was also managing, booking, and promoting these bands. He also played drums for the FSU basketball team band, where he got to play in front of crowds as large as 14,000 at the Leon County Civic Center. Tallahassee had treated him well, but a change was needed…

In the year 2000, with the help of a group of fellow FSU graduates, Chad moved up to Atlanta to pursue music life in a big city. He was still running his own original bands, when he got a call from a Tallahassee friend saying Ancient Harmony was looking for a new drummer. Already a fan of the band, he happily joined and went out for his first extended tour and taste of road life. While fulfilling childhood fantasies of seeing most of the country and playing most nights of the week, loneliness and mental illness took their toll and he had to bow out of Ancient Harmony. After this disappointing run-in with the road, he decided music engineering and production, the studio world, would be the way to be around music all the time, but not have to travel so much.

After a failed attempt at auditioning for the Georgia State recording program, Chad met his mentor and friend Mark Michaelson, owner of WonderDog Sounds Studios. He and Mark, drummer, singer, engineer, and liquid acrobat, struck up a friendship immediately. Here he learned the ins and outs of running a grade-A studio under Mark’s direction. Chad, also serving as house drummer for WonderDog Sounds, got the chance to play on numerous recordings including Mark’s “In This World But Not Of It” on Ravan Records. But he wasn’t done with the road…or rather the road wasn’t finished with him.

While at WonderDog, Mark introduced him to some young musicians who needed a drummer. Josh Becker, Jason Ezzell, and Jon Stradtman got Chad excited about being in a band again and One Ton Tablespoon was born. Feeling good about being back on stage again, Chad joined Ancient Harmony to play a one-off show for Paul Levine’s Down on the Farm Festival near Tallahassee. The show went so well, Ancient Harmony v2.0 was born with Tony Giordano taking over on keys. AH trucked around the Southeast for another 5 years before amiably calling it quits.

Chad continued working at WonderDog Sounds along with Tony, the house keyboardist for the studio. Tony kept telling Mark and Chad about this band he started playing with, called Lingo. So, when Lingo needed a new drummer, Tony naturally asked Chad – knowing his friend was ready for another adventure. And the adventure continues…