So far, he's been to 13 and loves getting away from his busy life to admire nature, whether it's at Yosemite in California's Sierra Nevada mountains or Yellowstone in Wyoming. A manager for a local upholstery shop by day and a band member by night, Todd leads a busy life. But he thinks it's important to take time to simply reflect.
"It's very spiritual trips," Todd said. "I go there with my father, just my father and I." Todd moved to Hanover from Maryland about a year ago and took his current job managing Harris Customs and Upholstery on Carlisle Street, located behind Stylemaker Interiors.
When he moved, he thought he'd have to quit his band, Far From Earth, because everyone else still lived in Timonium, Md. But he found he's been able to keep the full-time job and still make it to practices and performances in Maryland. Which is good, Todd says, because he doesn't think he could survive without music in his life.
"When I'm not with my band and I'm not working, I'm in my apartment writing and recording music all the time," Todd said. He's the drummer for the four-person band, which will be doing an East Coast tour this April. At the same time, they plan to release a full-length album.
He describes the music they play as "good ol' rock 'n' roll" and said they hope to be the next big thing, overtaking the "poppy" character of the current alternative rock movement dominated by bands like Sum 41 and Good Charlotte. Music, to Todd, is a way for people to get away from the harsh and negative parts of life and focus instead on beauty. "Far from earth, many miles away, I see life all around me, instead of seeing death, killing and destruction," one of the lyrics goes.
When Todd hears those words, he goes mentally back to his favorite spot in the world, located in Yosemite National Park. And when he performs, he likes to study people and see how the music is affecting them. But at work, Todd puts his music passions aside and focuses instead on business.
He always closes the deal with customers, he says proudly, and also likes the handcrafted work he does. He's always liked doing things with his hands, so instead of becoming a computer person or engineer, he did welding before coming to work for Harris Customs. Many people choose to re-upholster furniture that is antique or simply something that's been passed down to them.
"I get pieces that I pulled out a garage and there's cobwebs all over it and it's completely destroyed," Todd said. "You have to take everything out of it and make a completely new piece." He learned how to do the work, from hand-tying springs to sanding down pegs to gluing and clamping the furniture from the employees at Harris Customs when he took the job.
And he's proud of the way the business will work with interior designers to redo an entire room. He loves living in Hanover with his girlfriend, Jenn Saltzman, who he said is very supportive, especially of his music aspirations. And he hopes his band will make an appearance in the annual Chili Cookoff, a Hanover Labor-Day weekend tradition, though he hasn't looked into it yet.
"I love Hanover," Todd said. "People are much nicer. I think it's really, really neat because it's a small town.
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