A widely published poet, keyboardist/ percussionist Cliff Saunders was born in Providence and has lived on the Grand Strand for the past ten years. From ages 6 to 12 he took piano lessons but focused on playing the drums in high school and college. While in grad school in Tucson, Arizona in the early 80s he drummed for a briefly notorious cowpunk band called The Hecklers, who went on to record albums as Al Perry & the Cattle. After grad school he got the urge to write his own songs and returned to keyboard playing. In Boston in 1990, the demo for his band The Peptides won accolades in Boston Rocks magazine and received airplay on WFNX. In Virtue Trap Cliff has been able to use both his keyboard and percussion skills to fill out the band’s sound.