I play the electric bass, guitar, string bass (yes, the giant one), and all sorts of ethnic percussion instruments. I also write and record music. While research and teaching take up most of my time these days, I still try to play jazz / rock / world music when I can:

• I'm working on an acoustic record (release date: early summer 2011) and an electric record (release date: majd). In the process of working on these records, I've become convinced that Furch makes the best acoustic guitars. Here's a very early (and old!) version of one song that will make it onto the record, where I play all the instruments. Oh, the miracle of cheap microphones and cheap computers.


• While I lived in Debrecen, Hungary for 9 months, three good Hungarian friends and I co-founded the most random band ever, Rosszhal. We made the front page of the Napló newspaper for our apparently unique mixture of acoustic ska-punk Sublime covers mixed with Hungarian folk music. We recorded a 12 song LP (tentatively titled 'Díjtalan Házhozszállítás') that we're currently mixing for a July 2011 release. I was also in a hard-rock cover band called The Rattlesnake that played shows in Hungary and Romania.


• On a whim in August 2010, my friends Steve Plesnarski (drums) and Peter Godart (keys) set up in my living room for a jam. It was the first time the three of us had played together. We played for an hour, and I recorded the whole thing. A rough mix of one track is here, although we'll be releasing a properly mixed EP 'Live From Kossuth Street' of all four jams in Spring 2011.


• From Spring 2009 - Summer 2010, I played rhythm guitar and sometimes bass for Eighty East, a NJ-based Pakistani rock band. Nope, I have no idea what the (Urdu) vocals mean, either. We sounded like this. You've never experienced being in a band until you've played a Pakistani wedding, believe me.


• In high school, I was in a band called Moto, named after the respected Iron Chef Japan. We sounded like this. You can even download both of our records for free.


• As a result of playing in the awesome JP Stevens High School music programs, I became friends with a bunch of great musicians. Then, I realized it would be awesome to have my own big band, varyingly named 'The Indentured Servants' or Tommy Nichols' Funky All-Stars. In a moment of great genius/stupidity, I wrote a bunch of arrangements in Sibelius, we practiced twice, and then we played concerts twice. Some 'highlights' include our version of the Inspector Gadget theme / Chameleon and our version of a song from the movie Aladdin.


• Growing up in Edison, I ended up being part of the desi music scene. In Fall '07, I played bass for a video session with Nivla. In Fall '09, I sat in on bass for a show with Ali Zafar, the "Prince of Pop" (of Pakistan). That will be a good story 20 years from now: