Q: How would you describe your style of music? A: It’s difficult to pigeon hole myself. I’m very close to the music, in so far as I’ve heard it so often throughout the creative process, on through into the recording, mixing, and mastering stage, I think I can lose sight of how it actually sounds to other people. I’d like to think of it as intelligent pop/rock. The lyrical content is more thought out than a large proportion of contemporary rock & pop, whilst containing some interesting musical layers, using delays and distortions, not just on the guitars, but on the keyboards, and piano. And of course there’s the ubiquitous E-Bow, which I feel is so underused by many guitarists. Q: What would you say are your musical influences? A: I suppose the first major influence had to be U2. They were my teenage fascination around the War, Under A Blood Red Sky era. But my first music exposure was the late seventies punk movement, stuff like The Damned, The Stranglers, Buzzcocks, The Clash etc. This then drifted into the whole new romantic thing, although at the time I was only into bands who used ‘strictly synthesisers and vocals only’! As you develop more of a thirst for music and start playing, I think it’s only then you really dig deeper, and find all the other stuff, like the whole sixties thing. The Zombies, The Stones and Love, are all great bands from that period, and I guess, like most musicians, we all assimilate bits and pieces from various periods. Q: How did you get to this point in your career? A: My first dalliance with music was in my last year at school, where we had a trio, with vocals, drum machine, and piano as the core set up. Needless to say we were really bad, and never got further than rehearsing in the school music room! After a brief spell in the armed forces, I began gigging on the pub and club circuit, which later developed into the whole songwriting, and recording aspect of the music. After completing a music degree at Brunel University, I released my first demo album, A Whisper & A Croak, in 2002, followed up by the latest Classified album this year. Q: What’s your favourite song on your current album and why? A: The Artist (probably). I love the imagery of the lyrics. Oh, and the e-bow’s pretty tasty too! Q: What type of gig do you most like to play and why? A: I prefer smaller pub gigs, as they keep an intimacy with the audience. Most live music venues have bad sound systems, or bad sound engineers, whereas your local pub doesn’t have a PA, so you take your own, and you know what sound you’re going to get, which for me, helps me relax, and play better. Q: What’s your most memorable gig and why? A: Final performance at Brunel University. It was in the afternoon, in the middle of June, in a well lit hall, with the examiners at the back with their clipboards and spectacles. This was a surreal environment to be playing the kind of music we were doing at the time, but luckily (for us), we were all on the button that day, and it paid off. Great sound too! Q: What group of people would you say you appealed to most? A: Very small! Predominantly 25-40 year olds. Teenagers and OAPs more than welcome. Q: What’s the weirdest thing a fan has ever done / sent to you? A: Not really anything done to me, but this guy who got hold of the Classified album sent me an email explaining how enamoured he was with it. So much so that whenever he plays it in his car, he can’t get out until the whole album has finished, which, for about four weeks, made him late for every date in his diary!! If was kinda nice to receive that feedback, and to know that someone gets what you’re doing to that extent. Q: Name one unusual fact about you. A: I was born on the day man landed on the moon. Q: If you could record a collaboration with ANYONE - who would it be and why? A: Bono - The man has to be one of the greatest rock singers/lyricists around, and I reckon he would be a great conversationalist over a few pints of the black stuff! Q: What’s your ultimate ambition or dream? A: To be able to give up the day job, sell a modest number of CDs, tour around Europe in small theatres, halls, and record an album every couple of years. Oh, and a big f**k off house in the country!!! | 
