For those people that haven’t heard of you before could you tell us a bit about your music, and your story?
I first picked up a guitar when I was 7 years old and immediately knew it was something that would shape the rest of my life. I quickly became determined and obsessive, and since that very first day, I’ve been in pursuit of a future that is centred around the creative art of music.
Through the good times and the bad, music has always been a source of refuge. A safe haven to feed my soul by expressing every last ounce of emotion that I feel. It dominated my interests throughout school, and even beyond as I moved away from home to study songwriting in Brighton at 17. The next 3 years were spent committed to music, but at the same time being young, a bit dumb and full of Rockstar energy. A time I hold no regret to, but now later on in life, I feel glad to have learnt these lessons at a young age.
With years of gigging and an early taste of success with previous bands, I found myself in a difficult situation, indulging in life’s guilty pleasures. At 19 I decided to take action to re-shape my outlook on life. With this newfound belief in myself, I decided to sell everything I had and travel on a one-way ticket to New Zealand. Only three weeks in I decided to pawn my iPad for an acoustic guitar whilst living in the town of Napier. Playing on deserted beaches I reflected on my love for songwriting and acknowledged the necessity of having music as a driver and voice of my life. This is reflected in the honest, emotive and melodic sounds that have formed the basis of my music ever since.
The dream was formed on the beaches of Napier, and this was the inspiration for me to travel home. From this point, my new band Naipia spent 3 years travelling the country touring, writing and meeting some incredible people. We gained some traction, but most importantly were loving what we were doing. When the pandemic hit in early 2020, we were in a critical place as a band. We worked so hard at maintaining content and working on virtual shows and studio sessions, but eventually, we amicably decided to take a break to concentrate on other areas of creativity in our lives.
With this new time put upon me, I decided to reach out and get myself into as many sessions for all types of writing for both sync/pitch/artists. Alongside this, I decided to build a studio whilst still running the landscaping company I had started a few years prior to fund my musical endeavours. I put my head down for 3 months, saved everything I could and got the build done. This has led to me now having a diary full of writing sessions for the next few months as well as now sitting on a year’s worth of single releases ready to introduce to you all from March 2022.
Who inspired you to get on stage and perform?
Growing up there was always a guitar in the house (left-handed mind as it was my dad’s). As I grew up I got my own guitar at age 7 and spent countless evenings jamming with my dad and soaking up his music taste, bands such as The Jam, Stereophonics, The Beatles, Bread, Bruce Springsteen, Blur, Oasis, Robbie Williams, Carpenters. I think hearing these bands and going to see the odd one at live shows was my inspiration to get on stage and do it for myself.
Are there any artists or albums that influenced your style, your sound?
A mixture of all the above, although I approach my music without too much attention on references or inspiration. I will always try to follow my gut and let the process authentically flow.
Do you have any songwriting rituals?
the only ritual I live by songwriting-wise is to go what I call “fishing” every day. You don’t always catch, but I make sure at least an hour of my day is spent with an instrument in my hands to be creative with no other purpose than to see what I may or may not land on.
Could you tell us a bit about the writing/recording of your Syncr Music Competition winning tack “How could this be”
‘How could this be’ is a track I’ve had in my writing books for a few years now, I actually had no intention of recording this track when booking in two of my favourite producers, Lucan Mills and Rhys Fletcher to come down to my little homemade studio I built on a farm in East Sussex for a week. When showing them the songs I had picked for the first set of singles, something in me decided to show them this song. I don’t know why I did it, but I am so glad I did now. It has ended up being my first release as a solo performer and I think some up my sound and where I want to go very well.
What are some of your favourite venues to perform at?
My favourite local venues to perform at are both in Brighton, As a band we love to play ‘Hope and ruin’ as well as ‘Komedia’
Here at Artistic Echoes, we are always on the lookout for new artists do you have any to recommend?
At the moment I am obsessed with an artist called Gia Lilly, Sam Tompkins, Conner The Alchemist, Kid Kapitchi
What plans do you have for the rest of the year?
I have 4 more singles to come out this year, all backed with video content for both youtube/tik tok. We also have a string of shows all over the UK through the summer and plans of another home town show towards the end of the year!
