Collins gained his start in NYC area pop-punk/garage band Mod Fun, formed late in 1982[1] with his childhood friends Mick Hale and Bob Strete, with whom he had been playing music since 1979.
[2] During that same period, Collins also served as the drummer for New York pop-punk outfit True Colours, which quickly evolved into The Punch Line - a power pop quartet in which the focus was on vocal harmonies and clean production.
In addition, he played drums, keyboards and a bit of guitar with longtime friends Hale and Strete, who had gone on to form Crocodile Shop – also engineering many of the early recordings for that group.
[citation needed] In 2004, Collins' first band Mod Fun performed a reunion concert at The Saint in Asbury Park, NJ in celebration of the reissue of their retrospective CD "Past...Forward" by Get Hip Records.
[6] The rekindled friendship among the original members and their renewed interest in making music together has led to gigs in cities as far away as Nashville and Chicago as well as the release of a new double-length CD[7] and multiple performances in an around New Jersey and New York.
Simultaneously, he was working extensively as a freelance recording engineer and live sound reinforcement tech - having provided his services to artists such as Liza Minnelli, Elton John, Kim Simmonds (of Savoy Brown), Crocodile Shop, and others.
In 2006, Collins founded "CC Media Network" - a multimedia production and promotion company to serve as a channel through which his music industry releases could be distributed and various live events could be advertised.