I was born and raised in a small coastal town in South Africa and spent a lot of my time growing up around the wild nature of Africa.

My mom's dad (John Andrew Rice) was born in the states and travelled as a writer, he published a few books and started Black Mountain College of the Arts, which was a Mecca for artists at the time. A partial list includes Willem and Elaine de Kooning, Robert Rauschenberg, Josef and Anni Albers, Buckminster Fuller, John Cage and many others.

My dad designed and built our house growing up and he taught me to always think outside of the box. I would always find myself walking up to my dad while he was making something to see if I could help and learn. I had a great woodwork teacher, he taught me a lot and I built my first dovetailed coffee table out of beechwood and smoked glass top at age 12.I began interning as a graphic designer at age 16 and eventually started doing work for clients such as BMW and Shell oil etc. I studied photography after school and then got a job at a graphic design firm.

I moved to America when I was 23 to pursue a career in music with my band Civil Twilight. We had good long run of touring the states and the world and put out 3 records. My parents were always very encouraging about pursuing the things we loved, my dad gave me the technical side of how things work and my mom gave me, inherently and through growing up, a sense of passion. i currently reside with my beautiful wife in Nashville, Tennessee.