Jeff Olson

Jeff Olson (born July 14, 1962) is an American musician and the original drummer for the doom metal band Trouble. He is also the founding member of Retro Grave, keyboardist for Victor Griffin's In~Graved, proprietor of Upland Recording, and former drummer for The Skull. Background Olson was born on July 14, 1962, in Wareham, Massachusetts. He moved to Aurora, Illinois, at age five. He first learned to play the piano at age six and the trumpet at age eight. In 1975, Olson began marching for Drum Corps International (DCI) in the Fox Valley Raiders playing Melephone. In 1977, Olson changed instruments with the Fox Valley Raiders and began playing first soprano bugle. By 1978, he shocked his horn instructors and auditioned and made the snare line until the corps folded that year. Olson then joined the Blue Stars in early 1978, but the drum line was full. He, therefore, marched the season again as first soprano bugle until he joined the band Trouble in 1979. Olson can be seen on the DCI Legacy DVD (front row first soprano bugle side left). During Trouble's hiatuses he graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1992 with a BM degree in Film Scoring and later composed music for the Borealis Theater Company in Chicago. In 1996, Olson created the "electronic music ensemble" course when he was a teacher of midi and recording techniques at Waubonsee Community College in Aurora, Illinois. The following year, he was commissioned by the Paula Fraz Dance Company in Chicago to arrange and compose original music for the performance of Songs My Mother Sang Me. Olson received the Ruth Page Award for his work on that production. Career