*Toadstone*


Toadstone is:

Jonathan Beltz: Acoustic & Electric Guitars, Bass Guitar, Drums, & Vocals.

      I started writing songs back in 2002. I had been playing guitar for 4 years at that point. I started by just recording through a microphone into Windows Sound Recorder. Then I played it back through the speaker and recorded a second track with it while it was playing back. So, very poor quality. But, it got me started and I could actually listen to something I put together. Initially, I wanted 'Toadstone' to be a band that I would start with other members as well. As it turns out, I haven't found anyone over the years to play in a band with me. I was homeschooled for the later years of High School, and that is probably why. So, I have decided that no matter if I start a band with anyone else or not, 'Toadstone' will always be the name of the music written by Jonathan Beltz/myself. Anyway, when the opportunity arose to go get some professional recording done, I really got down to it and re-wrote some parts of songs and lyrics, and started really playing bass and drums. I hadn't done a whole lot with either until just recently. I was good enough to play them for the 2 songs that I got recorded; "Out Here" & "End of Days."

      I was born in Springfield, Massachusetts (same hometown as the band 'Staind', incase anyone's interested), I lived there until I was 7 and moved to Portland, Connecticut. Small town, population of about 8,000 last I knew. I lived there for half up my life up to that point. I started to get homeschooled about 13. I mentioned before, that because I was homeschooled, I didn't have much chance to meet other people to be in a band with; but if I hadn't been homeschooled, I never would have started playing guitar. I was 14 when I moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Then 2 years later, I moved 30 miles north to King, North Carolina. I've been here since.

My Equipment

Acoustic Guitars: Jasmine S-35, Ovation Celebrity CC057, & a Cameo Deluxe
Classical Guitar: Abilene AC-015G
Electric Guitar: Epiphone Dot (335)
Drums: Hart Prodigy Electronic Drum Set (much quieter in my small house)
Effects: Boss DS-1 Distortion Pedal, CH-1 Chorus Pedal, & PW-10 COSM Wah Pedal.
Amps: Ok, I just bought the Roland Monitor Cube. It's a little 6.5in speaker with a tweeter. It's 30 Watts, and has like 5 inputs. It have 1 Mono/Mic channel with a 1/4in input as well as an XLR input for a mic. Then there are 2 sets of stereo inputs and 2 aux inputs, one with RCA and one 1/8in input. There volume control on the front and all inputs can be played through it simultaniously. And at 30 watts for that little thing, it is really loud. It a Roland, you can go wrong.
      I also just bought the Roland Bass Cube 30. It a 30 watt bass amp with effects. Once again, it is very loud for such a small amp. The effects work great and it works great with guitar too. I'll be putting pictures of all this stuff up soon.

     The bands that influenced my to play are as follows: Nirvana, Green Day, Everclear, Weezer, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Piolets, Led Zeppelin, Offspring, Creed, Dave Matthews Band, Foo Fighters, Bush, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, 3 Doors Down, Metallica, Aerosmith, Eve 6, Collective Soul, Lifehouse, Live, U2, Days of the New, Oasis, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Better than Ezra, Dexter Freebish, Blind Melon, R.E.M., Incubus, The Vines, White Stripes, Lenny Kravitz, The Meat Puppets, Cracker, Violent Femmes, Rage Against the Machine, Cranberries, Blink 182, 3EB, Sublime, Sugar Ray, Coldplay, Radiohead, Everlast, 311, Santana, Caedmon's Call, Tonic, Toadstone, Fastball, AC/DC, Gun's N Roses, Vertical Horizon, Hole, Jimi Hendrix, Marcy Playground, Local H, The Wallflowers, Fuel, No Doubt, Facets, Train, Sponge, Spacehog, Silverchair, 7 Mary 3, Tantric, Nickelback, The Strokes, Switchfoot.