Bio

I've been creating & performing music for as long as I can remember

"I started in high school as bass player in a punk band, then as guitarist for a psychadelic groove band, and I played my first pub gigs as a 17 year old. I then became interested in the recording side of things and begged my parents to buy me a Tascam Portastudio 8 Track tape machine to records my mate's bands. I lugged the 8 track and a milk crate full of mics and cables around to rehearsal rooms and loved it so much I studied sound engineering in 1994.

At 21 I moved to London and continued to perform and produce music until returning to Australia and opening my first recording studio - Flavoured Sounds. It was here that I collected a group of musicians together to write and record an album and as an homage to the studio, we called ourselves Flavoured Sounds Collective. We inteneded to play a one off show, but we all gelled and decided to continue playing. We were creating a more experimental style of music which incorporated some electronic influences while still being very much a live band. After a few years, Flavoured Sounds Collective morphed into Lumia, and I really started to create the music that was always trying to break out of me. This was where my more cinematic style started to emerge.

One of the hardest things about being in a working band is keeping everyone interested and focused at the same time. Band members always have different things going on in their lives and the band can't always be the main priority, which is true, but I used to find this frustrating. So when a rock band called Gasoline Inc walked into my second recording studio [Millapede Projects] to record an EP, my life changed dramatically. After producing their first song 'Superstar' and immediatley getting radio and TV exposure, I was very keen to jump on board as the bass player and help tighten up a band with very limited experience but full of potential. Even though the music was polar opposite to what I was into, it was the dedication and extreme focus of the band that convinced me it was the right move. Within months of joining Gasoline Inc we had a song being used for the AFL Finals Series campaign, Collingwood Football Club using the song at their home games, a sold out EP launch and a support slot for music legends INXS. So when the band decided to relocate from Perth to Melbourne it seemed like a logical progression.

Melbourne brought so much promise, but after a number of national tours and commercial radio airplay, the band started to implode. A number of members left and the three remaining members [including myself] decided to start anew. Veludo was born. I was now back playing guitar, writing a majority of the music and brought in some of my signature style. This was it, I was finally playing with a group of people that shared a vision and were super dedicated. We wrote some great music and our first single 'Awaken' was nominated for a MusicOZ Award. In February 2014, we released our self-titled EP from which the song 'Indigo' was a Top Ten Finalist in the Unsigned Only International Songwriting Competition. Unfortunately, after some bad decisions, a mountain of debt and relationships within the band breaking down, the band fell apart. I was gutted. My faith in music was shattered and at 39 years of age I was convinced I was walking away from music for good.

But... with some reflection and time away from music, I realised I'm not done yet!

Recently, I was asked to produce and play guitar on the debut EP for the young and super talented Josh Cashman. I also started to play guitar in his live band. For the first time in many years I was playing music for no other reason than for the fun of it. I had forgotten how much fun music was! Both Gasoline Inc and then Veludo, were always trying hard too to be 'successful' [whatever that means?]. I realised that for years we had been trying so hard to write music to fit a certain mould that we had forgotten to create music for the love of it. "We need a radio hit"... "We need an uptempo song"... "We've got to get to the chorus within 40 seconds"... "verse, pre-chorus, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, double chorus".... ENOUGH! I am a musician! I create music! It's all I know.

So, after leaving the band and just jamming and being inspired by music again, my new music really started to flow out of me. And right now, here I am doing it my way, for me. Putting up my sails and allowing inspiration to hit and letting it run it's course in whatever shape it comes in. It's extremley liberating to let go of the pre-conceived ideas of 'success' and let the music be what it wants to be.

My first new track 'Dissolve the Fear' is a non-lyrical cinematic excursion that is a musical statement about releasing the fear that holds us all back from reaching our full potential as human beings and also the realisation that I can make music for no other reason than personal satisfaction. I no longer feel the need to hide behind a band. I no longer feel the fear of doing something on my own. This is music that I allow to flow with no creative restrictions, I am simply allowing my music to speak for itself.

Listen and enjoy."