When I was a kid I listened to my Dads records mainly. These were Burt Baccarach, Jose Feliciano, Dusty Springfield, a selection of Jazz, Blues, Rock'n'roll and oddly, now I look at it , Yes. At age 11 I started buying records, mainly Pink Floyd & Black Sabbath, and had designs on becoming a guitatist.
After much 'fannying about and experimentation I finally discovered the basics of playing the 'plank'
When Punk arrived in earnest, in 1976, I saw a whole new way of approaching the instrument and after spending years learning to play Van Halen 1 and The Sabbath back catalogue I discovered there were no rules!
The biggest thing to hit the scene, for me, was a man called John McGeogh. I listened to John Peel every weeknight on Radio 1 to hear the latest sounds and Johns work with Magazine blew me away, but rather than rip him off and buy a flanger, I decided to get a delay pedal and a wah wah, if he could make up a sound, chords and all, so could I! Tragically, for me, the bands I played with never really got anywhere, mainly because of the lack of economic stability in the UK and the need to earn money fast, or just the lack of commitment from band members. Psychedelic Ambient Dub was one band that had all the components I was looking for in a band, 'Cakehead' is one of the PAD songs from back in 94, it was one of our fans favourites, a certain John Peel played this track several times saying he was fascinated with the didj on the track. We gigged around Leeds, York and Bradford for a few years and even played at the Harley Davidson owners club rally and were quite shocked when they asked us to go back on stage at 1pm, unfortunately we were all far too smashed by then! The band split in 97 shortly after being offered a tour in Prague. I've worked more recently with Dan Watts on the Torture Experiment project, providing guitar, synth, vocals and production ideas. But now I feel like getting out for a while!
The songs I've posted here aren't finished articles, Twelve 04 needs finalising (EQ etc) I haven't decided whether to put a vocal track on it yet as it was inspired by 60's TV and film music (Get Carter, The Champions etc) Magic was inspired by the Magic Roundabout theme and is only 6 hours old, I thought it would be interesting to get feedback as I went along and the songs' evolution could be heard, hopefully!
Taste no more is pretty new and features some guitar work, although I haven't edited it yet and all the string noise can still be heard, having said that, it has a natural quality about it. Please excuse my first attempts at piano, I'm sure I'll get there in the end! They're not like synths you know!
Hope you enjoy these tracks in the meantime.
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