Born in good ol' London. Went to school with Blues guitarist Chris Finnen.We had our first band together. I played an old Hofner guitar, cherry red, boy did I save for that thing. Our first drums were biscuit tins.The earliest music I really related to was Chuck Berry, Bill Haley and Fats Domino. I was from a very early age drawn to the rawness of certain blues records. I loved the intensity, and the immediacy of what these artists were doing.I remember Blueberry Hill having an absolutely hypnotic effect on me, because of it's repetition and the melody/hook. I loved how a hook like that could just stay in your head. I've never forgotten that early clue and memory to where I hope my songs are headingI taught myself how to play guitar and to read music. Countless hours locked away doing the hard yards, trying to get to the heart of what all these guys were doing.I also really took to the likes of Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker along with the Yardbirds, Animals, Eric Clapton and John Mayall. I was hooked on the apparent simplicity in their blues based rock, especially Hooker. I now know this simplicity hides an incredible discipline in terms of feel and texture, aswell as instrumental skill and tone.Early influences on me included all the above along with Canned Heat, Mike Bloomfield, and Jimmy Page, then later, Billy Gibbons, Walter Trout, Duke Robilliard, Buddy Guy, Coco Montoya, Peter Green, Luther Allison, Lonnie Brooks, Lonnie Mack, Albert Collins, Albert King, and B.B.King, to mention a few. I try to seek out obscure players aswell, just to see if I can get more insights from wherever I can. I have toured with a number of covers/original bands over the years, whilst trying to develop a writing style that truly reflected me and what I felt inside. The Blues is the only form in which I feel really comfortable, and at home with myself. The scope that it offers me as a writer is huge. Blues I reckon by it's very nature is passionate and full of life's dramatic twists and turns. I would go so far as to say that Blues is singular in it's ability to transport you to a part of yourself that you had maybe forgotten about and helps shine a light there for you. I don't agree with the twaddle I heard one idiot DJ on a Christian station say that blues was just selfish male music that involved down and outs drowning their sorrows in a bar full of drink. The Blues is Life, pure and simple. I cannot respect the soulless drum pattern, music of today which simply has no talent or ability associated with it at all. Blues is organic and my blues is really all about being real.I want people to have a musical experience that helps shake out the cobwebs. I guess my electric based music is a blend of John Mayall, Peter Green, Walter Trout and Luther Allison, mixed together with a serious dose of Aussie grunt. Acoustically speaking, I draw from a very wide range of influences including John Butler, Guy davis, Bob Dylan, Corey Harris, Eric Bibb, Keb Mo, Tony Joe White, Chris Smithers, etc etc.As a player I like to talk straight on the guitar, like in a real conversation, coz to play too tricky or too slick can actually confuse, and take away from what the song is trying to get across. It's the song that is so important, everything else is secondary in my book, and is only there to support the song.I'd like to think that my approach is pretty direct, and as straight forward as I can make it.I enjoy hard driving chordal based blues where the rhythm drives the song to the peaks. Some call this the groove. If i've got that then I'm doin' ok. I also have to have a real hook of a melody there so the listener has something to grab hold of.I love songs that hypnotize so I try to bring that element into my writing. I have heard people saying already that songs by who?Then they find out that it's my song. Bingo job done. To be able to write like that has always been my dream.
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