the Secret System - Scott's Bio

Hey, how are you doing? My name is Scott Reese.
I'm the lead singer and guitarist/ keyboardist of the Secret System. I grew up in Bethlehem and now reside in Whitehall.
I've been around the musical block for quite some time, writing and recording original tunes. It started for me way back
in 1987. Yeah, that's a long time ago. I imagine that you may not have born yet.. huh...

Anyway, a lot of musicians have a moment when they first realize that they want to be a musician.
A moment of clarity where the planets align and the way to rock stardom shines clearly upon the road ahead
(or something like that). I suppose that I'm no different. It was Halloween night and MTV was showing some freak named
Alice Cooper in a concert called "The Nightmare Returns". From the first note to the last and all of the theatrics in
between I was hooked. On a superficial level I just dug it because it rocked and because it was crazy.
But like most great art it was superficially accessible, but deeper and more meaningful on a
variety of levels that become discovered over time.

So, I bought a guitar (it was a red Yamaha SE250 Strat copy) with the intent and desire to team up with my
neighbor and school friend Mike Bishop to conquer the world with rock and roll! ... not so fast...
I quickly realized that my vision was in jeopardy. I hated to practice the guitar. It hurt my fingers. It made them ache.
How the Hell did these guys get the notes to flow so effortlessly? How is it possible that anyone comes up with
anything new? I took a handful of lessons and was definitely not feeling the Mel Bay/ Camp Town Races school at all.
As fate would have it, after a few months, my parents decided to take away my guitar as a result of poor grades.
The combination of the seemingly overwhelming difficulty of the instrument and its absence due to bad grades nearly
derailed my hopes. Add to all of this the fact that I was always involved in one sport or another
(I played football all through High School) and I kept a job from the time I was about 15.

I was a really busy kid. I suppose the best thing about having a job at that age was that I always had money.
I spent quite a bit of money on tapes (yeah, cassettes- you can laugh). I was into all of the hair bands that were popular
at the time as well as classic rock like Styx and the Doors. Eventually I devised a work around for my current musical
situation. Since my parents weren't budging on the guitar, I decided to buy a synthesizer.
It was a sweet (insert sarcasm) Casio with tiny keys. It actually did some relatively complex (term used loosely)
synthesis. So, again I teamed up with Mike in tenth grade and we eventually put together our first band: "Orion".

Original music has always been my passion. I've never had a great deal of interest in playing other people's music.
From the very beginning, I spent most of my musical time trying to come up with something new on the guitar
(and later, the keyboard). The ideas would grow and become better as my chord vocabulary grew.
When I learned a new chord, I created a new song utilizing it. It was that simple. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't ever try
to learn tunes by bands that I liked, though. Alice Cooper's "Love It To Death" album was one of those that I probably
jammed along with hundreds of times. I just learned by ear. And so the focus of "Orion" was to write original music.

I played keyboards in the band. Mike played guitar. A friend named Ralph Henthorn Jr. whom we knew from both middle
and high schools came on to play drums. We rehearsed every day after school and whenever else we could squeeze it
in. We had only one "real" song ("real" is a relative term). It was about 20 minutes long and had about 10 movements
(or song segments) just jammed together. Very little attention was paid to how they transitioned from one section
to the next. We loved it anyway. Oh, yeah the song was also called "Orion".

The desire to record this monstrosity seemed natural enough, so I figured out how to do it by jimmy rigging some radio
shack microphones with a radio shack stereo mixer straight into a cassette deck. I recall being thoroughly impressed with
my ingenuity and ability to get it done and the awesome (!) sound that we made! Yeah, it's funny now,
but back then I was jacked up! This set in motion another part of my musical interests which is recording.
As you may have realized, "Orion" was unable to reach the masses with it's instrumental masterpiece of the same name.
By the time we were juniors in high school the three of us had moved on to greener pastures.
I was off writing songs and seeking my lyrical identity. Musically I was experimenting with folk and avante garde
as well as heavy rock and spacey ambient. My guitar playing and keyboard playing slowly evolved along with my tastes.
Ralph and I got together occasionally to work on and record songs that we had written.
They were mostly love songs written for the girl in his life or about the holes in mine.

Much of my inspiration has come from non musical sources like books and the newspapers.
I take inspiration from aspects of a writer's message and send it through my seasoned filter. That filter is the cumulative
influence of everything I've ever heard. Some of those influences are common (The Beatles, Led Zeppelin,
Alice Cooper, Pink Floyd), but others are unknown to most, but equally as important. Ralph's dad, Ralph Henthorn Sr.,
was one such individual. He was a songwriter and had a few recordings that received a lot of my attention early on.
I admired his sense of melody and attention to lyrical content. I also think that the people you play with
tend to have a great influence on your style and skills, but rarely do they get credit for it.
Mike and Ralph have had such an influence on my musical evolution.

At some point in 1991, I was contacted by Mike to help out his band "Northern Sounds" by playing bass at a gig that
they had lined up. It seemed that their current bass player was a bit unreliable. I had never played bass before,
but I agreed to play the gig with them. Eventually I joined the band and assumed the bass player role
even though I didn't own my own bass at the time. Ralph and Mike were in the fold as well as another guitar player
named Jeremiah Pierson. We were an interesting band that placed a lot of emphasis on improvising.
We secured a gig at the long since defunct Cafe LeRock as the alternative (alternative to what?) house band.
We played every Thursday night for about 6 months or more. It was a great experience and exposed me to the bass
guitar and improvising in front of an audience. Both have a significant place in my interests to this day.

Eventually the band broke apart due to a some girl and some guitar players. (yes, I'm aware that you never heard
of "Northern Sounds"...) So once again I resumed my search for my writing voice. Now with bass added to the mix.
I bought a four track cassette recorder to work on my songs. Ralph and I continued to write together sporadically
over the next few years, but eventually that also dried up. Thus began a long period of time where I worked in a solitary
way on my own music. I sought my lyrical and singing voice. (up to this point I had done very little singing, if any)
I experimented with various styles of music and evolved a sense of production.

It wasn't long after that when I began dating the woman who would later become my wife
(and even later the mother of my kids). She was then, and still is, the love of my life (as well as my greatest supporter
and advocate). We were married in 1995 and it was during this time, and the years that followed, when I continued to
grow in my craft. I began to use extensive harmonies and developed a clear sense of what my music was about.
I eventually bought a new multitrack recorder (Tascam 8 track cassette) and wrote many songs in the ensuing years.

At some point in 1999, I reconnected with Ralph to make some music together.
We began a collaboration which would eventually span about seven years and 11 albums worth of music.
We got together weekly to record and jam. It was strictly a recording project and in the beginning, Ralph resumed his
previous role as vocalist for the project. But in the years between our previous collaborative efforts I developed as a
singer and wanted my voice to be heard. So, it resolved to be more of a split, vocally, where we both shared
the vocal duties. We initially called ourselves "The Blind Side" and later changed it (some foreign metal band laid claim to
the name) to "Everyday Mystic". Could it be that you never heard of us?.. Huh ? In addition to this project,
I played some gigs on bass with the "Shaggy Bastards", a local cover band that played classic rock.
It was fun to play some bars, but it was more as a favor to a friend than as a way to satisfy my own musical interests.

Anyway, there would be little time in the years ahead for anything beyond the "Everyday Mystic" project.
Both Ralph and I had begun expanding our families with each of us having two children between 2001 and 2003.
The focus of life (and in turn, music) had shifted dramatically for me. My children, Ian and Abbey, effect everything.
That includes music. Things became more complicated and more difficult to juggle. So, in mid 2005 after 11 albums of
music, I caused the end of "Everyday Mystic. It had gotten stale and it was time to simplify. Little did I know that forces
were at work to remove the clutter from my life, so that I could focus on other more serious things.

At some point during midsummer, Travis Turner (drummer for Crutch and The House Lights) contacted me about a
band he was putting together with his longtime friend and guitarist Shawn and bassist Leon. I was to play guitar and sing.
We got together for a little over a month and we worked extensively on a song I had introduced to the band
(Counterbalance) called "Everything Is Complicated". The song was great, but the band didn't work out.
I'm sure Shawn could tell you why it didn't, but I couldn't. Looking back at it now,
it was clear that the Lord knew I wasn't going to have time for it.

It was a difficult time. My wife and father had fallen ill with serious conditions and music suddenly became the least
important facet of my life. Focusing on my family was all I could do. There were many things to be learned in that dark
span of my life. Lessons that I try to keep close in my thoughts and actions. Strong lessons about appreciation,
patience, tolerance, and faith. As it became clearer that Cathy's health would improve, I began to seek out some
musicians to jam and record with. The concept I had in mind was to create a "Mutual Admiration Society".
A small network where each person involved would share a common respect and interest in each other as musicians
and as friends. I received a few replies, but none of them seemed to fit the bill or pan out.

Then one day I received an email (actually something like 7 emails) from a guy with two first names: Brad Jacob.
We hit it off and got together to make some music. He was a family guy and understood the strong role of family
in my life. Our catalog of original music quickly began to grow. It was in this way that the Secret System was born.

Over the next few years Brad and I sought out people to augment the band.
A variety of players came and went and our goals changed from a recording project into a band that wanted to play
shows. We combed the want adds and it wasn't until December 2008, when Mike Wieser and Rich Eckhart
came on board that the band's line up was solid. It was this line up that eventually finished the recording of the
self titled debut of the Secret System. The release of the record also was a milestone and turning point for the band.
At the time the album was released, the band essentially split. With Brad and Mike going in a different direction.

Who knows what the future has in store?

I'm pretty sure that this bio is supposed to tell the story of the past, so I'll leave it at that...