"My full name is Terrell Harlan Clark and I was born on December 7, 1970 in Honolulu, Hawaii. Being born in paradise was just one of the many benefits of having a father that was a career Naval officer. The next big perk (other than the joy of military doctors and barbers) is that, although we moved around a lot, we almost always lived in cool places by some large body of water: Honolulu, HI; Annapolis, MD; Newport, RI; Virginia Beach, VA (twice!); Charleston, SC; Huntington Beach, CA; Fairfax, VA (also twice!). I finished high school in Fairfax and my parents still live there, so that is where I tell people I'm from.

I started playing guitar in my early teens and messed around in several garage bands through high school and college. While attending Randolph-Macon College (go Yellow Jackets!!) I had the good fortune of meeting Barry Privett. For our first few years, Barry did his best to keep me out of trouble and I tried hard to get him in some (not much has changed in 10 years!). Then in the fall of 1992, I started jamming with Carter, Scott and Palmer (our first bass player). All we needed was a singer and Barry was the only person who was dumb enough to try it.

After graduating from R-MC in 1993 with a degree in English, the band broke up and I moved back in with my folk in Fairfax and got a job at Boater's World. Rock. Barry was setting the "real world" on fire at Enterprise Rent-A-Car and the rest of the band had summer jobs while getting ready to head back to school. Just for fun we decided to get the band together and rock out in my parents basement one weekend. After several beers it was decided that Barry and I would move to Richmond and we would get the band back together. And Thus Began Carbon Leaf.

Before we knew it, Barry and I had moved into cozy little apartment in the Fan neighborhood of Richmond. The apartment was pretty schweet: It was two stories and only had heat in the kitchen. The theory was that the heat, which is supposed to rise, would flow through a grate in the kitchen ceiling and heat the second floor. Unfortunately, physics (or poor design) failed us miserably. The hot air would shoot out like a laser beam and could actually singe the hairs off of you legs. Meanwhile, in the rest of the house, you could see your breath. The good news is that when our pipes froze and burst in the kitchen, the water ran straight through the huge gaps in the floor. We were only broken into once and our other roommates were only mugged once, so it was a pretty good year.

A year later, we upgraded to a much cooler place on Floyd Ave. Barry and I lived in the first floor apartment and Carter and Scott eventually moved into the apartment upstairs. The Floyd Ave house (or as it is sometimes cleverly known Floyd House Productions) has been Carbon Leaf headquarters. For a while the whole band lived there and the basement was been converted into a practice space, so it has been mighty efficient. A semi-wise man (Barry) once said that the only way out of Floyd is death or marriage. I'm not that smart, but even I could see that marriage was a much better option.

Britt Peterson and I were married on April 21, 2001 and Barry finally allowed me to leave the Floyd compound. After two and a half happy years of marriage, Britt and I recently moved to a house in Richmond's West End and have officially become suburbanites. We were both skeptical at first, but the 'burbs rule: safe, plenty of room, and it's quiet. Damn, I sound old! The house is about 25 years old and the interior decoration hasn't been changed since 1976. It has been a lot of fun fixing it up and bringing it out of the disco era. All in all, life is really, really good.

That about brings you up to speed on me. If you have any questions, feel free to e-mail me at terry@carbonleaf.com.