After graduating from UCSB with a Business Degree, I narrowly escaped getting a "real" job by joining the indie rock band True West.

Over the next three years we recorded two albums, performed in 45 states and 9 countries, supported REM on their Fable of The Reconstruction tour, and opened for Nick Cave, X, The Violent Femmes, Jim Carrol, and many others.

After True West disbanded I spent five years in New York City, writing songs and performing as a solo artist, with the goal of getting a record deal. That didn't happen, but something better did. I met Erica and got engaged.

In 1994 we moved to Berkeley. We wanted to have kids and buy a house, so I got a job at a biotech company. When I wasn't at work, I was working on music: writing songs, performing, recording. Always with the goal that I could one day do that full-time.

For my 40th birthday, as a present to myself, I quit my job. Somehow I would bring in enough money playing music. When I gave notice at work, I changed my outgoing message: “This is Steven Emerson, I will be out of the office for the rest of my life. If this is an urgent matter, or a non-urgent matter for that matter, please call anyone else who still works here."

I spent the next decade performing at private events playing jazz standards in a nice suit. I met George W. in the backyard of a Silicon Valley CEO's house, and Sammy Hagar at the launch party for Cabo Wabo Tequila (he high-fived me when I told him my band in high school covered a Montrose song).

One morning I was approached on the playground of my kid's school by a parent that worked for an advertising agency. He asked if I wanted to submit a song for a Rolling Rock beer commercial. I did, and it was selected. The spot, called Beer Ape, got a lot of attention, and before long I was a full-time composer for ads, video games, and eventually feature films.

Currently I’m leading creativity workshops, performing my solo show ‘Songs, Stories & Stand-up’, and working on a TV series about the human condition. And playing tennis.