Rob Goldberg Keyboards / Vocals

I grew up in the suburbs of New York City, where I took formal music training for 8 years, starting at the age of 8. Unlike many other people who start out with piano lessons, I studied the organ, so music study for me involved using both hands and both feet simultaneously to make music. My father started me out with a small home organ but as my training progressed, my need for more elaborate instruments grew and slowly Dad would keep trading the organs up for fancier models. I owe a lot to him for paying not only for my lessons but for putting out a lot of money buying organs every year or so.

I occasionally played restaurant piano bars while I was in High School (yeah, I was underage but the restaurants didn't care). Actually they were restaurants with organs, and there weren’t very many of them.

In 1972, while I was attending the University of Florida in Gainesville, I formed a 7 piece show band called 'Steeplechase' that played nightclubs, college fraternity/sorority parties, high school proms, and corporate engagements throughout northern Florida. Steeplechase ended in 1982 when I moved from Florida to California. While Steeplechase was together, I used to jam with various 'later to become famous' musicians such as Tom Petty.

While living in California, I formed a very unique band called 'Xtasy', in which I created all of the three piece act's music using live playing and advanced digital sequencing. That band stopped performing in October of 1997.

I then spent the next 6 months carefully looking around for another quality band that I thought I would enjoy playing in. I wasn’t having much luck. Most of the bands that called me were not of interest to me. Little by little I kept expanding the area that I would travel to put my name on bulletin boards in music stores. One day I was in Dublin looking for a particular music store. I nearly gave up trying to find it. When I did, it was so small that I assumed no one would ever see my advertisement on the bulletin board. But to my amazement, a day or two later I got a phone call from the leader of a band called Mixed Nuts. It just so happened that he taught music out of a back room at that store and that he had been looking for a keyboard player for some time. The rest is history. He put me through some grueling auditions and ultimately hired me. I remained with Mixed Nuts for about 8 years, really enjoying our music and doing about 100 gigs a year. It was great being back with live musicians.

Towards the end of 2005 I was getting a little bored with Mixed Nuts. It was, and remains, a great band. But I had an urge to do something more exciting with my music. I wanted to get involved with something that was really high energy. It was not about the money; for me it never has been. But I wanted to really have fun putting out some high energy performances. An opportunity came up for the drummer in Mixed Nuts to do exactly that; join a high energy, 7 piece band working to become a top show band in the Bay Area (Cover2Cover). I was disappointed that he was leaving but more than that, I was jealous of the opportunity he was getting. I told that band that if an opportunity ever came up for a new keyboard player, to contact me and see if I’m interested. I really didn’t expect anything to occur, at least not in the short run. But circumstances created that opportunity for me a few months later and I couldn’t resist taking it. It was actually the first time in my life that I had ever resigned from a working band to join another one. Previously, every band I left was finished gigging at the time. It felt very strange.

Well, that decision brings me to the present, as a member of Cover2Cover. I am really excited about the band and love playing in a big band again. I hope it will be a long relationship.

Outside of the band, I'm a computer systems consultant for a bank. I like to listen to jazz at home to relax.

I am also very blessed to have a loving wife who is willing to support my musical endeavors. Thank you Becky.

For me, performing music creates an altered state of consciousness. It's a natural high. When I'm playing music, all of life's problems get put aside. I achieve a level of self satisfaction that is different than any other.

For those who want to know about my gear (I know, probably not many of you), here’s what I use:

Korg T2 Music Workstation

Korg Triton Studio 76 Music Workstation

Roland AX-1 portable midi keyboard

MidiJet Pro wireless midi rig

Mackie 1202 Mixer

Shure UHF wireless microphone rig with an AKG C-420 headset mic

Sennheiser wireless in-ear monitor rig with custom Westone in-ear monitors

4 million wires, 26 miles of duct tape, and an occasional paperclip