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Ever since Ray was a "Young Boy," music has been a huge part of his life. His favorite childhood toy was a Close and Play - a turntable that closed like a suitcase. He had a stack of thrashed 45's from his cousin Rob. His mom would lock him out on the porch and he would be a content 2 year old for hours with his Close and Play. That's how Ray's mom tells it anyway. He's been a DJ ever since. As a child, Ray took lessons on every instrument, but the only thing that he really excelled at was the drums. Around the age of 16, Ray bought a bass and started figuring things out by ear. Soon after he bought a guitar and rigged up some radio-shack-jacked studio overdubbing system and learned how to write songs with his pals Paul Fisher and Jill Armenante. He has been recording and writing ever since.

Along with good friends in high school, Ray formed a cover band that pretty much influenced the social interaction level for the rest his life (i.e., Ray has been playing in bands ever since.)

Ray spends much of his spare time recording and mixing music, collecting records, swimming, playing golf, collecting music videos and going to the movies. His dream car is a silver '65 Mustang Convertible (if anyone's having trouble thinking of a birthday gift.) Ray's first three record purchases were Kiss' "Alive" and "Wings Over America" and "Fly Like An Eagle," by the Steve Miller Band. His first concert was the The Carpenters and The Fifth Dimension in 1976. His earliest memory - the Jackson 5 on The Ed Sullivan Show…

Uncle Ray's Bandography:

You can e-mail Ray at ray@tangmusic.com.

Simon started his music career at the age of 5 — with recorder lessons. In the 3rd grade he tried his hand at piano lessons for a year, then switched to the cello in 4th and the clarinet in 5th. In junior high he was in both the band and jazz band. By high school he began playing the saxophone as well as jazz piano for Gunn High's (Palo Alto) marching band and jazz band. The El Camino Youth Symphony featured the talents of the budding star, as did various musical orchestras, jazz combos, woodwind trios and klezmer bands. Simon was a prodigy of sorts, having written a symphonic work performed by the youth symphony of his high school. The fame followed Simon to Cal, where he starred in the marching band for a year, then moved on to U.C. Jazz. His favorite class was in fact an African drumming class with C.K. Ladzepko.

Simon was at that very first !Tang rehearsal in 1991 and has helped shape the band's sound ever since. He currently works in Professor Dmitry Budker's atomic physics lab at UC Berkeley. He does experimental and theoretical work for the group's interests in discrete symmetry violations and nonlinear magneto-optical phenomena.

Simon is also in the Tangria Jazz Group with fellow !Tang-man, Ian. Aside from spending countless hours a day on music, Simon's the graphic and web design mastermind behind www.tangmusic.com in addition to the Tangria and Budker lab sites. In his spare time (what!?) Simon enjoys cycling, reading, cooking and puts in a fair amount of time maintaining his old and abused music equipment.

You can e-mail Simon at simon@tangmusic.com.

Ian has been playing electric and acoustic bass for close to 15 years. He started playing acoustic bass in his junior high school orchestra and took up electric bass in his freshman year of high school. Throughout high school in Sacramento and at U.C. Berkeley, Ian played in several jazz groups and played percussion in the marching band. He started playing with !Tang in the Spring of 1994.

Ian currently works as a Field Representative for a local elected official, concentrating on social justice issues and addressing concerns important low-income communities in Alameda County. Ian also works at purchasing and eating gravy-laden foods. In particular, he likes breakfast foods, mashed potatoes and meatloaf. Some of Ian's favorite shows growing up included: Moonlighting, Silver Spoons, Who's the Boss?, Family Ties, In Living Color and Dynasty.

When Ian's not playing with !Tang or working, he enjoys sailing his yacht, hanging out at his country club and tending to his cod pond. He also enjoys making paper airplanes out of $100 bills (not his own) and driving fancy cars (also not his own) around town.

You can e-mail Ian at ian@tangmusic.com.

Sparky started playing drums at age 4 when his older brother decided he wanted to start a band. His parents bought him a real drum kit (as opposed to every kid's Fisher Price dream) and his brother taught him the basics. When Sparky turned six, he started taking some lessons and played his first live show in the summer of 1976. The band Break Loose performed and Sparky's dad's company picnic. Break Loose was together for a good four years with Sparky as their key drummer. During that time Sparky and his brother were celebrities of sorts in the Baltimore/Annapolis area - the young dynamic duo of music. In grade school they'd shuttle him around like some sort of trophy to elementary schools, middle schools and high schools to do drum solos in order to promote the various music departments.

Between the Break Loose phase and !Tang, Sparky has played in many a forgettable and regrettable band. He spent two years in L.A. playing with The Park, before hooking up with Keanu Reeves' band — to manage the then called Big Fucking Sound band for six months - now Dogstar. After running out of money, Sparky moved back to Washington, D.C. to be a graphic artist. It wasn't until 1999 that he would actually get back together with his brother to play in a redneck jazz trio called Ancient Chinese Secret. Before long, Sparky met his wife, Tracy Rose and chased a job out to San Francisco. Upon arrival he hooked up with Zonk!, a funk quartet that rehearsed a lot but didn't play out. They had cut a CD and it was being remixed (for ages it seemed) when Sparky was approached by his good friend Srini Kumar of the Aquamen and he hooked him up with !Tang. The rest, one might say, is history…

You can e-mail Sparky at sparky@tangmusic.com.

Owen began his musical career in the 5th grade, when his mother forced him to play the piano and join the orchestra. He quite frankly hated the orchestra director and made his claim to independence in the 7th grade — when he decided to quit orchestra and join the band. Though his first two choices would have been to play the drums or the alto sax, he decided on the trumpet…now maybe a clear sign of destiny. Owen played in the Hawaii Youth Symphony as well as various all-state select bands. In college, he joined the Cal Marching band and inevitably became a part of !Tang in 1994.

You can e-mail Owen at owen@tangmusic.com.

Mark was born to seafaring folk in the early seventies and raised in rural Northern California. He started his musical career in the 5th grade, when he first picked up a trombone. He also made his dramatic debut when he was featured as Artful Dodger in a junior high production of "Oliver!" Mark went on to manage his high school's marching band. Later, at Berkeley, he served as a musical arranger for the University of California Marching Band, including "The Led Zeppelin Show" and "The Weezer Show."

Mark is a huge San Francisco Giants fan, an occasional sound engineer and quite frankly, addicted to television.

You can e-mail Mark at mark@tangmusic.com.