David Kent-Abbott Biography

I was born in 1970 in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during the heart of the hippie movement there. After my parents split up when I was little, my mother and I moved out to the Jersey Shore. As I grew up, I really loved music of all kinds. I was constantly whistling, singing, fiddling around with tape recorders. At age 9 I began to take clarinet lessons, and soon joined my elementary school concert band. Over the years, I picked up numerous instruments - sax, keyboard, and my greatest love, the guitar. I played in rock bands in high school, and actual gigged for money and wrote songs during my years at Columbia University. The child of two writers, I had always been a good writer myself, but had never thought of pursuing a career in the field - and certainly not as a music critic! After college graduation, I got a job in City government, then in University administration, and was admitted to MPA programs at Columbia and NYU. As the time approached for me to start grad school, though, I realized it just wasn’t what I wanted to do. I left my job, took a few months off, and then started temping in the corporate world to build some cash flow while I “found myself”. It finally dawned on me to try merging the two things I loved and was best at - music and writing. I tried my hand at some freelance album reviews, and very quickly was published. However, I left that discovery on the shelf for a couple of years while taking care of mundane things. Now, as the millenium and my thirtieth birthday loom, I feel a strong pull to do what I love once and for all. So, I’ve made a decision to go ahead full-blast and full-time as a rock critic. I currently live in Boro Park, Brooklyn, with my wonderful wife and our sweet adorable chocolate labrador.