I first became interested in music in my teenage years and through consistent listening, I became inspired to learn about the guitar and how to play it. I have always been very active and always feel the need to be doing something, I think this is why i was so taken to playing the guitar, because it gave me a reason to never be bored. After playing like crap for a while and learning from people around me I soon became to understand more about my personal connection to the music I was playing, I found that it gave me a voice to express my feelings in no other way possible.
I have always enjoyed writing story's about believable ideas in situations that make them real, and after learning the guitar for a while I wanted to start writing my own songs. So I tried and tried and kept trying to write as many songs as I could, and eventually I started to develop an understanding of how I could express myself through singing. I started just making up guitar riffs very similar to stuff I was listening to but different enough to call them mine and i would draft some attempted lyrics and sing along to my guitar. I guess it sounded pretty bad for a while but I was having fun and it always felt like a productive thing to be doing.
Then the time came to decide what to do after high school and the only thing i really wanted to do was play music and learn all about it, so i enrolled at Otago University and over 3 years I completed my music degree. Throughout my time in Dunedin my main focus was learning as much as I could about music and how I could get better at understanding it, I was determined to prove that I could write songs others would like listening to. I always tried to sing and decided it would be beneficial to get some vocal training, so I did some lessons and soon discovered I could sing the notes i was playing on my guitar. I then started playing melodies and I would try to train my voice to able to sing lyrics to the notes, this enabled me to start understanding melody and how I could use it. I started recording my music too, I had a simple set up where I could record instruments and mix them. Hearing myself really helped me learn, music is all about listening so it made sense to listen to how I sounded and get ideas for how it could sound better.
After graduating from university I decided to move my life to Australia, I had spent some holidays as a child visiting my dads family in Sydney and always felt it would be a great country to explore. So I got a job as a kitchen steward on Hayman Island in North Queensland and that place was really something else. There I meet some very interesting people of which inspired me to do things I would have never usually done, i guess i started to change and grow both physically and mentally. This change was reflected in my music and songwriting, my songs were becoming very personal and expressive and I really started believing in the sound i was developing. Then the time came to leave Hayman, it's really not somewhere you want to stay too long. I headed for the mainland and got myself an old land rover and started driving to places I had never been to visit friends I had meet while on the Island.
I found myself in Thredbo and had a job working at the River Inn. There I got the opportunity to go snowboarding again, I had done it when I was in high school and stopped when I was at university because I just couldn't afford to get to the snow. Again I meet some very interesting and unique individuals that taught a lot about everything, still I was writing songs further trying to perfect my style. I then decided it was time to try and make some money to pay some debt I had, this could not be done in Thredbo so I drove my car to Alice Springs and spent some time with my mum. She is a teacher out there and I was able to work at her school and save money. I was able to set up my recording gear in her house and I made my debut album 'A Few More Days'. I spent my mornings working at the school and the afternoons recording tracks. I developed a set list of covers and originals to play in the local Alice Springs pubs so I could try and sell the album I had made. I then moved on as I do and went up to Karratha to visit my brother, He helped me get a job where I could save some money so i could continue my drifting life stlye I had become so accustomed to. I worked whenever I could, played as many gigs as I could, and continued finding inspiration for my music.
I then got an opportunity to spend a winter season in Japan. I lived in a village called Hakuba and experienced what it's like to ride powder, YEOW! amazing the best rush of adrenaline ever! The landscape there was very intense, not only physical but also deeply spiritual. There is a very ancient feel to those mountains and it was here my connection with creating music became extremely clear and i was crafting songs exactly how I wanted them to be. I felt in total control of the emotions i was touching and the feelings i was creating and I was able to reflect this in the songs i was writing, in doing this I knew other people would be able to relate to what my music was about.
After Japan I returned to where I live now, Alice Springs. I am currently a teacher employed by the Northern Territory Music School and I enjoy it. I have recently begun the production of the Drifting EP, made up of four songs reflecting on my experiences to date. An album will follow this EP, and another after that and I will keep writing songs until i have nothing more to write about.
Cheers,
I have always enjoyed writing story's about believable ideas in situations that make them real, and after learning the guitar for a while I wanted to start writing my own songs. So I tried and tried and kept trying to write as many songs as I could, and eventually I started to develop an understanding of how I could express myself through singing. I started just making up guitar riffs very similar to stuff I was listening to but different enough to call them mine and i would draft some attempted lyrics and sing along to my guitar. I guess it sounded pretty bad for a while but I was having fun and it always felt like a productive thing to be doing.
Then the time came to decide what to do after high school and the only thing i really wanted to do was play music and learn all about it, so i enrolled at Otago University and over 3 years I completed my music degree. Throughout my time in Dunedin my main focus was learning as much as I could about music and how I could get better at understanding it, I was determined to prove that I could write songs others would like listening to. I always tried to sing and decided it would be beneficial to get some vocal training, so I did some lessons and soon discovered I could sing the notes i was playing on my guitar. I then started playing melodies and I would try to train my voice to able to sing lyrics to the notes, this enabled me to start understanding melody and how I could use it. I started recording my music too, I had a simple set up where I could record instruments and mix them. Hearing myself really helped me learn, music is all about listening so it made sense to listen to how I sounded and get ideas for how it could sound better.
After graduating from university I decided to move my life to Australia, I had spent some holidays as a child visiting my dads family in Sydney and always felt it would be a great country to explore. So I got a job as a kitchen steward on Hayman Island in North Queensland and that place was really something else. There I meet some very interesting people of which inspired me to do things I would have never usually done, i guess i started to change and grow both physically and mentally. This change was reflected in my music and songwriting, my songs were becoming very personal and expressive and I really started believing in the sound i was developing. Then the time came to leave Hayman, it's really not somewhere you want to stay too long. I headed for the mainland and got myself an old land rover and started driving to places I had never been to visit friends I had meet while on the Island.
I found myself in Thredbo and had a job working at the River Inn. There I got the opportunity to go snowboarding again, I had done it when I was in high school and stopped when I was at university because I just couldn't afford to get to the snow. Again I meet some very interesting and unique individuals that taught a lot about everything, still I was writing songs further trying to perfect my style. I then decided it was time to try and make some money to pay some debt I had, this could not be done in Thredbo so I drove my car to Alice Springs and spent some time with my mum. She is a teacher out there and I was able to work at her school and save money. I was able to set up my recording gear in her house and I made my debut album 'A Few More Days'. I spent my mornings working at the school and the afternoons recording tracks. I developed a set list of covers and originals to play in the local Alice Springs pubs so I could try and sell the album I had made. I then moved on as I do and went up to Karratha to visit my brother, He helped me get a job where I could save some money so i could continue my drifting life stlye I had become so accustomed to. I worked whenever I could, played as many gigs as I could, and continued finding inspiration for my music.
I then got an opportunity to spend a winter season in Japan. I lived in a village called Hakuba and experienced what it's like to ride powder, YEOW! amazing the best rush of adrenaline ever! The landscape there was very intense, not only physical but also deeply spiritual. There is a very ancient feel to those mountains and it was here my connection with creating music became extremely clear and i was crafting songs exactly how I wanted them to be. I felt in total control of the emotions i was touching and the feelings i was creating and I was able to reflect this in the songs i was writing, in doing this I knew other people would be able to relate to what my music was about.
After Japan I returned to where I live now, Alice Springs. I am currently a teacher employed by the Northern Territory Music School and I enjoy it. I have recently begun the production of the Drifting EP, made up of four songs reflecting on my experiences to date. An album will follow this EP, and another after that and I will keep writing songs until i have nothing more to write about.
Cheers,