KAOS 22
What is KAOS 22
I am KAOS 22.
I’m an identity. An entity. An alter ego. An ideology. Another version of myself.
I began as a musical dream. An idea without boundaries. Pieces of sound, thought, memory and imagination slowly becoming something more.
I’m rooted in the music of the past without living there. The hooks, harmonies and guitar-driven melody of ’80s and ’90s hard rock collide with alternative, industrial, progressive and melodic metal, electronic textures and cinematic atmosphere. That’s the plan anyway.
And no I am not a musical savant or a virtuoso by any means. I just want to get what’s in my head out of my head and into your ears.
I answer to no single era or genre, I play what comes to me. Whatever the song demands, I become.
But KAOS 22 is more than sound.
I explore themes of consciousness, reality, creation, technology and the human condition. I question what we think we know, what we perceive as reality, and whether something more exists behind it all. Like an architect or creator.
I am not a finished album.
I am not an established band with a catalog waiting for you.
Not even remotely close.
I am being created now.
The songs are being written. The recordings are taking shape. The sound is evolving. Even my identity is still revealing itself.
This page is where you can watch that happen and be part of it.
I’ll share ideas from their earliest beginnings: raw recordings, riffs, melodies and fragments, and let you follow along as they evolve stage by stage. Some will change beyond recognition. Some may disappear entirely. Others will grow into finished songs.
You won’t just hear the finished music. You’ll hear where it started, watch it change, and see what it eventually becomes. Hell, you’ll be part of it.
Think of this page as the garage before anyone knew what would come out of it. Hang out. Listen. Tell me what grabs you, what doesn’t, what you hear, or where you think an idea could go. I may take it somewhere completely different, or something you say might spark an idea I never would have found on my own.
That’s part of this whole thing too.
Someday, when these songs exist in their finished form, you’ll remember when they were nothing more than an idea, a riff, or a rough recording shared here for the first time.
You aren’t arriving after the story has been written.
You’re here while it’s being written.
No genre walls, no freakin’ rules.
I began as a dream.
I am becoming.
I am KAOS 22.
KAOS 22 // 123231312
The Story Behind the Name
KAOS 22 brings together two very different parts of my life.
The KAOS part started a couple of years after I joined The Last Alliance. I was trying to find an identity for myself musically—something that fit what was actually going on in my head.
I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s, and heavy, guitar-driven rock has always been at the core of what I love. But it was never the only thing I listened to. Pop, rap, country—if a song grabbed me, it grabbed me.
My influences don’t stay in their own lanes. Neither does my mind. There are sounds, ideas and different musical directions running through it all the time.
Chaos fit.
But the spelling didn’t.
I’ve always been drawn to Viking culture and a lot of European metal. KAOS simply looked and felt more like me. Why put a CH in front of it when a K does the job?
The 22 came from somewhere else entirely.
During the early years of my prostate cancer treatment, motorcycles were another part of my life. A friend wanted me to join his motorcycle club. Before I could even ride with him, he died in a motorcycle accident.
In 2017, I joined that club. Through those people, I found a bartending job at 1922 Coffee and Brew in Painesville Township, Ohio, which was also part of Catch 22 Tattoo.
The owners’ vision and their work with Mission 22 introduced me to something I hadn’t known about before: the fight against veteran suicide.
That stayed with me.
Working there gave me a much greater appreciation for the people who have fought for the freedoms I enjoy—including the freedom to make this music and become whoever I choose to become.
Whenever I come across a veteran, I make a point of thanking them for their service. The meaning of 22 became part of me. It even found its way into one of my tattoos.
So when KAOS and 22 came together, it felt natural.
KAOS speaks to my chaotic mind and the music coming out of it.
22 carries my appreciation for veterans and a cause that became personally meaningful to me.
Different meanings. Different parts of my life. One name that fits where I am.
KAOS 22.
Background & Influences
I grew up in the ’70s and ’80s and was always drawn to hard rock. KISS, AC/DC, Alice Cooper, UFO, Scorpions—that was the foundation.
Then I heard Iron Maiden, and my reaction was pretty much, “Holy shit.” It just kept evolving from there. Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica, Exodus. I got into thrash metal, too. There was always another band opening up something different.
Def Leppard had that European rock sound on On Through the Night that grabbed me. Then came High ’n’ Dry, which is still one of my favorite albums of all time.
Queensrÿche, Helloween, Rush—the music kept taking me somewhere else. Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime is, to me, one of the greatest concept albums ever. And I loved the progressive side of what Rush was doing.
Then there was the glam and hard rock side: Mötley Crüe, Poison, Cinderella, Bon Jovi. I liked it. It was fun. And when I first heard Skid Row, it was another “Oh shit, these guys are great” moment.
Shotgun Messiah, White Lion, Killer Dwarfs—there are so many bands I could name, and they all hold a special place in my heart. And I can’t leave out Ratt and Dokken, two of my favorites of all time. George Lynch is one of my guitar heroes, even though I can’t play anything like him. LOL.
The ’90s brought alternative and a changing sound. I had mixed feelings about some of it. A lot of what I was hearing felt different from the guitar-driven music I’d grown up loving.
But the 2000s were a different story. I heard In Flames and thought, “Fuck yeah, man. This is it.” That excitement was there again. My taste just kept evolving.
And rock and metal were never the only things I listened to. Pop, rap, country—if a song grabbed me, it grabbed me.
These days, I don’t listen to much music because it can interfere with what I’m trying to produce in my own head. I’ll hear a damn good song, and suddenly it’s, “Shit, get out of my head.” I’m trying to get my own ideas out.
But there’s a band out of Canada I think is freaking awesome: IT COMES TO LIFE. Check them out and join the resurrection. Connor and Carter—yes, I just pimped you guys out on my website.
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