Jeffery Lahr's musical talents started since he was 12 years old. He learned how to play drums on the porch of his mother, Bonnie's Lakewood, Ohio home.
With an old radio, an old chair, and a pair of his mother's knitting needles, he learned all about rhythm and time-keeping and how to keep a beat to any song that came on the radio playing the latest top 40 hits.
After a few years Jeff moved with his mother and brother, Patrick to Minocqua, Wisconsin where he attended Lakeland Union High...
Jeffery Lahr's musical talents started since he was 12 years old. He learned how to play drums on the porch of his mother, Bonnie's Lakewood, Ohio home.
With an old radio, an old chair, and a pair of his mother's knitting needles, he learned all about rhythm and time-keeping and how to keep a beat to any song that came on the radio playing the latest top 40 hits.
After a few years Jeff moved with his mother and brother, Patrick to Minocqua, Wisconsin where he attended Lakeland Union High School from 1986-1990. While in high school he was a member of the concert, jazz, and pep bands and Acapella and Madrigal choirs as well as playing drums in the Swing choir... getting involved in everything he could relating to music.
Finally, in his freshman year of high school, working at a local supper club, he earned enough money to buy his first real drum kit.
Paying just $300 for it, it wasn't the prettiest thing in the world and didn't come with cymbals or stands for said cymbals so since necessity is the mother of all invention, he bought two cheap Royce cymbals... and devised a way to hang them from the rafters in the basement... perfectly placed for his kit and he played it everyday after school for hours on end... and life was good!
It was also in high school where he met his best friend, Anthony, who introduced him to heavy metal music which included Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, and Guns and Roses, then eventually Pantera, Down, and Kid Rock. Anthony also was an incedible lead guitar player so Jeff also found a love for guitar.
Right out of high school, Jeff joined the Air Force where he was not only able to upgrade his drums, but he also decided to learn how to play guitar.
Purchasing a pretty decent acoustic guitar, he learned just the basic chords and learned to play songs by ear... never really learning how to sight-read music or how to read tablature, but it worked well enough for his own purposes of a mere hobby.
After a few years Jeff began writing some lyrics. He had always loved poetry even as a kid, but now, he found himeslf writing his first song, "When I'm With You" which is currently on Jeff's first vocal album, "Random Thoughts". I was while writing this song and after buying an in inexpensive keyboard, that he realized that perhaps he could, indeed, be a songwriter.
Many years went by until he released his first album, "Spirit Journey".
"Spirit Journey", which he released on April 3, 2008 under the name Lifer Studios, is his first album because he found that instrumentals were much easier to create and he had not yet accumulated enough lyrical songs to compile into an album... plus he also didn't have the equipment or knowledge of production software to be able to put down any multi-track recordings.
All tracks on "Spirit Journey" are so authentic and from the heart that accompanied with his inability to read music, he could probably never reproduce again. Each song was recorded as it flowed through the built-in sequencer of his Yamaha DGX-200 Portable Grand Piano, which was able to record and store 5 user songs with up to 5 tracks each plus one accompaniment track.
He would simply start the recording, play whatever flowed off the top of his head, and store it... if he didn't like any part of it, he simply erased the track and started agian... often times with completely different results.
All tracks on "Spirit Journey", with the exception of "Breaking Free" will almost certainly never be played live or ever recorded again by Jeffery Lahr due to his continued lack of ability to read sheet music.
The last track on "Spirit Journey" entitled: "Breaking Free", is his first rock-oriented tune and features not only the drums and bass recorded on his keyboard, but the first song in which he records both the rhythm guitar as well as the lead guitar parts, which is the reason for the title "Breaking Free" because he's finally breaking free of the simpe new age sound.
His second album, "Random Thoughts" was released on June 23, 2010 and is his first album that is primarily rock and vocal oriented with the exception to the tie-in from his new age album, "Spirit Journey" entitled "Brainstorm".
He even experiments with a bit of harmonizing with his song "There is an Angel" and plays around with a rather funky feel with his song "Prayin' for Payday", which is a fun song in which he describes the triumph of getting his first apartment, while realizing the tribulation of having absolutely nothing in it and being a week away from payday... a problem that he's sure many people can relate to.
Finally, Jeffery Lahr's latest single, "One Nation", released on August 22, 2010, is, by far, his most powerful, and perhaps most influential song that he's ever written.
It speaks of the need for our great country to turn back to God and the moment we do so, we will begin to see immediate, positive change return to our nation.
He also created a video available on Youtube.com in which he created a slideshow with images and lyrics to help convey the meaning to anyone who is willing to watch.
Jeff's hopes to inspire people with his music and make people feel good. Whether he becomes an overnight sensation, a one-hit Wonder, or just continues to remain a "hobby" musician, at least he has the satisfaction of knowing that his music is now out in the world and hopes anyone who hears it enjoys it.
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