Biography

Well this is how it all started

Art Lessing is me Dan Quillan

I started playing music back in '91 when my dad brought home a guitar from a garage sale.
He said I might like it. I started messing around and figuring things out...the beginning of
songs, certain strumms and whatever kept my fingers busy. Then I borrowed my friends
electric guitar (eventually bought it, torched it and recently restored it) and just kept at it. I
tried playing in bands but that never worked. I still practiced though. Then I joined a band
with my friends that was pretty typical for early 90's stuff. Sodden Grotto. We played for a
while but it didn't work out. We had a strange mix of people in the band. A Kiss fan:Joey,
and S.F. artist and long time friend Tim Rose was the singer, Me on guitar. and Ryan on
bass. We came up with some cool stuff. But, I had weird influences ( Dr. Demento, ) and the
music wasn't too satisfying, but it was pretty fun and it was my first band experience playing
live. We got one good show and ripped up the Cattle Club.

That project ended with the departure of our bassist and drummer. At the same time my
friend Mark Griffith was singing for a death metal band called Pax Mortis. They lost their
bassist so I jumped in. Straight technically challenging quick change death metal is what it
was. Very technically complicated stuff. My skill level got much better because of this band.
Then I started working for Tower records in west sac. That is when I met DJ Larry
Rodriguez. At the time I only listened to death metal and Pink Floyd, and some industrial. I
remember going to his house for a poker party and my music taste took a drastic change.

He put on Opal. Then Can, Faust, the Stooges, and a ton of other stuff that I had never
heard. I started messing around with home recordings and embarrassing my friends with
them. Some of the recordings still embarrass me. AND SO Death Metal was over for me. I
quit the band and started eventually playing with Larry in the Leather Dog Project. This was
started because of psychedelic trips to an abandoned train tunnel near my house, with
recording equipment, crude drums, banjo, violin, blown minds, and no skill and our friend
Destin and his portable DAT recorder. Then My car full of a bunch of home recordings got
ripped off before a trip to the tunnel..We took to Larry's loft to make more recording; some
awesome and some bad, but all different. However we found ourselves a bit stuck musically.
Destin moved, and Leather dog ended after brief jams with our friend Mick. But he was in
AA and we liked to drink alot. Then we both ended up out of tower and lost touch a bit while
we made new life adjustments.

During this time I found a job at the notorious downtown Statenet. This is where I met
Cosmo. We shared identical taste in music. We jammed a couple of times but he got busier
and busier. Then he let me borrow his four track once or twice. After a couple of slightly off
sounding recordings.. Art Lessing was born in 2000.

I made a recording that used the words from an art book called "How to draw the Head and
Figure." I Used the section on how to draw hair for my first lyrics; read last to frist. After the
song was complete, I titled it appropriatley: Art Lesson: How to draw hair. But then I quickly
realized that it sounded like a person. Art Lessing. So I appropriately retitled the song: Art
Lessing gives a lecture on how to draw hair. A letcture....I thought this would be a
interesting way to cover any form of music. I could have a music project with no boundries
The next problem I encountered was, my lack of instruments, and lack of money. This is
when I built my first crude violin (the monolin which is on the instruments page)...since I
have made many including "The Space Bass"...

Now after 7 years of this, I have released 9 full length albums and one EP as Art Lessing.
The music is a direct result of my influences. I have only one rule about the music I make. I
have to like it when I am done. I was also in a band called Eat the People. This started when
I was offered to play a show as Art Lesssing at the legendary Pirate House In Davis. I
recruted my new friend musician Sally Strobelight to accompany me for this show. We hit it
off right away. At the time Larry had also played percussion with his brother's band Los
Gallos. So not forgetting him I got him in on it too. We started making new music based on a
lot of Sally's Ideas as well as group ideas and many of mine. We played a show at an art
Galley as WOW. Then a guy came up to us and said because we were Larry, Sally, Dan,
we should be WOW LSD. the name stuck. Soon after Sally met Erin. She had a hidden
talent for music. She married into the band one day when she was at one of our practices.
We asked if she could play and she said she had messed around with violin and guitar. She
fell right into place and married in. We eventually changed the name to Eat the People.
After tremendous success and feedback, Eat the People drew to a close after a
performance in Portland OR. enticed Sally and Erin to move there. They have since formed
thier own group called Sky Diamond Mystery School...now called "Them Themselves or
They that's in it". I have teamed back up with Larry and we are now playing live worldwide .
We play some Art Lessing songs as well as our own new stuff. We play out as simply Art
Lessing and The Flower Vato.