Musician Bios

Originally from Portland, Chelsea Luker was exposed since pre-birth to a plethora of musical influences. Her father being a rock and jazz guitarist, she grew up to the sounds of Zappa, Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell, and SunRa to name a few. Despite this influence of rock and jazz, Chelsea began serious classical training on saxophone at the age of 11. In high school, she traveled the US to study with many of the world’s saxophone greats, winning classical competitions and performing recitals, including a performance of the Glazounov Saxophone Concerto with Orchestra in 1999.

Continuing on the classical path, she moved to Florida and received her B.M. in Saxophone Performance at Florida State University, participating in various classical festivals, and winning the Florida State solo competition her senior year. Chelsea also discovered her love for performing in live bands, and started her first professional rock/fusion group, Xingu. Xingu toured the Southeast US in their yellow school bus, recorded their debut album, Xinguism, and shared stages with bands such as the Robert Randolph Band, Robert Walters and Colonel Bruce Hampton.

After returning to Portland in search of other musicians to collaborate with, she now is a founding member of the Quadraphonnes Sax Quartet, teaches saxophone, and plays in a variety of groups around town including the Lily Wilde Orchestra, Funk Shui and Kate and Co.

Always a lover of low end frequencies, Joel first entered the musical world by playing bassoon in his Roscoe, Illinois, middle school. Joel began playing the electric bass at age 13 upon discovering influential bassists from classic rock bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, and Black Sabbath. His first gigs at age 15 were in local bar bands that played classic rock covers. During his high school years, Joel attended numerous regional jazz festivals, which exposed his ear to more diverse musical vocabulary. This inspired him to keep pursuing bass performance and composition. He began playing and composing with Chicago-based psychedelic rock band Love Said Demeter, with whom he began to establish his signature improvisatory style.

After high school, Joel sought out knowledge of the technical aspects of recording and production and attended the School of Audio Engineering in Miami, Florida. After studying in Miami, he moved back to Chicago for a year and then found a different path that led him to Boston where he worked and collaborated with Perry Bakalos on improvisational jazz/rock fusion music.

Joel relocated coasts to Portland, Oregon, in 2008 seeking out a fresh musical scene and increased artistic opportunities. He has been playing bass with Mars Retrieval Unit since then. Joel also plays and writes for local progressive rock trio Minds Align.

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Joshua plays keys with MRU. Originally from the small New England town of North Adams, Massachusetts, he moved to Oregon in October of 2008 and joined MRU a month later. Enamored with the piano at a young age, he has been playing keys for nearly twenty years.

Before moving to Portland, Joshua had a short run with a Berkshire County group called The Longview Gunslingers. LGS played a mix of jam rock, reggae, folk, and hip-hop. Previous to that he helped to form The Green Mountain Pranksters, a cover band that played the music of the Grateful Dead primarily. With these groups, he has gigged extensively in eastern and western Massachusetts, central New Hampshire, northern and southern Vermont, northern Connecticut, and eastern New York.

Currently, in addition to playing with MRU, Joshua is a member of the progressive rock fusion trio Woody, Wiseman and Sprague.

“I remember learning at a young age that a human’s height and breadth are relatively the same. This may seem an innocuous fact, but to a 5’7″ 14-year old with a 6-foot wingspan, a size 13 shoe, and aspirations to be the next Magic Johnson, it is a prophecy. When will nature right the balance? When will I grow into my body? When will my peers stop asking me if I ever scrape my knuckles when walking?”

Although despondent that this dream did not manifest, John’s ‘abnormality’ translated quite well into skill on the drums. Already a working classical percussionist and instructor at age 18, it was around this time that he was introduced to jazz and other afro-centric styles from Brazil, Jamaica, and his favorite, Cuba.

Equally as intriguing as the music itself was how it reflected the respective culture and history. Incorporating these multiple disciplines created a whole new
experience and steered John into the field of Ethnomusicology. He continues to employ this method in conveying concepts to both audiences and students. Music is a form of communication, a language, and its value is derived from the social institutions that created it.

Rob came from the typical place we all do. They cleaned him up, and nearly 18 years later, he managed to fool a college into allowing him to major in music, and has since weaseled his way onto numerous stages, both of the prestigious ilk and some “less so” (including locations that require moving a gumball machine out of the way to “make a stage space”).

Taking all the east coast skills he learned from gigging in FL, GA, AL, SC, PA, and RI, he relocated from Tallahassee FL to Portland in the summer of 2004, to start musical projects anew, including, but not limited to: Mars Retrieval Unit, Perfect Zero, Sauce Policy, Sea and Sky, Twice Baked, and more.