Carlton Sparks

I was facinated by music from a very young age and one of my earliest memories was listening to my dad's records with my ear again'st the speaker and i would think that all the little people were inside there!...yeah i was a bit of a nutter...I discovered the guitar when i was 8 while i was watching the t.v. I think it was eric clapton but i just remember a black strat with a white scratch plate and the most beautiful mezmerising sound that i had ever heard! And thats when i knew i wanted to play the guitar. When i was in primary school i was very passionate about drawing way before i was interested in music.I had this idea that i would be a profesional artist and that music would be my hobby.It did'nt take long before i forgot all about drawing altogether.When i was 13 i joined my first band,we would bash out metallica tunes in a tinny sound proof granny-flat at the drummers parents house.It was fun at the time but only lasted a few short months. It was'nt till i was sixteen that i was aproached by some older high school students to join their band.I remember not really being interested and was happy just to sit at home and play but they kept pursisting.So i joined their band during that time we won a few band comps and had also gotten second in the state.I recall a group of 11 year old kids from newcastle that played in the band comp 'Youth Rock 93' received an encoragement award,well they ended up being pretty successful and are now one of australia's most popular bands. From 1993 to 1997 i studied jazz at The Australian Institute of Music in surryhills with some of australia's finest musicians such as; George Golla,Guy Strazzullo,Jeremy Sawkins and Carl Orr to name a few.After i finished my studies i moved an hour north of Sydney to the Central Coast where i joined a band my cousins had formed called Bonic.Not long after that we met up with Garry Beers (INXS) and were signed to his label Override records.One year later we were recording our debut album.Between 2000-2004 we did some supports for INXS, The Whitlams and Cog and were getting a reputation for our live perfomances.While this was all going on i did some session guitar work on a project with Garry and my mate Michael Peter for his solo debut,which then followed into live shows. During 2004 i had a break from music due to the fact that playing was'nt making me happy anymore,i was needing some spiritual insite and it was time to step out of my comfort zone for a while.On September 1st 2004 i arrived in India and during my 3 month stay i visited Mumbai, Pune, Ajanta, Ellora, Meherbad and Meherzad. I explored buddist caves over 2000 years old and had walked through The Valley of the Saints.I stayed for most of my trip in a pilgrimage in Meherabad which is 6 hours north of Mumbai.It is where Avatar Meher Baba's tomb is located and it is the most magical place on earth.During my stay in India i met some interesting people from all over the world and had listened to their stories.I had the pleasure of doing some performances in India with musicians i had met over there and also with my friends that i had traveled with to India.It was like the guitar kept falling into my hands,no matter how hard i tried to run away from it,it would find me! I've been getting back into playing guitar,songwriting and sitar since i came back from India and have been playing in a cover band 'The Unexpected' for some $$ as well as playing for solo artist Michael Peter and Paul Eagle and the elastic band. I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4