 I got my first guitar when I was 16 and didn't bother learning a single chord until I was 19. Seriously, those first 3 years I spend just putting my index finger across the frets and making the most horrible noise imaginable. I also did a lot of soloing without have the first clue and to what soloing was, and strangely enough that is a style I've remained quite loyal to.
I started writing songs in the summer of 2002 when I was 23, although I only managed to squeeze out a couple. The first piece of music I ever came up with eventually became the basis to the song 'White of This Womb', which I recorded with Israfel in 2005. The first actually song I wrote was 'Be', and was at first only 45 seconds long (is that punk enough?). I started uni Sept 2002 and spend much of the first year sat in my room learning guitar and playing covers. One of my first compliments came from a girl who told me that she had stood outside my door for quite a while just listening to me play. I only willingly played to people once during this time (I did a cover of Paul Westerberg's [i]Skyway.[/i] )
I was still having trouble writing songs, but I was determined to be a songwriter, and in October 2003 while living in student digs in Leicester and doing my second year of uni I suddenly found the ability to write. Over the next three months I came up with 'I Might Have Been Born Here...', 'Lucy', 'Arcturus', The Dog Who Was Visited By Aliens', 'Goodnight Lucia', 'On the Moon', 'Afraid of Drowning', plus one or two others that weren't really keepers. An "album" of such early recordings called 'Half-Empty Sunshine Bottle' was given away to friends and family in September 2004. It has its moments, I think, particularly 'Goodnight Lucia', which is still one of my favourite recordings.
I joined DMusic in April 2005 and quickly fell in love with the place. The year was spent writing a lot of new songs and getting involved with the DMusic community. I went to the Cambridge Folk Festival in September (I think) and after being inspired by so much great music I went home and wrote 'The Way to Penny's House', 'Random Hearts', Live In the Past'...none of which are very folk, but whatever.
In 2006 I was going to make a new singer-songwriter type CD, but unfortunately in didn't happen. I did manage to put of 2 collections of instrumental music called 'Songs Without Words' Volumes 1 & 2. I'm really proud of Volume 2, especially the first half of it. The track 'Houston Sunday' was featured on Sonic Boom radio in the same show as Sonic Youth and Jandek. When that happened it was the first time I felt accepted as an experimental musician.
I've played live a few times in the past year and my confidence for performing has grown quite a lot. I have just finished recording an album. It's called [i]Conchology[/i] and will be released in September.
Si
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