About Me

My name is Daniel Otero. I'm an honors student concentrating in Computer Science and Music and the University of Washington. In addition to classical training in cello from age 4, I play a certain amount of piano, and have been concentrating my efforts in guitar and electric bass playing for the past two and a half years.

I have a tremendous interest in combining computers and music, both for applications to recording and industry and for theoretical use (who knew music could be so deliciously mathematical?). Finding my way to something innovative in that field, however, has proved a challenge. Until I make some headway, I'll be pursuing interests in algorithms, graphics, and internet/networking.

Musically speaking my interests are all over the map. While I'm typing this, I'm listening to Rage Against The Machine. Immediately before it, I was listening to the third movement of Beethoven's "Eroica" (3rd symphony), and before that it was Duke Ellington's "Prelude to a Kiss." As you might then imagine, I enjoy a tremendous variety of music, both good and bad (yes, I must admit I have purposefully listened to music that is decidely not "good"), as long as I can glean something from it. Everything from symphonic majesty, the subtle nuances of a solo instrument, the blow of scooped power chords hitting you in the chest, the undeniable flow of a rhythmic groove, or the bottled-up passion waiting to explode its way out of authentic Argentinian tango...I love it all. On the electric guitar I tend to play one of three things: metal (not black/death metal, think more along the spectrum between Vai and Wylde), vintage rock, or clean jazzy/bluesy stuff (e.g. SRV's "Lenny" or "Riviera Paradise"). On the acoustic I'm more of a strummer. It's the "I am totally consumed by thoughts in my head and haven't the attention span to do anything more than chording."

Some of my many hobbies include trying not to cause my all-tube amp to explode in flames, uncovering new ways to make my computer explode, light on fire, seg fault, etc., hunting down the freshmen who keep setting off the fire alarm in my building (avoiding fire seems to be a persistent motif), biking, running around in an ultra-caffeinated fashion like the energizer bunny, playing organized sports poorly, and trying to convince myself that I'm somewhat bohemian.

Oh, and yes, that is me in the upper-left of your screen. Horay for masking and photoshop.