The youngest of eight siblings – by a long way. Spoon fed The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who etc. – something of a traditional ‘60’s musical upbringing. The next step was to try to reproduce the sound I heard on a beat up Hofner that was lying around the house. As I entered my teenage years, I began to explore and find my musical tastes – likes (and dislikes). Trips to the record store; listening to the radio; watching bands on TV – it all helped to broaden my horizons. The journey through Progressive Rock, Punk, Reggae, Ska and Electronic began. Never really letting go of anything I enjoyed. Just adding it to my collection for a day in the future.
Writing and performing was something that I embraced. My creative outlet. But disillusionment with the ‘business’ in my early twenties led me to take, what became, a lengthy sabbatical.
As the genre ‘Electronica’ began to blossom, a long list of bands and artists were on my listening radar. Massive Attack, Portishead, Leftfield, Tricky, Toni Halliday, Sarah Blackwood, Lamb, Mint Royale etc. to name but a few. I then came across Steve Hillage (again) and his work with Miquette Giraudy as System 7.
Despite embracing electronica, guitar was still my ‘go to’ for listening and playing. Even when returning to music properly in 2010 and working on a solo album in 2014, I never considered keyboards or anything other than ‘organic’ drums would be a key feature. It was Andy’s comment in late 2016, “do you think you can write something electronic?”on the way back from a gig that allowed me to question myself as to why I shouldn’t explore the genre that I loved but had never considered I could be truly creative in. Our initial work showed promise and we agreed that a female vocalist was needed – and that person would be, preferably, able to write the lyrics and have control in crafting what we could create into songs. Truly, collaborative. We advertised for a female singer and auditioned a few – including a former Eurovision entrant. Nikki got in touch; arrived at the studio; took a few tracks away; returned a few weeks later and performed ‘Comfort in the Pain’. Andy and I were lost for words… And the journey to ‘Hammerhead’ had begun – a great working relationship that distance and time does not hinder.
To this day, many of our songs begin on a vintage acoustic guitar and are then transposed to keyboard. But that looks like it might change for our second album. Thanks to Andy, Nikki, Paul and, latterly, Carl, my confidence has grown in this discipline.
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