My Musical Journey...
I started playing the piano at the age of eight, practising scales and simple classics, however I soon discovered that I preferred musically 'messing about' and making up my own tunes. My earliest musical influences were a mixture of my father's penchant for classical and jazz along with my increasing interest in pop, rock, blues and singer songwriters. Another early influence which I think is still subliminally apparent sometimes is that of hymn tunes, which I used to play in the local church as a teenager. I soon realised back then that I'm not much good at singing or writing lyrics and decided my forte was composing instrumental pieces, which I've continued doing on and off ever since...
Having dabbled increasingly during school years with "making up tunes", in my late teens I played Hammond organ in a (prog rock) band. We did a fair bit of writing and rehearsing, but unfortunately... never played a gig! Working for a (long defunct) large music retailer in London, I would play some of the pianos after hours, sometimes with an audience of one - my work mate and friend Alan.
There then followed several years 'getting on with the day job', with very little writing or playing. Following some life changes in my early 30s I began playing again, although still behind closed doors as I didn't know where to go with what I was writing and much of it was only half written musical ideas and thoughts not fully formed. Eventually I started developing these ideas in to finished pieces, although not feeling confident enough as a solo pianist I set about finding musical partners to play them with. This resulted in the formation of a small group which played mostly in folk clubs and I later teamed up with a woodwind player making a couple of home produced albums as a duo. This led to me playing my music in bars and restaurants, both solo and duo, as well as joining a Ceilidh Band.
Having spent many years playing and writing "in secret", interspersed with periods exploring various musical situations, I feel that I have now found my true 'musical home' in the solo piano music which features on the album "From a Deeper Well" and in the Meditative Musical Journeys which I now present.