How would you describe your music and what has been your biggest influence? I want to know this even though you refuse to divulge on your website.
I think describing your own music is one of the hardest things for an artist to do, which is probably the reason for all the nonsensical genres that people invent to get around the fact that they don’t really fit into an existing one! My music is influenced to varying degrees by pretty much everything I’ve ever come across, and so including rock, jazz, classical, folk and so on. I try to make each song I write different to the others, to keep myself entertained as much as anything else. It’s one of the thing’s I love about Queen’s back catalogue. As a result, I think you can hear certain influences more strongly in certain songs – for instance, the jazz harmony in ‘Green and Blue’. Influences, I suppose, also include things that aren’t immediately apparent in songwriting - I adore the vocal power and live showmanship of Freddie Mercury, Etta James, Alanis Morissette and so many others. Lyrics also open up a whole new universe of influences, which for me include The Beatles, Muse, etc. (who I also love the music aspect of). I find it so hard to sum it up…I love so many bands, artists and composers, I’ve tried to just name a few absolute favourites. I can’t give a short coherent answer – so I’ll just say everything – I’m influenced by everything.
Have you any releases coming out soon?
Yes, I’ve just finished recording an E.P of six of my songs called ‘Let It Out’. It’ll be available on CD and digitally (through iTunes etc.) very, very soon! There’ll be details shortly on my websites.
How important is playing live to you?
I think that playing live probably captures the essence of what I’m trying to do better than recording, at least from my point of view. When I record, I have to pretend that it’s live so that the feeling is there: playing off an audience can completely change your sound. I manage that by recording in pitch darkness, oddly! I don’t think I could ever be solely a recording artist though – the real kicks come from gigging.
Which Internet site gets your music message out the best - ReverbNation, MySpace or another?
I have my own website, but I use MySpace, Reverbnation, Facebook and Twitter as well. It takes quite a lot of effort to maximize the potential of each so I tend to concentrate on different ones for different purposes: Facebook for communicating with the people I know, MySpace for finding contacts, venues etc, and the music player. Reverbnation is great for the fanlist e-mails, and fan exclusive tracks.
I really love your demo tracks. Where do you get the ideas from and how long does it take to write a song.?
Cheers! The ideas for my songs are, lyrically at least, drawn from life. They have to be or I wouldn’t be able to sing them with conviction. As I said, musically, they’re a kind of mish mash of everything that I listen to. I’m never too explicit about what the songs represent or mean, because I think it’s important that, whilst they may mean one specific thing to mean, they could mean something different to someone else. I like to keep it vague, and let people draw their own conclusions. As for how long they take…I never sit down and take hours to write a song. It starts with a mood, and then the lyrics stem from that and the music usually happens at the same time, or I fit a musical idea I’ve had already to the lyrics. It can mean that lyrics and music don’t end up being in the same ‘style’, but I actually do that very consciously. For instance, the lyrics to ‘Green and Blue’ are actually really depressing, and I think they’re made more so by the light-hearted music. I’m very keen on the great jazz singers too – like Billie Holiday, I think maybe that song reflects that aspect of my tastes.
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