From Mike Bones: "I grew up in New Jersey, in the same city as the talented and critically-acclaimed songwriter and performer Ted Leo. May I suggest then, that I am proof that even in a vast cesspool like New Jersey, there is nothing in the water. I taught myself to play the guitar and I achieved a Catholic high school education. At first chance, I moved across the river to New York City where I still live. "I got a place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn with a friend from home. The mid to late Nineties, as history has clearly shown us, was a creative time for that particular neighborhood, where many bands that are celebrated today got their start. Sadly, I didn't see or play in any of those bands. I used hard drugs daily and played the guitar a bit. I wasted hours pondering anything. I rarely left my block. Sometimes I slept with women. "Having survived the peculiar and troublesome existential dilemma that is late adolescence, I got my shit together and wound up living in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, which I preferred to Brooklyn. I started playing in bands and writing terrible songs. I managed to have relationships that lasted longer than a few months. I had a mildly interesting job that paid well and sent me to nice places. I bought clothes by Ralph Lauren. "Then I got serious about writing songs. "I had to give up the job. A frustrated girlfriend left me. The clothes have holes in them and the rent is late. The usual. But I suspect the songs have gotten a little better. Things are looking up." Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.