Practice makes perfect has always been a cruel lie; not only is ‘perfection’ in a musical performance physically unattainable, it isn’t even especially desirable. That so many music students appear to have internalised this unhelpful little platitude is becoming a…
Feeling Like An Artist
This year has been tough in all sorts of ways. Playing music is all I have wanted to do, since I was a kid. I spent my early teenage years dreaming of being a session musician – going out on…
Gigging Through Coronavirus
The past few weeks have been tough. The government says that jobs in the arts and entertainment sectors are ‘not viable’. In a huge slap-in-the-face to the thousands of artists, performers and technicians who have dedicated years of their lives…
Sharma 2000 modifications
In November I achieved a small dream of mine, as a keys player – I bought a genuine old vintage rotary cab for gigs and sessions where I’m mainly playing Hammond organ-type parts. My studio setup has evolved so that…
What First Got You Interested In Music Production?
I was recently asked whilst chatting with a colleague of mine in music tuition “What first got you interested in music production and recording?” I’d never really thought about that. But it was certainly an intriguing question, and I thought…
Cake Cutting
I don’t usually write about my personal life on this site. Anyone keeping an eye on the Calendar page might have wondered why I wasn’t gigging as regularly as usual during August; my summer this year looked a little different…
Ten Year Challenge
It feels like only yesterday that I wrote a ten-year retrospective, looking back on a decade of working in music. But that was, in fact, a whole two years ago! But over on social media, the #TenYearChallenge is all the…
Ten Years, No Day Job
March 2017 is something of a landmark for me, so here is a short piece of writing (and a few old pictures) all about it. It was back in March 2007 that I officially declared myself ‘a professional musician’. Nothing…
Touring setup with Ultra ’90s
I wanted to write a little bit about the gear I am using on the road with live ’90s dance music show Ultra ’90s this summer, and share some of the reasoning behind why I’m playing this setup and why it suits…
Sistema Europe Summer School in Milan
I am delighted to have been chosen to be one one of the tutors going to this year’s Sistema Europe Summer Camp, which is being held in Milan, Italy; a colleague from Sistema in Norwich and I will be going with a delegation…