Ok, here is the story of Ean. My parents moved from the East Coast to Boulder, Colorado in 1968, and gave birth to baby boy #1 in 1969. By 1972 they were living in Seattle, and breeding with a vengeance. Amongst brothers, sister, dogs, cats, a conure, ferrets, a goose, fish, guinea pigs, mice, hamsters, rats, snakes, a camon, and droves of neighbor children, I was raised to be a shameless geek. I attended Mcgilvra Elementary School, St. Joseph's Grade School, Washington Middle School, and finally, Roosevelt High School, whose echoing halls had once been home to rock stars such as Nikki Sixx, Duff McKagen, and Il Duce. Playing in a few HORRIFIC cover bands, I began to develop my taste for bands like AC/DC, Van Halen, and Led Zeppelin. Upon graduation in 1987, my father offered me one of two plans: Plan A) "Go to college". Plan B) "I will drag you physically down to the local recruiting office and YOU may choose either..." 1) Army 2) Navy 3) Air Force 4) Marines. He also added, "NO Coast Guard, that's a bunch of bullshit". Faced with this charming array, I chose the lazier route and trundled off to pursue a slightly less than challenging degree in Psychology.

In my sophomore year, my good friend Marlin took my live Led Zeppelin cassette, and taped The Sex Pistols and The Descendants over it. In case you were wondering just how "back in the day" Ean from Sicko's punk roots extended, this was my formative moment, and it occurred in late 1988. Joining the awful, yet seminal group, "Baby So High" later that year, I began the life of the indie rocker. This group was original pop punk with more than a hint of Rush in it. Eeeeshhh.... We played shows, made demo tapes, were hated, grew our hair, wore funny clothes, sustained constant rejection from girls and eventually kicked out our singer, the unfortunate Marlin. Several bands followed over the next few years, most notably, the Pullman All Stars, which is where I first played with Denny. This band played covers by The Lemonheads, Black Flag, Green River, Mudhoney, etc., and wore sillier outfits at every successive show. Breaking up because of a intra-band fight between Denny and John (later of TreePeople and Stuntman fame), we called it quits in semester 1 of my final year of college. As an interesting side note, the person who gave John the excessive volume of alcohol necessary to instigate the fight was my future bandmate and long time pal, Lo Fi Bri, currently of The Primate 5. Leaving college to pursue an internship and a future as a counselor, I returned to Seattle in January of 1991. Whilst working at various good-deedly type establishments such as, an adolescent drug and alcohol treatment center, a day care for children under the protection of the child protective service, and a day treatment center for mentally ill adults, I began to work on starting a band. Playing with Scott (earlier of Baby So High and The Pullman All Stars), and Johnny Ray (later to be a replacement drummer for Sicko and a Singer for Top Drawer Records' Old Man) the doomed "Pop Smear" was formed. With a name like that, we should have been killed, not just doomed. John got tired of playing drums for us, quit, and we began our search for a drummer. Scott also started to make noise about quitting, promising not to leave until after I found a new guitarist. Calling up my old Pullman All Stars Pal Denny, I invited him to move out to Seattle from Spokane and start a band. He was going to move anyway, and promptly arrived at my door. And stayed a while. Scott lasted for about one more practice, and then vacated.

Our drummer search began anew, and we were introduced to what still may possibly be the dumbest collection of mustachioed butt rockers in the history of the modern world. Meeting Queensryche enthusiast after Queensryche enthusiast, we resolved to get a decent drummer or die trying (or get a drum machine). Introduced to Josh by the then-frightening and now-still-frightening Justin, we were immediately impressed by Josh's speed and simplicity. The band was formed, and the name was chosen. I feel that I must give a bit of an explanation here... at this point I had played in 7 bands all of which had lasted less than a year. I felt that if history repeated itself, the issue of whether we had a good name or not would be moot. Thus, I wasn't worried about the long term implications of naming a band "Sicko". Unfortunately, this happened to be the one band I have ever been in that didn't fail utterly, and so, I am forever labeled a "Sicko" and my grandmother is very disappointed. Meandering through the world of "Grunge Explosion" Seattle, we played shows, made demo tapes, were hated, cut our hair, wore funny clothes, sustained constant rejection from girls and eventually kicked out a record on the local "punk" record label, Empty Records. The rest is history...

Next week, The Top Drawer Records Story: "How to piss off a lot of people, ruin you indie cred, and get into debt in 6 months (or less)."