A love of making music for visual media - the combination of sound and vision is an extraordinary thing. 

 

Like lots of kids, I started playing the recorder at school and, like about 99% of those kids, succeeded in driving my parents mad with endless, squeaky renditions of London's Burning.  I eventually tried both the clarinet and violin - my most dubious accolade; being cited as "a disruptive influence in class" (Sorry, Mr. Skinner).  Please don't imagine for one moment that this was because I had a precocious talent - I was mostly an irritating little sod!  Needless to say, my budding musical abilities were neither easily recognised, nor nurtured, resulting instead, in a temporary ban from the music department. 

 

Fortunately for me, I had many friends, some of whom were in possession of pianos of varying degrees of quality, upon which I would bash out chords and melodies of my own making.  I also joined the local village brass band, playing the flugal horn, all the time wishing that I had been given the much more glamourous trumpet to study - the lead guitar of brass bandery!  I learned to read music here and, as importantly, began to comprehend why listening to what the other instruments were doing, was an essential element in making a coherent and pleasing noise.  

 

After leaving full time education, I worked many and varied jobs, whilst playing guitar (I'd left the flugal horn for a curvy, six-stringed mistress) in all sorts of bands ranging from cover groups, to rock, punk and eventually ending up playing bass guitar - my real love, in a modern jazz/funk band (well, this was the eighties), I even had a spell as a bass player for a Ukrainian folk group.  

 

Eventually I started working sessions in recording studios and, because I could turn my hand to playing keyboards and guitars, alongside being unashamedly 'available', gained quite a lot of work, in addition to learning how a recording studio functioned.  These were the days of two-inch tape machines, mixing desks as big as buses, patch bays that would flummox a neuro-surgeon and where edits were made with a china-graph pencil and a razor blade.  In between these sessions, I was fortunate enough to tour across Europe and the Middle East, working with musicians from around the globe and absorbing a diverse range of musical influences.  All this helped to shape both an understanding and an appreciation of distinct musical forms and genres.

 

I have been priviledged to have my music featured on BBC 1, BBC 2, BBC three, BBC four, Channel 4, Discovery Channel, & National Geographic, within programs as diverse as 'Inside Raising The Concordia',  'Dara O'Briain's Science Club',  'The Hairy Bikers',  'Henry VIII's Enforcer: The Rise And Fall Of Thomas Cromwell',  to  'Say Yes To The Dress',  'Monsters Inside Me',  'Nazi Megastructures'  &  'Hidden Killers Of The Victorian Home' !