Everything changed in 2020. On a global scale, of course, but also on a deeply personal level.

A long-term relationship foundered, but staunch new friendships were made, and ironically there was an exciting sense of freedom despite the COVID pandemic and
associated lock downs.

Music was relegated to a weekly chat session on WhatsApp, and the
album launch that the band I was with had been working towards was delayed again and again, on one occasion with less than 48 hours to go and after pulling a few favours in thelead up on local radio.

I had classical training in piano throughout my childhood, but rebelled against this restrictive regime when I was about 15 and turned to something that Beethoven and Bach were not likely to have had access to - a drum kit.

I started playing professionally around the early 1980s and for a time made a decent second income in cover bands, as a fill in, and backing cabaret shows and comedians.

By the mid-1990s I was also MC-ing karaoke parties, but eventually I grew tired of ‘middle-of-the-road’ fare and turned to playing for fun in various
fusion/jazz/blues bands that sounded good but never got very far. I taught myself a little guitar and started to amass a collection of folk instruments, which had always fascinated me.

Sometimes I wrote the odd tune - they usually came 2 or 3 at a time - but they were hard to pigeonhole and didn’t really fit into other projects. I had contributed to the writing process in bands, but largely ended up playing other peoples’ music. Then in early 2022 I dug up some old demo tapes I had recorded on a 4-track many years ago and played them to my 10-year- old daughter, who was adamant that I should release them on an unsuspecting world.

I was looking for something to focus on as the pandemic petered out, and suddenly a bunch of new tunes started flowing while I was working on refining the old ones and rewriting lyrics.
I had originally reached out to Italian guitarist and producer Simone Boffa after watching his YouTube review of a boutique overdrive pedal I was interested in. 

We quickly found that we both had a love for smooth jazz and Lovepedal effects!

I booked some time at a local studio from August 2022 and started putting down tracks on the fly, often changing and adapting the arrangement as each new part was added.

When I finally sent Simone a pretty basic version of Silence on the Moon as an entree, the result was mind-blowing, and a partnership of sorts was born. He has been involved in everything since, across a hair-raising breadth of genres, and has never failed to add immeasurably to each piece with an intuitive understanding of where I was heading.

If every person has a book in them, then every musician has a tune waiting to be heard. My music is obviously somewhat eclectic and unlikely to trouble the pop charts, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

I would like to think that I have some ability in teasing out melodies (as does Simone), which is not as common amongst musicians as many would think.

Anyway, this is music for music’s sake, and if brings enjoyment to anyone besides my daughter, or encourages someone to do the same, then that’s just brilliant.