ABOUT JL HERRMANN
I learned to play guitar in 1982 when I was 18/19, in my second semester of college.
My first real band formed in 1984 in Wichita Kansas, B3D, consisting of Myself, Doug Schmidt, and Eric Grow on guitars (that was the 3), Jerry on bass (the B), and Carol Daubert on Drums (The D). We lasted about a year before Eric and Jerry left and we picked up Jeff Morrison and changed our name to DONT WALK. We lasted for several years and played some rowdy gigs and held some great parties.
Note all the links below to descriptions of the gear I was using.
I started getting more into recording in 85 and 86, and I started 3D Sound. I bought a Tascam 234 four track cassette deck from my friend Vic Andersen. I had a few paying clients and feel like we did some good work for a four track cassette studio. I recorded some tapes for Christmas that I gave to my family during this time. Created some decent early efforts at original songs using a Commodore 64 running Dr. T's software, and I had a Sequential Circuits Six-Trak keyboard, a Casio CZ-101 and a Roland TR-505.
In 1986 I got back together with Eric Grow and we created a two piece band that sounded like a full band. We we using MIDI, which was pretty new at the time. We used the Six-Trak, CZ-101, and the TR-505, but by then I had added a Korg DS-8, an Alesis HR-16, and a Yamaha FB-01 to the mix. I also upgraded from the Commodore to an Atari ST, which was awesome at the time. It had a GUI. I upgraded to Dr. T's MIDI recording software on the Atari ST. We created custom boxes to be able to setup at a gig and we created the band Intuit. As in, there were two of us and we were "in to it", get it?
I'll create a page for each of these bands and share the music that I still have. It holds a lot of memories for those of us that were making that music.
I 1988 I met my first wife, Chris, and we moved to Kansas City and had a son, Tommy, for which I wrote a song the day he was born. I didn't write much after that. We soon had a daughter, Amy. For many years I was busy with life, wife, kids, a home, job, and no time for writing music. I was in a few cover bands during that time, and I have some demo recordings I'll share. I made those recording with the equipment from the 3D Sound days. 🙂
I began writing again in 2005 after I discovered David Hakan's Kansas City Songwriter's Circle. I wrote a LOT of songs over the next few years once I got going. Some of those songs made it on to the four albums, which I will cover each in it's own section on this site. 2007- "Sing Truth to Power" and 2008 with the band The Herrmannators "We Are The People". More on those in their own pages.
In 2010 I had colon cancer, which set me back a bit. In 2011 I separated from Chris and met Linda, who would eventually be my second wife. In 2011, while living in a room rented in Virginia's (a different woman) house, I recorded my album "11", which will get it's own page as well.
In 2012 Linda and I moved to Greensboro, NC. I was being a consultant, flying around working in different places. I was trying to get a band going, and then my guts burst, which really set me back and broke the band up. After I recovered from that, IO started the very appropriately named "Disaster Recovery Band". I'll tell the DRB story in it's own page as well.
Finally, in 2023, as I turn 60, I intend to record my next album of original material. My intention is that I will record all the parts, do all the arrangements, mixing, and mastering, using all that I have learned over the years of writing and recording.. Along the way I plan to video and share the process in my Songs and Stories YouTube channel. Please subscribe and follow my journey.