Musical Background

For as long as I can remember I have been involved with listening to music and making noises with musical instruments

When I was very young (age 5 through till I was about 11) listening to music revolved around an old dansette record player (it stacked up to 7 singles and played them one after another) and a load of singles that I had "inherited" from my older brothers and sister. These singles ranged from Booker T and the MG's, Jimi Hendrix and Otis Redding through to Cliff Richard and the Wombles..... It was Cliff's Thrash Metal phase as I remember (ahem).

Whilst I was at primary school I played the recorder (in fact there is photographic evidence of me standing next to my future wife at a recorder festival when we were both aged about 6). However formal musical education and me fell out when I moved to secondary school (aged 11).

Despite attempts to get me to take a leading part in school productions, I staunchly refused, something to do with keeping the musical integrity of my aspirations or something (I think it was fear actually). It wasn't until I had left secondary school and gone to sixth form (aged 16) that I took an interest in music again, this time there was a motivation - girls!

I started off on the drums but soon found that I was too damned lazy to get any good at playing such a physically tiring instrument (plus there was a lot of competition with more talented/committed drummers in the area). I then took up the electric bass figuring that a decent sense of rhythm would stand me in good stead (I hadn't realised that a sense of rhythm is an optional extra with a lot of bassists).

Having played bass exclusively for about 14 years I took up playing the guitar with (semi) serious intent at the start of the millennium. My bass playing covers a variety of genres from Heavy Metal through to funk and also jazz. My guitar playing, though, has stayed firmly in the Heavy Metal arena.

Recently my drum mojo has been rekindled with my 40^th birthday present from my wife of an Alesis MIDI drum kit. I think she’s trying to get me to lose some weight!

The music I enjoy listening to is more eclectic than that which I play, covering heavy metal, jazz, classic rock orchestral and medieval renaisance. Maybe one day I will release an album of jazz/metal fusion interpretations of Dowland's lute music from the 16^th century?

Whilst I have played in a number of bands in the past work responsibilities tend to get in the way of being able to commit to such fun and games and so I am very much a home recordist these days. I mostly record direct from my Behringer Bass VAmp Pro or my Marshall JMP1 pre-amp into the Emu soundcard on my PC. Drum tracks are laid down using my Alesis DM5 sound module and midi drum kit.