I was born in Leeds in the North of England and I moved to Minneapolis in America. It snowed a lot and I never saw Prince. I played guitar in a blues band called Killing Floor before the drummer went to jail and then I had my first band called the Rainjackets. We released a cassette and then broke up. I recorded and released a couple more albums and gigged around Minneapolis for a more few years and then quit my job and loaded up the car.
I drove to Santa Fe New Mexico where I lived in a village in the mountains. I travelled around America for several years in an old volvo playing over 200 concerts a year in little bars, cafes, theatres and psychiatric hospitals and managed to record and release 3 albums on very low budgets.
Disillusioned with the travelling troubadour lifestyle I moved to Portland Oregon. The rain drove me away after 5 days but I returned a year later and rented an old warehouse and built a recording studio and art space. I called it Are You Listening? I shared the space with some other artist types and we threw a few big parties. I painted and I recorded and produced albums for some bands including Decemberists, Man of the Year, Hindi Guns, Charmparticles, Little Sue, Nicole Campbell, Papillon, Funk Shui, Jolenes, Pete Krebs, Stephanie Schneiderman, Purusa, Aaron Masonek, Trick Sensei and I'm sure a few more. I also played electric guitar in my favourite band of all time: Soul Butler.
"Are You Listening? Studio. One of the shiniest gems in Portlands recent pop past" Portland Willamette Week 2004
I played a few more gigs and recorded two more albums of my own music with some friends and musicians I had been fortunate enough to meet in Portland including Ezra Holbrook and Aaron Masonek (American Girls, Dr Theopolis), Josh Boyd (Trick Sensei), Jason Bedard (King Black Acid, Durango Park), Kelly Simmons (Man of the Year) and James Beaton (Everclear, Storm and the Balls). Eventually the landlord turned up the heat on this little bohemian enclave and so I packed up and went back to the sanctuary of the desert in New Mexico and here I finished my last album, Frame. I also recorded and played on new albums for David Smith and Broken Trophy.
I was feeling the itch to get back to Europe after my American odyssey and George Bush got elected for a second time so I bought a one way ticket to Italy. It was all very nice and I played a few gigs but after about 3 months I decided to live in Ireland. I set up a recording studio in a little stone cottage just outside Cork. It rained almost every day and I shoveled coal into a bucket to keep the studio warm but I recorded music for Box Camera, Arm the Elderly, The Driven, Dardanelles, Exit the Street, Wiggle, The Red Herrings and I'm sure a few others. I played bass in a band called The Outside for a while and also Farfisa organ and synths in Box Camera.
A couple of years later I sold my studio, loaded up the car with my instruments and moved to Lyon in France. I have new a band here called Smash Heroes with Christophe Courtial on bass (Mauss, Noz) and Denis Simon on drums (Murdock) We got together in Jan 2008 and we've played a few gigs in Lyon at places like Ninkasi, Double Six and Casa Musicale. I'll be playing a few solo gigs and I'm writing songs for my next album.
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