Hi there my name? Is Kerry Spencer or AKA Leo Wiess which is my chosen stage name! I am a born artist, musician living here with my wife and our pets in the east central part of Minnesota for the best part of 30 years or so now. I was actually raised living in twin cities mostly south Minneapolis area but I was  born in the western U.S. My basic interests in Art, music I believe came out of a need to create while being highly aware that my surroundings can and do inspire my work.  I think too that work I was exposed to in the theater and other art related programs during high school may have pushed this creativity along towards work in art and the multimedia field. I also believe I have had some very very inspired teachers and mentors who managed to encourage my talents in spite of there large intercity class sizes  during the mid 70's .

    Important Talents, which those teachers helped along and experience such as class study with John Donahue Director of the CTC (Children's Theater Company) and other experiences  as a "technical student" at the institute of arts brand new CTC building lead to my direction in art, music and the visual arts.  I was also enrolled in a brand new talented youth program for the theater and arts, learning skills in oil painting and drawing,  jewelery making, pottery and carpentry, electrical wiring, welding, audio engineering, lighting and perspective set design. 

    With very high grades & interest in all these first hand field classes and then studying with, and some times living with artist working in there own fields gave me "hands on"  insight into there life style and art forms. I helped with the sound, lights, set design and special effects studying with the then lighting  designer John Baker and stage manager Frank McGovern who both I think really thought I was just a punk kid and just tolerated my presents. I ran sound, lights and helped as a stage hand for many of there productions during there transition to there then new "State of the Art" facility.

    I continued to worked and volunteer as a student on many other productions around the twin cities and surrounding area for many years. during that time I was enrolled in one of the very first "Free Schools" then called the Lorring Nicollet Free School ran from a large old house at that time and address in Minneapolis. it Pretty much was an alternative for those that were too smart (ya, I have a very high I.Q. they tell me) or to dumb to make the "normal grade" We all didn't see it that way which was a good thing I think and although I found myself really just showing up for the parties "Gorgies" we called them, kind of a "pot" luck thing every one brought food or some thing) and I would also show up to hand in my "home work" and pick up my new assignments. it was all pretty much home work there. not much class work! I did manage to learn from the experience and made some great friends too! This was a very good time for me I think! I met and was living with one of my new friends from the school Albert Vasicek and we were doing pretty  well!

We were both working at the downtown Raddison as housemen to pay our bills and doing our music to have fun! I drove school buses for awhile,  Drove Cabs in the  twin cities and outer reaches of the suburbs. filled vending machines for awhile did some other forgettable stuff too but Albert and I  played our music like crazy!! We did popular venues like the Artist Quarter and  Katie O'Leary  and yes there were many real dives mixed in there too!  We lived in our second floor apartment and my then old friend and musical mentor Albert  really got us going for a while there! we had posters, agents and many many bookings for our small new group!  we were practicing day and night for hours and hours it seemed!

    We both did so many gigs around town during our time together hard to remember them all . most notably we preformed lunch time Gigs in the then new IDS court and the response was so good Albert and I were invited to do our thing on the then newly remodeled Nicollect Mall in front of the IDS center! one of the very first concerts of that type  in downtown Minneapolis! 

I met my wife Nancy about that time too, at the age of 19, she a year younger then I. it's a love story really, seen her on the bus and I knew, I mean really knew she was the only one for me! yep it was love at first sight for me not so much for her till she knew me better I think but in the end we fell madly in love. still are crazy about each other 30 some years later actually!  A few months later? everything changed, kids on the way, new direction etc..etc... Nancy and I left the big city behind and moved north to "Wilderness Campgrounds" when my father and some friends needed someone to run the place! with our son on the way and a small cabin to live in Nancy and I ran one of the largest privet campgrounds in the state at the time! over 125 archers with two lakes and the Kettle river running down the east side. it seemed to be a dream come true for a time!

    But this was mowing grass and dealing with campers finding time for music and art was not in the card for us right away. Soon though I met others who wanted music and art too, we started a band called Wolf Creek ! all of us being in the same sinking boat you might say, newly married, kids on the way, relationships tight! ya it was an interesting time and looking back now  seemed to have just about killed all of us off!!! at the very least this time with wolf creek took a few years off the time line I am sure. but I still see Dave and Bob once in a while! Bob I think also has a recording studio now too and took over the band when I left, the others I have lost touch with.

    I went back to school about this time at the then Duluth technical. institute.(now Lake Superior Collage) for a couple of years taking as a major architectural drafting and design I had at that time been involved with taring down old buildings and recycling the materials. I found I was very interested in there structure and there construction however my timing for schooling I think was bad or the schools was, at that time everyone was switching over to computer added drafting (CAD) and no one was hiring the "older" type of draftsman that actually draws plans by hand, that of course was how I was trained! and in fact was the reason I took the course in the first place! I have alway been an artists first above all! drawing my surroundings as I see my environment has alway been my thing, I once  remember going for a job interview, hearing a guy in the next room argue with his boss after reading my resume out loud that "it might be a good thing to have a guy around here who know what the computer is doing!" guess that about somes it up right there! and computers at that time were always crashing and losing information.

Well anyway later on I opened a small drafting studio of my own after looking for drafting work for over a year. Its now called "Limelight Studios" and actually dose pretty well even after we had some legal and family problems a few years back that pretty much shut us down! (see the song Hold On Baby for more info and details) I'm still doing drafting projects and been told by many I am "very good", "amazing work", "you must see through walls" "Very very happy with our new home" many many comment still coming in from clients I had many years ago even!   Well I have been involved with a many  local and out state projects, (see List of past drafting projects here ) Doing my internship in the Duluth City Architects office and I had also spent years before taring down buildings for salvage I was well prepared for all the  large and small projects that were to come over those next 20 some years including work for DAKA Corp. of Pine City as a structural steel detailer Then after what I believe were some rather unfair dealings with the owner of Daka, I again found myself saying "no way am I going to spend my time filling this guys pockets to be treated so badly !" from that point on I was hooked on being my own boss and pointed myself in that direction!

Well I guess it was about the time that my mother passed away and left me a little bit of cash, Mom was a very hard working gal,  but even so I don't know how she managed to leave all us kids anything at all it was a very nice surprise! That said it was the first time in my life that money was not an issue and for a short time it was real nice too! I wanted to invest some of that money in my talents and interests! I managed to pull together a nice recording studio with custom built computer systems, bought a BR-8, a 64 track digital recorder and a roland 20 channel digital mixer, along with a few 

good  mics! so I started a recording studio called Westwind Studios and after more than 7 years we are still up and running in spite of the well known odds against us!

Did you know that 9.5 out of 10 recording studios close down there first year! Well we are that half (or 0.5) a studio left I guess! But that fact dose works in our favor at the pawn shops! I am still buying stuff used! no point in buying new with our studios "lower income" track record and I usually get better stuff then I can buy new with the same amount of cash anyway!

We have been adjusting to our local areas needs for services here in east central Minnesota and as much as I would like to record the music of local artists, there are not many around here I would or could work with even on a good day, very slim pick' ins! and I am kind of picky about who I'll record too!

I have concluded that if you live way out here in the wood the way we do and play any kind of music you are pretty much on your own! so I do nature and weddings and other event videos, web sites, teach guitar once in awhile! as a side line! I try to stay open minded about most projects the come along.

I work on my own stuff as I am able too! I keep my ears and eyes open to artists in this area as well as around the world that might need some help, I still think it's important keep looking for that "diamond in the ruff" sorta speak! just waiting to be found!

After putting out our first three albums; for myself "Outer Spaces" for my old band Elevation "Last Call" and then a live album for my friend John Allen aka Ten Horses "Wolf Tracks" we took a break to do some re-thinking and some remodeling in 2006 for more studio area and upgrades to our equipment now finishing up in the summer of 2008