He is primarily associated with the East Bay punk rock and metal scene from the 1990s till the present and has toured extensively throughout the world.
His mother, Melanie Hansen Willer stayed at home to raise their three children; Jason, Jeremy and April until the couple were divorced in 1983.
Interest in music started early, inspired by a radio station KVHS, that was and continues to be broadcast from Clayton Valley High School.
The station would broadcast a specialty show from 10 pm to Midnight playing Thrash and Death Metal that piqued Willer's imagination, revealing worlds of music to explore.
[2] After receiving his patriarchal blessing at age 14, Willer stopped attending Mormon services and became a regular at 924 Gilman Street, where he said, 'Music became my new religion'.
[6] At age fifteen Willer joined a punk band called Teenagers From Mars and started playing shows around the Bay Area on weekends as well as school nights.
Records titled Conquered / Concord which was a compilation with another Bay Area band, Second Hand Spit, in which Enemies were represented by two songs, This Mess and Feed Your Greed.
[4] Critical acclaim for the album[8] resulted in an eighteen months tour which included high profile events for Thrasher magazine and Real Skateboards.
[6] While still drumming for the U.K. Subs, Willer moved to Germany in 2004 and started the band Cross Stitched Eyes which are on the Alternative Tentacles label as well as Ruin Nation Records.
[11] After returning to the US, Willer reached out to Shane Baker with the idea of forming a dark band inspired by the heavy metal he had grown up on with some British anarcho influences.
The band Alaric was formed in 2008 with former bandmate Rick Jacobus on bass and Baker as the lead vocalist, singing songs that convey emotions like loss and regret.
[13] The name Drain The Sky comes from William Faulkner's The Hamlet,[14] and the band featured bassist Carl Auge, formerly of His Hero Is Gone and George Wunderlich.