Doug Knapp was the guy who introduced me to improvised music. He was my best friend from the 10th grade to his untimely death by his own hands at the age of 29 on August 31, 1994. The guy was one of those naturals, he made playing look soooooo easy. Most people knew him as a guitar player, but in his heart, he was an engineer. He did some pretty amazing stuff with a Fostex 4 track mini studio and a little later with a Fostex 8 track reel to reel.

Unfortunately, his depression held him back, as depression usually does. He had one job his entire life, from age 13 till the day he died, at a place called Models, Inc., where he could make anything out of anything. Total custom fabrication, from flying saucers used in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, giant signs for Walt Disney World, parts of the scale model of the space shuttle that you can tour at Kennedy Space Center and everything in between.

The songs on Doug's page represent two things. There are a couple of tapes I have of Doug and myself with a few different drummers that, instead of making different pages for them, I decided to put here. I also link those same CDs from my page, so be forewarned. The rest represent Doug's pure solo work in his private studio, with the exception of one track in which he is joined by Kirk Jackson on bass & 'vocal sounds' (not really vocals...), Kevin Jackson on drums and me on 'vocal sounds' (again, not really vocals...). When you consider the lion's share of this work was done on a 4 track casette recorder, it's even more amazing.