Wasted a university education by becoming a bass player... did the usual... played for free (or drinks), signed on every 2 weeks, got drunk with mates, whined on about the music industry, acted superior because I played jazz fusion, played gigs in front of 3 people (but still had a rock n roll attitude) and waxed lyrical to girls about how I was too busy to have a relationship as I had to concentrate on my "art"! Life was simple but soooo much fun!
Eventually, the reality of life hit me straight in the bollocks... hard! However, fortune changed when I met the genius and mentor that is Jerry Dammers in a make-shift rehearsal room in Brixton. Former member of The Specials & The Specials AKA, Jerry wrote and produced some of the most important songs in the modern era... such as "Ghost Town" and "(Free) Nelson Mandela"... He's also the man who inspired me to produce and program ("Mike, you should produce and program" he said...!). We (and several others) formed a project called Tone Productions for 2 years (in which I played flute and ate loads of crap chinese takeaway). It was an amazing time with some amazing recordings and played some amazing gigs!... including a comeback for Jerry at Glastonbury. We released a few of these recordings, including "World Mutation" on "Rebirth of the Cool 4".
But alas, this eventually fizzled. I went back to playing some crap gigs, and some good gigs, neither of which sadly didn't do too much. Then I got involved with a band called Maroon Town, a 10-piece ska/funk band. We toured the world from Canada to Spain to Ukraine to Kazakstan, wangled £100,000 from Doc Martens, made an album, had a no.1 single in Spain, fell out 100 times with the band and eventually split (but about to reform for a one-off gig in Turkmenistan in June...I'm serious!).
A few years later (through uber drummer Thomas Lang), fortune again lead me to another mentor, musical director Mike Stevens. Mike was looking for a some new musicians to play for Billie Piper for an appearance on The David Letterman Show in New York! Unfortunately after a few days rehearsing, it got cancelled at the last minute (I nearly cried!) but the chance did introduce me to Mike. With Mike I ended up either playing bass or programming (or both) for acts such as Atomic Kitten, Mark Owen, Annie Lennox and Gareth Gates and many others... the last two being particularly amazing experiences! Annie for her incredible talent and utter professionalism, traits every musician should see and hear (and fu*king learn!), and Gareth for his incredible & natural talent and for showing me how much we have become fashion-victims (especially the music media)... Musicians should be soley judged on how good they are, and not if they release only one semi-decent song, shoot up and shag a super model... *sigh*
Aaanyway...I owe everything to Jerry and Mike...
Through continuing encouragement from Jerry, and my love of computers (and Star Trek), I started dabbling in writing/recording, bought a computer, and began what you could call "producing"! I also shared a flat with my good mate Kojo (THE best Hiphop/RnB producer on these shores) and annoyed the sh!t out of the neighbours by having a studio each in the flat!! We argued PC vs Mac (which I won) and Arsenal vs Man U (which I always win) and even got a chance to record with his mom, the enigmatic and ever youthful PP Arnold! Watch out for her on tour with Roger Waters...
After years of mistakes and recording bollocks, more mistakes and even more bollocks, I eventually got given a few chances to do some serious work... but this has also led to me having to curb my bass sessions and tours for producing.
So that's it... I'll be posting some tracks I've produced so come back and check them out!
