2004 - 2009

I started playing drums at age 7 when my school bought a teacher in for group lessons. There were four of us to start with, and I was definitely the slowest to pick it up. The others dropped off one by one, and in the end it was just me. At age 9 I changed school, and the teacher was a nasty bugger. He shouted at me for forgetting my sticks a couple of times and I decided I wasn’t going to turn up any more (probably should have let my parents know). I basically quit for a year until I went back with my original teacher at his home studio. He was Les Arnold, brother of composer, David Arnold. I stuck with Les until 13 when I took up lessons at upper school.

2009 - 2014

Upper school is when I really got into it. My first performance was to my music class, playing ‘What I’ve Done’ by Linkin Park with a friend on piano. Realistically, it was probably crap but I was pretty cool for the rest of the day. I joined the concert band, orchestra, big band, soul band, and played in the musical each year. There were several really talented musicians a few years above me, who have gone on to prolific music careers, which was quite inspiring.

I did level 2 and 3 Music BTec where we planned and marketed our own concerts, prepped our own sets, composed and recorded our own music. Whenever I didn't have an after school rehearsal, I would be in the music room messing about on Cubase. I also joined the A level music tech class after being kicked out of GSCE history for being too disruptive. I would have done music tech at A level but they stopped running it for my year. Fuming.

I also took up bass at age 14 because I thought it would make me a better drummer. There was a point where I actually played more bass when there was a young talented drummer, but no bassist. I was in a string of terrible punk bands where I developed the lifelong gift of tinnitus.

2014 - 2022

I did think about going to music college for a jazz or performance degree, but the application and audition process was terribly stressful for me, and after two gap years, I decided it wasn’t going to happen. In that time, I landed a job for the local music service, helping at events and doing odd admin jobs to start with. Eventually they created a job position for a ‘music technician’ which I helped put together. Only a couple of years later, did someone realise that I had no idea what I was talking about and the job description was too ambiguous to be of any use. I was doing that for about 4 years until I became incurably disenfranchised by the reality of doing proper work.

In the meantime, I was gigging with various pub bands and community ensembles, burning the candle at both ends. It was good experience in retrospect, but it eventually caught up with me, and I was diagnosed with depression and social anxiety in 2020. It’s a shame, because I could have achieved so much more than I have if I had the tools to deal with it sooner, but had brushed it under the carpet for so long that I didn’t even recognise it. Several close friends pointed it out and helped me through it. I spent the next 2 years riding the ups-and-downs of steadying my mental health, whilst also creating music and getting into recording and production.

I completed an online home studio course with mastering.com. This was formative for me, as it allowed me to turn my musical ideas into reality, and I can play piano and guitar well enough to make music I enjoy. I did a couple of low-key projects for other people, and did a lot of stuff for my band, Kaleidos. The first serious project I finished for myself was ‘Isobel’; the song I used to propose to my wife. She brings the best out of me.

2022 - present

We got married in August of 2022, and moved to Derbyshire, where she was already teaching. I had a busy summer of gigs which was nice, but that dried up in October, and I was worried I would have no work. Miraculously, I met my cousin’s fiancé who was from Chesterfield, and he knew of some teaching work that I could get in to. I messaged Mike from Red Dog Studios, and got my first student the next day. Previous teaching work in schools has been a bit of a drag, but I have really enjoyed teaching privately. The mix of instruments, ages, and abilities makes the days really interesting and engaging.