LORI AND ROBIN LULL

Together since 1987,
Lori and Robin Lull have been involved in various musical endeavors, 
including time spent with The two New England bands known 
as 7-RAGE and SPECTRIS.
See the 4th block below for their individual bios...
 
 
 

TRUE SOULMATES:

These two share many similar passions:
Everything music, oriental rock gardens, sailing,
motorcycle riding, love of nature, conservation,
gardening, humanitarian efforts, etc
(See their Near&Dear page)

Other hobbies include keeping up
with friends fans and family online 
or in person, watching movies, playing
and seeing live music.

As any of their friends will tell you, these two kind people 
show their hearts and make a genuine effort to walk the talk 
and set examples  when it comes to some of life's most 
important subject matters. 
Their true love for others shines through in every obvious
extra effort which people can't help but notice.
Big hearts, but also no fools, these two love to meet
people who are genuine, and who care about the planet,
animals and humanity.
 
 

While with 7Rage and Spectris:
 

After practicing together for a while, and
fighting to overcome Lori's profound shyness,  they
finally found the time and opportunity to start working
their schedules in a way to be able to pursue music actively.
They found 3 guys who were interested in the same, 
and the band called 7Rage was born. 
7Rage started to develope local success and a local following,
but at the same time, bandmembers came and went, and the
remaining members all felt the stress of life with their own
personal struggles, job committments and life changing events.
The band continued to gig for a while, but Robin and Lori
could tell a change was needed. So they decided to leave
the band to ease everyone's stress.

They took some time to decide whether or not to stay actively
involved in music and after a few weeks and many talks
they went out to see if they could find some
more musicians to work with.

Answering an ad, they joined 2 others and cofounded
Spectris. Spectris started to gather momentum
and had the success of their first album in late 2004.

Robin thanked Lori from the heart for staying with him
through good times and bad, by expressing his feelings
when he wrote the lyrics for "Your Solace" 
-A song created during their time with Spectris.

A song created with Lori in mind, and something
that all members of Spectris past and present,
should always feel good and proud about, along
with all of the music they created together as
Spectris, as everyone presses onward on their 
musical journeys.....

Near the end of 2005, after nearly 4 years of
moderate success with Spectris, they decided
to leave the band and take some time off for
some home improvements and to continue on 
with their own musical quests.

While with the Spectris band,
Lori and Robin showed their dedication
with everything they had. Lori and Robin
backed Spectris with every spare dime,
and every spare moment of time, as the
major funders/contributors for the band for 
the duration and by wearing multiple hats
to make sure the band kept moving forward
and to get things done timely and consistantly.

They worked creatively, constantly and vigorously to 
to funnel time, effort, and funding into the band that
they cofounded while at the same time:

As their Keyboardist, Lori also spent a lot of time 
doing accounting, to help set aside funding to
forward the band's success, purchasing much needed
gear, etc,  as she and Robin made the band one of their 
main priorities and tried to set an example of goal orientation...

As with 7Rage, Robin wore multiple hats for Spectris.
As the Lead Singer, Bassist, Webmaster, 
Computer Guru/Problem solver/Technician,
Sound Engineer and Producer for the band,
working double shifts to keep the band organized
with their reference materials sound files, funding and
maintaining very informative and creative webpages,
and getting information and music to the world through
many sites on the web and through liason connections 
with countless peoples and organizations and showing
Chris, the guitarist how to do the same.

In-turn, Chris helped Robin come out of his 
lefty/upsidedown insecurity/embarrassment
by enocouraging Robin to get more dedicated to 
his own musicianship.
Chris could see Robin holding himself back, and would
try to find ways to inspire Robin. One was by cementing
a very important example to Robin of another
guitarist that Robin could relate to.

Yes, that would be Doyle Bramhall II!

Robin and Chris spent a lot of fun time practicing to Pink
Floyd tunes, and Doyles' inspiring abilities on Roger
Water's "In The Flesh" tour were Chris' ammo to spark
Robin's fire and helped him come out of his shell.

-----

Through Robin's efforts, the present members of 
Spectris are much more computer and web savvy,
and they have music in several places all over the internet,
and on CD thanks to Robin's years of hard work as
their Producer, and Sound Engineer. 

While holding down very demanding full-time jobs
for the entire time they were with the band,
Lori and Robin hosted the practice place for both bands-
opening their home and lives to the band members,
 trying to pull out all of the stops, showing their
dedication and their abilities to set and reach goals.
Obviously motived, and enthusiastic,
Lori and Robin made a lot of things happen 
to move the bands forward....
--------------
Lori and Robin will always feel content with their
contributions to the 7Rage and Spectris Band.
Some wonderful accomplishments were made 
through their efforts and Spectris especially has a firm 
foundation to spring forward from.
 

Lori Lull

Piano, Keyboards, Accounting

Born in Chicago, and raised in South Florida,
Lori became interested in piano at an early age.

Through private instruction in the classics and music classes
at High School, she was led to majoring in Music at a college
in Miami, Fla. Life changes brought her to Boston, Ma. to attend
Berklee College of Music. Though her stay there was brief, it
gave her a good musical foundation especially in 20th century Jazz.

She left Berklee to pursue other interests, one of which was to study
the classics via the tutelage of a New England Conservatory graduate
and friend by the name of Linda Johnston.

A few years later,
Lori's husband Robin came into her life and encouraged her to
get back into music by joining him in his musical endeavors.
Together, they have had many different musical experiences
and are very grateful that nowadays, they are able to keep more
of an active role in music as it took a lot of sacrifices, time, and 
many changes to make it happen. 

Treat her right, and this quiet and shy little lady comes to life!
Bubbly, energetic and passionate about her beliefs,
Lori is a loyal friend to all who know her, and is a very loving,
kind, and gentle person. Sharp as a tack, and very witty, she keeps
Robin on his toes, and he says he just loves that about her!

She and Robin are now enjoying the fruits for their
latest efforts which can be seen at this site, and on myspace.com

 
 
 

Robin Lull

 Lead Vocals, Bass Guitar, Guitars, Song Writing,
Webpages, Sound Engineering, Production

Born in the mid 60's in Dallas, Texas
Robin has been noodling on guitars and singing
since he could talk. But playing guitars in
his leftyupside down manner proved to be
difficult, and embarrassing for him for a long time... 

Robin's family moved from  Woodshore Circle
to Northern New England in the winter of '69-'70.

Robin still remembers a lot about that house
at the end of the culdesac of Woodshore Circle,
and often talked about revisiting the area.

His fondest memory of it, is the fact that his Dad 
had a built in recordplayer in the wall, and 
sound system throughout the house. 
It's something that still strongly influences Robin to this day. 
Throughout Robin's childhood, there was music.

His parents both played guitar, so he always had one nearby...
but embarrassed to play them, as Robin played them in a lefty
upside-down fashion, and many peers and family would poke fun
at that. So it stayed a "closet ability" for years to come. Robin simply
hated playing that way, as it was frustrating enough dealing with charts,
and trying to learn harder chords, but not having any support and actually
the opposite, made Robin decide as a teen, that he would not be playing
in front of anyone ever again....
(Never say never Rob....)

UPDATE 2007:
Robin finally got his wish, and was able to return
to that very house, 37.5 years later, and to the state
of his birth, which he so deeply longed for.
The return to Texas, which included meeting some
musicians that Robin admired deeply, was nothing short
of a spiritual experience. It was like a spiritual red carpet
was rolled out for Lori and Robin as they were treated
so wonderfully by all of their online friends that they
were able to finally meet, and by the gracious 
forementioned musicians. 

----------------

-Robin also shared the following:

While growing up, I traveled quite often to visit family all around the country.
This hopefully served as a bridge to keep the family a little tighter, 
and for me to gain some kind of worldly prospective.

During my youth, I was involved with plays, skits, 
various entertainment endeavors while at the
same time, training in the Martial Arts.

Music was always my 1st love, but the martial arts 
was a neck&neck interest.....
As I entered High School, I got involved with a local Dojo,
foods planning/serving, plays, and concert choir.
Always loving to sing and entertain, 
the stage was where I felt most at home, making people
laugh and smile was a favorite thing to do.
If I could do that once a day, I felt worthy of life.
Plays such as Kismet, and Damn Yankees were wonderful
things to be involved with, and gave me some great memories.

I look back most fondly on my concert choir classes and
my wonderful instructor. His name was Tom Battista.
He has my gratitude to his dedication and great
vocal coaching. A good friend until this day!
A wink and a nod to Tom~ ;)

-----

Robin needed to add the following because he feels there
are several people who deserve some heartfelt thanks and Kudos:

In the Martial Arts, I trained with incredible instructors
learning pressure point fighting from Kata.

My main instructor and his son,
(who is also now a Grand Master Sensei),
are like family to this very day.

I was also into the healing aspects
of nerve work...such as accupressure
and still am to this day.

Before I even left high school however,
I realized and was honored that I had already
helped others with this knowledge
and the self discipline from the training.
One day, a friend who was dancing, suddenly
fell to the ground in agony, her knee visibly out of joint.

Luckily,I was able to do some mild accupressure
on the nerves around it, and popped it back
into place as she would not have walked
out of there otherwise. 
Being able to stop an injury in it's tracks like that
made me appreciate my sister's interest in medicine as well, 
and it has kept my curiousity to current times.
(My sister later became a Physical Therapist). 

While traveling during my youth, I trained
a little bit with other people that I met along the way.
Finally making it back to my old dojo through the early 90's,
I earned  my 1st degree (Shodan) blackbelt in 1993. 

The whole way of life, training, and discipline are part of me.
It's all incorporated in my activities to this very day. 

I've learned that anyone can cause another person injury,
but I feel that we should put effort
into loving, preserving, and respecting life! 
So it was an honor to be in a dojo 
that emphasized these things as well.

As a result, I must tip my hat to 
Gary and son, Tom McKenney,
and Joe Hammond, 
my master Senseis, and friends.
Thank you all from the bottom of my heart,
you are forever family.

Also, all the best to my brothers and sisters in 
the Vermont and New Hampshire dojos!
Thanks to John, Bruce and everyone in Bellows Falls,
and to "Tommy-Mac" in southern NH for continuing
on the wonderful work. I'm with you in spirit always....

By the way, Tom now has a website at:
Monadnock Ryukyu Kempo

Tom is like a brother to me.
We rose through the ranks and grew up together,
under his father, (our Master-Sensei) Gary,
who is still to this day, like an uncle or father to me.

I am so very proud to share that On July 30th of 2005,
Thomas McKenney (TommyMac) was inducted into 
the United States Martial Arts  Hall of Fame 
as "Kempo Master". 
This award acknowledges Tom's 27 years
of hard work and dedication to the arts.
And still counting.......Rock on my brotha~

Please view Tom's biography at the following link:
***Due to a typographical error, which should get corrected soon,
Tom is listed under "New York" (yes, it should have been under N.H).***

http://www.usmartialartshalloffame.homestead.com/inductees05.html

Much to my honor, he also mentions me on his
own page at the family and friends link:
His folks are at the top, and that's my ugly mug at the bottom,
I am deeply humbled at what he graciously said,
(and I ditto the sentiment right back to him):

http://www.nh-kyusho.com/friends%20and%20family.htm
 

-----
 

Having a very eclectic nature,  forever laced with edgey wanderlust, 
I've worked in various fields to see as many cultures and 
ways of life as possible due to an early life epiphany: 
"Life is what you make of it", as they say.. 
So isn't life far too short to "settle" for less than that?

So I say make it something you can feel good about. 
I've walked many paths with many people and hope I 
helped them along the way, as much or more than
I have learned from every one of them as well.

After working  full time as a postal worker in the 1990's
I got very sick and had to leave it.- 
(4 years of respiratory infections nearly killed me by 1998). 
Seriously, I made my peace with the spirit world
and was ready to go. But that is another long story.... 

By some miracle I survived, and promised the maker
that if I made it, I would get back on track to where 
my heart really was:

Music.
 
 

While recovering from the illness I rushed myself
too soon (as I often do when I have a goal), and tried
to record my vocals (Waaay too soon!..haha)

I sent some really bad vox tapes ;-)  to Rocketown Records. 
Bless their hearts, they actually took the time on the phone 
to speak with me quite a few times, and encouraged me. 
As sick as I was, it was one of the factors that kept 
me going! Seriously, thanks Mr. Donahue and "Smitty"!
(I was still way too sick to be recording vocals.... hahahaha)

Directly after that,  as strength slowly came back, 
needing to retrain for a new career to keep our home, etc, 
my computer interests/abilities led me into building 
and servicing personal computers.

From there I went on to take many courses that enabled me
to certify as a Microsoft Professional on WINDOWS NT SERVER.
I took all the courses that would have enabled me
to be certified as an MCSE+I, but with the busy work life, 
and of course the everchanging Microsoft world,
I simply gave up on ever getting any more tests! 
(too much $cha-ching$ going their way!... *chuckle*)

------

Time passed, I did some various work to get on my feet,
then landed a great "day job" as a classroom technologies
technician at an ivy league college. 
It involves Audio/Video/Computer integration, so I enjoy it,
and a big bonus is that I receive gratitude on a daily basis! 
These days, that's pretty rare, so to be appreciated for my
work is very nice, especially knowing that it's all for education.

I also use my computer abilities to keep webpages
going for the band, myself, and for my father's
FAMILY TREE and LULL HISTORY  sites.

Yep, you guessed it, I can't sit still... 

;)

--------

Looking back on my being so sick only made me
appreciate life all the more.... It also gave me a big 
wake-up call... It was time to go back....TO THE MUSIC.

It was faith, family, and the music that got me recentered,
and refocused.... to where I have the most peace for myself.

If our paths cross, may it be a wonderful experience for all.

I leave you with one final thought:

MLK's dream is mine too......Please learn to coexist.
Learn from the past....

It starts with respect. 
It blossoms with understanding,
and it survives with love and good habits.....
We are all flesh and blood, and we are truly in this together...
 

Thanks for reading, and I wish you blessings and peace.

-R-