Jeff Olson (Musician)

Jeff Olson (born July 14, 1962) is a percussion artist from the international doom/rock bands, Trouble and Retro Grave. Olson has left and rejoined Trouble three times; he was in the band from 1979 to 1986, and again from 1993 to 1996, when the band was on hiatus. He rejoined Trouble in 2002 when the band reunited, but left for good in 2008.

Trouble

The release of Trouble's Pslam 9, in 1984 and the "The Skull" following in 1985 soon led to the departure of Olson to pursue teaching music while simultaneously writing musical scores, recording and releasing on his own label, Upland Recording, and later receiving a BM degree in Film Scoring from Berklee College of Music while still participating in all of Trouble's future albums with the exception of "Manic Frustration" recorded in 1992. [www.RetroGravemusic.com]

Olson has toured internationally with Trouble, off and on since 1979, headlining shows throughout the US and performing at numerous music festivals throughout Europe that included the infamous 1995 Dynamo Open Air Festival in front of a staggering record high audience for Dynamo of over 118,000 people. [http://youtube.com/watch?v=4BowjBiGQT0 Dynamo Open Air Festival. Plastic Greenhead performance 1995.] In July 2008, Jeff announced his resignation from Trouble, claiming "I felt like I was never taken seriously as a musician with the guys from TROUBLE, but I did the best I could in that 28-year effort with the band." [http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=101999]

Songs written for Trouble by Olson

*Victim of The Insane (Psalm 9)
*drums parts for E.N.D. (self titled Trouble album)
*Till The End of Time (Plastic Greenhead)
*Beginning of Sorrows (Simple Mind Condition)

Retro Grave

The debut, self-titled (self-released) Retro Grave EP was released on June 5 2007. The EP was written, recorded and performed in its entirety by Olson. In October 2007, Michael Schermuly was added as the permanent guitarist for Retro Grave. In December 2007, J. Cortes and Rob Zimmermann were chosen by Olson to complete the line-up.

Background

Jeff Olson was born on July 14, 1962 in Wareham, Massachusetts. He later moved to Aurora, Illinois with his family at the age of five. Olson' first learned how to play the piano when he was six and later learned to play trumpet when he was eight. By the time he was twelve, Olson began marching for DCI (Drum Corps International) with the Fox Valley Raiders in the snare line. The following season, The Raiders drum corps folded and Olson then joined Blue Stars of Lacrosse Wisconsin playing first soprano bugle. He can be seen on the [DCI] Legacy DVD (front row first soprano bugle side left).

Olson has kept busy over the years during Trouble‘s hiatuses. He graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1992 with a BM degree in Film Scoring, composed tunes for the Borealis Theater Company in Chicago as well as producing an album for children titled, "Children's Stories From Around the World." [ [http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712070324 Great Falls Tribune - www.greatfallstribune.com - Great Falls, MT ] ] In 1996, Olson created the "electronic music ensemble" course when he was a teacher of midi and recording techniques at Wabaunsee Community College in Aurora, Illinois. The following year he was commissioned by the Paula Fraz Dance Company in Chicago, IL to arrange and to compose original music for the performance of "Songs My Mother Sang Me. Olson received the prestigious 'Ruth Page Award' for his work on that production. In addition to holding the drum chair for both Trouble and Retro Grave, Olson has also delved into other band projects. He played drums for Trouble guitarist, Bruce Franklin's, Supershine as well as Trouble guitarist, Rick Wartell's, Wet Animal. Olson was also involved with pre production work and recorded percussion for "Canticle of the Plains" by Rich Mullins.

References (External links)

Notes

# [http://www.newtrouble.com Official Trouble website] NewTrouble.com
# [http://www.RetroGraveMusic.com Official Retro Grave website] RetroGraveMusic.com
# [http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2007712070324 Great Falls Tribune] "Drummer Marches to a Very Busy Beat" Douglass, Patrick. 2007
# [http://www.Roadburn.com Roadburn Festival and Zine] Olson, Jeff. Biography of Retro Grave. 2007
# [http://www.metalcentre.com/webzine.php?p=interviews&lang=eng&nr=306 Metal Centre] Johnson, Joshua. The formation of Retro Grave.
# [http://www.battlehelm.com/interviews/retrograve.htm Battle Helm] Siva, Shan. Lay Preacher legend, Early days of Trouble, Olson's collaboration with Supershine, 2007.
# [http://www.escapimusic.eu/bands/trouble.html EscapiMusic.eu Trouble] Trouble bio
# [http://www.escapimusic.eu/bands/wet-animal.html EscapiMusic.eu Wet Animal] Wet Animal bio
# [http://www.rockmymonkey.com/interviews/07/10/RetroGrave.php RockMyMonkey.com] Carras, Mark. Olson's former work with Wet Animal, Trouble band and Christianity. 2007.