Born in the small town of Big Sandy, Texas, Karl Harmdierks (aka, Bladiator) came to learn music through the innate plunking of his father. At the age of five years, Blad's father taught him the basics of chordal harmony. He continued to putz around on the piano and had some fun trying to write music. Fast forward to college. Amidst the chaos of six years in higher learning, he finally graduated, not as a pianist (though still a pretty durn good one), but as a composition major. After years of despair and credit card debt in the music world, Karl has finally moved to the Dallas/Fort Worth area where he currently makes a buttload (the equivalent of 3 craploads) of money as an IT professional for local radiology firms. Sadly.