Music
I was first put in front of a piano at four years old. I didn’t replicate Mozart and play a classical piece from memory, but I did play an original tune I had in my head, using both hands and syncopated timing for ten minutes or so. I recall being rather taken aback by the reaction of the group of adults present in the room, who thought this act worthy of praise – a great fuss was made. My parents consequently afforded me enough additional musical education that it formed part of my life and living since then.
As well as making traditionally played music using conventional instruments and voice, I work across many musical genres, composing radio-friendly three minute songs, soundtracks for moving image, month-long installation soundscapes.
In the past I have been particularly interested in the space between noise and music, where one becomes the other. I improvise around found sounds and field recordings, something which I began doing at ten years old, using cassette tape recorders. An early adopter of digital media production, I have always been interested in distorting, processing and enhancing sound. At the birth of internet media, I played a role in developing the streaming technology which now underpins the likes of YouTube and Spotify.
I cultivate no musical bias, having abandoned the concept of musical “taste”. This conscious openness to all forms of music was a decision I took after I left art school, so as to broaden my musical horizons, and one I have never regretted. My influences and interests include funk, world music, pre-renaissance, pop, rock, hip hop, trip hop, vintage electronic, country, ambient, glitch, pre-historic and musique concrète.
I enjoy working alone, unhurried and contemplative, but I have also collaborated extensively, co-writing, performing with, and producing some sublimely talented people. These days people send me tracks to arrange and perform via email – how civilised that is. I don’t miss the studio clock ticking down the budget.
For many years I collaborated with Mark Crook, a close friend and colleague from the age of 11. Until his untimely death in 2013, we wrote original music for artists together and produced several acts, as well as co-writing and producing material for our own projects. Many of these musical compositions and collaborations have been released via the non-genre art group Cinema du Lyon.
Cinema is Burning, a track from the album, The Particle Zoo.
A follow up Cinema dy Lyon album, The Magnetic Moment of the Antiproton, was released February 2021. I’m glad to still be a part of this artistic endeavour.
My biggest hit to date, Survival Game, was co-written with Mike Turtle.
I wrote and produced a World Cup song for John Cleese with my old friend Ashley Slater. A jolly romp, like all the football songs in 2006 the song didn’t sell hugely, but it did get great radio play, some fantastic press coverage and won Mr Cleese some better UK press than he’d had for some years.
In 2008 I devised and produced the Rise and Shine songwriting show with friend and co-writer Danny Brittain.
In 2017, my first band, The Believers, re-released our eponymous album.
You can listen to it free, or buy fourteen tracks for the bargain price of £7.00.
I have composed soundtracks for celebrated vidéaste Hervé Bernard.
I was very pleased when he won several awards for films which include my compositions.
I put out a song called ‘Single’, my first such release in 30 years. I wrote this prog-rock / art song in 2017, during a period when I was far from civilisation and indeed, friends, caring for my elderly mother. It’s fast, guitar-driven with pounding dance beats, a fat moving bassline, and intoxicated, psychedelic vocals. The melody came to me in the street, and I recorded it on my phone. It kept me sane.
Enjoy 🙂
https://artist.landr.com/music/628810187232
You will find many more recent songs on Soundcloud and Reverb Nation.
