hi. my name is scott shellhamer and i am a male human about 6ft tall and around 140lbs or so. i am a weak man and had surgery for a hernia in july of 2002. i was born in albion michigan and moved to the suburbs of chicago on my third birthday.

i grew up playing the rock-n-roll drums for punk bands in VFW halls and basements of churches. most of the people i have played with are completely fucked up and crazy now.... except for one guy, who works for yahoo! and has a big house, a wife, fancy cars, and a baby on the way. he is funny. he makes good doodie jokes... and always offers me a dollar to smell his pants.

so after playing drums for tetsuo, american heritage, and ghosts and vodka i got kinda sick of it. i wasn't really getting any better and lost any drive to attempt to get better. after ghosts and vodka broke up i left my drums at the practice space for acouple months. during this period, this total dickhead broke all of my cymbals (which i had just purchased and only had the opportunity to play once), and cracked the rim of my free floating snare. now, you may be thinking... "so what, go buy a new rim for your snare!". aside from the fact that i am completely broke right now, he broke the actual free floating rim of cast iron and the snare was discontinued many many years ago. all attempts to replace the rim have been in vein. so... if you have a snare drum you aren't using, i'd love to have it!

i play guitar in american heritage now. i've been in but mostly out of the band since i started it so many moons ago... i think it's been about 7 years now. you'd think you might have actually heard of us by now, eh? we went on tour in europe in the spring of 2002. i went with the hernia i mentioned earlier. it was kinda annoying because i had to lay down on the floor of the van the whole time or else i'd be in pain.... but on the plus side, i didn't have to move any equipment. HOORAY! touring europe is so much better than touring the states. SO MUCH better.

anyhow... during my residency in ghosts and vodka i started farting around making music on my computer. i spend alot of time in front of my Trinitron 21". my occupation is as a graphic artist, which as many of you know was just super a few years ago. i made alot of money doing freelance work for dotcom startups and then spent it all on really dumb crap like 2 overpriced computers and a mazda miata. that was quite stupid of me. now i overdraw my checking account to pay my rent and i owe thousands of dollars to hospitals and doctors for that whole hernia thing. but on the positive side, you are reading this because you want to know about me. i like to make new friends. perhaps we should go eat cajun chicken sammiches together sometime this week?

so I've struggled with the whole electronic music thing i do for quite a while. i have set unrealistically high expectations on myself for pretty much any artistic endeavor i undertake. thusly, i end up hating everything i do. i sometimes wonder if this has to do with my childhood. i have amazing loving parents (i got really lucky), but i wasn't very good in school... and my older sister was a merit scholar. hmm... i am totally over thinking this. i think i just have an unrealistic self image. i feel better when i work on painting or illustration but also have a hard time getting motivated sometimes. i was diagnosed with ADD when i was in high school. some people think that is a bullshit disorder. i'm not sure either way. i stopped taking the ritilin soon after i started taking it, although i have considered trying it again, as my focus just isn't there at all sometimes.

so, as aTROPA i have played a bunch of shows here in chicago. i generally play first and rarely get paid. i think this has to do with the fact that the turnouts are weak and i get put on bills with a touring act who has flown in and the guarantee is higher to cover the cost. i like playing shows. i get to talk to people that i wouldn't normally talk to due to the fact that i don't leave the house anymore.

i guess my music is just an attempt to get better at something. i hate stagnating. i try to add a little personality into it, with mixed results. i like using my own samples whenever i can... i like the really crappy drum sounds i throw in sometimes. i think it gives it more of that practice space feel. i always feel like my bands sound better in the ol' practice room than in the studio. this isn't because of how well (or poorly) we play but rather the way the room sounds. all big and blown out and shitty. i like that crappy aesthetic. so contrary to acouple of things i have read about myself... currently there is no live fender rhodes and no live drums. i did sample these myself, but it's all sequenced. i may add some more live instrumentation in the future, but only time will tell.

i have acouple of electronic side projects I'm working on as well. one is called penisplusvagina and the other is called fred garvin. i hope to have something released soon with that stuff as well.

well i guess that's it.
*hugs* -aTROPA>>

disco::
current::
selectv1 compilation
evil against evil salvo beta remixes

future:: full length - SOPR
shimo.hono.001 12" consumers
full length - automaticbutt / sixgunlover
string theory - atropa split 12" SOPR aTROPA