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A self taught underground artist, abbo is a singer song writer acoustic guitarist.
With his well lived in bluesoul vocals and contemporary folk style songs, abbo has been performing his craft across the U.K. the Middle East and The Far East, as well as iconic cities such as New York, Paris and London in recent years.
The last twelve months has seen abbo playing solo gigs at venues around the globe to raise the profile and awareness of his music. Until recently he was based in Brighton U.K
Originally from the far South West of England, Born into a family of seafarers and travellers in a little fishing village called Newlyn to Dutch and Irish parents, his Dutch father left at an early age, he was then brought up by his hard working and tough Cornish born Italian Step father and kind and loving mother. The youngest of four, working hard on the land on their small holding in the depths of the countryside, abbo grew up surrounded by the sea in a very isolated part of the country to a very near island style life in the heart of Cornwalls surfing community.
abbo had quite insular and isolated beginnings, being drawn heavily to music as his only forms of escape. Folk music from Bob Dylan really touched abbo with his stories of hardship and struggle of life and the hope of betters day to come, they really struck a chord and abbo drew many parallels from listening constantly to this singer songwriter as he gathered his views of the world around him and crafted them into songs with such a visible narrative, while still a young man, (abbo remembers constantly playing over and over again Bob Dylan songs and wore out his very first album purchase which was “Times are a Changin”).
Music, being the only constant thread in abbo’s life, as is to this day. All was fair game as abbo never knew the word genre, so his ears made his choices. abbo developed a wide range of tastes, but to him at the time it was just good music, Bob Dylan did stand out to him though as one of the artists to inspire abbo’s songwriting to start, and his endless thirst for music, a connection found in his early folk style,. abbo wrote lyrics and narratives/prose from a very early age with the desire to one day to put music and verse together. (It was Kurt Cobain, Nirvana, Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam, and the whole Grunge movement that pushed abbo that last step to actually do something about his art, by putting it all on show and perform).
A spell in the military as an engineer was abbo’s first real experience of life on his own in the big wide world, but coming from a family of seafarers and travellers, the worry of such an undertaking soon subsided. He hasn’t really stopped moving around since. (35 plus times since the age of 18).
He used his military training to facilitate his travelling bug, continuing this line of work for almost ten years, four of which were served in the British armed forces.
Choosing to leave the career in engineering and move into music full time came about in 2002, when at a point in abbo’s life he felt he had nothing left to lose, so moved to Brighton, to study and play music, while working many jobs and sometimes 7 days a week for many months to fund his new found addiction (playing gigs.)
During his brief spell at music college he met and formed great friendships with like minded musicians, a bond still strong to this day, especially his partner in crime and musical collaborator Andrew Ellis, a dear friend and permanent member in the life of abbo the artist musician and singer songwriter.
A friend and musician abbo states he could never do without, sticking with abbo through thick and thin, whose unwavering belief in the music always keeps abbo driving forward.
From solo artist, duo, or full band status the two have ventured forwards gaining many fans, great support and respect from all they come into contact with, music fans and industry people alike.
“It’s a rare thing we have” states abbo” a bond, a belief and a great relationship, an understanding musically so visible in our performances together you can’t fail to notice or get drawn in.”
Inspired by his observations and experiences through life, abbo brings an honesty and integrity to his music as a “genuine artist” rarely seen these days.
From his insular beginnings that did not fit abbo, he found his escape in music from an early age giving him his first early views of the outside world finding friendships with the likes of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Nick Drake, Billie Holliday, Stevie Wonder Sam Cooke, Jimi Hendrix, Bruce Springsteen Otis Redding, The Rolling Stones, Prince, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Van Morrison to name but a few priceless artists from the past, and present: Pearl Jam, Kurt Cobain and Nirvana, the list from which abbo took most of his musical songwriting lessons could most definitely go on and on and on from such styles and movements such as Motown, folk, rock to country, to blues, punk and jazz. abbo never had any guidance when it came to music, it all just came to him through the radio, or digging through relatives old record collections, and even the odd pilfering of friends collections, to saving pennies until a rewarding trip to the music store to purchase some gem that abbo used to cherish(as a trip to the shops from where abbo lived would be an all day event) listening with great intensity to different artists own interpretation of the world and their immediate surroundings through their music.
As a singer song writer, he puts his beliefs in life into his music. For him being an artist remains all about playing to have a positive impact on people, not preaching or guiding but offering his perspective for the listener, (as did his musical heroes) to do with as they see fit, to say “Yeah I’ve been there too, and I feel what you’re going through, Hope this song helps,” whether only on one person in the room or many, whether as a solo artist or as a band. For abbo, it is not about fame and money, although he admits that it would be nice too, it’s about having that positive impact on people and making a connection with the audience. He uses his lyrics as a way of communicating views, passions and anxieties, a tough exterior it seems, with stories to tell more than most, but don’t be fooled by his laid back demeanour, in no uncertain terms, while he is there in front of you plying his trade, this man, most fail to figure out or can really say they truly know or understand, at that very moment he is, “Wearing his heart on his rolled up sleeves.”
Hi, through JUNE AND JULY we are slashing our day time rehearsal prices. Between 10am and 5pm all our rooms are either £6 or £7 per hour including weekends. Making us one of the cheapest in SUSSEX. Plus If you buy 3 hours we will even throw in a 4th totally FREE. YES TOTALLY FREE.
OUR RECORDING RATES ARE STILL JUST AS AFFORDABLE TOO, FULL DAYS FROM £200 ALL IN.
So come and rehearse and record in one of the best equipped music complex's in the South.
This Wednesday 15th July is gonna be a busy one for us in Brighton! We've got a FREE acoustic show at The Western Front at 9pm. Then, we're doing a full electric show upstairs at The Pav Tav at 10pm.
Would be good if you can come to one, even better if you can come to both! :)
If you send an email to: info@lostaura.co.uk with the heading 'EP', and pop along to the gigs, tell us your email adress and we'll give you a free copy of our EP! Sweet!
If it wasnt for you guys we wouldnt even be doing this.
Please come check out our page (if you havent already), listen to the songs and watch the videos. We even have a official promotional video of the song 'Resistance' for our Debut EP 'Virtues'. We made it ourselves on green screen ;) love it!
Anyway drop us a linbe sometime, we always like a good chat. Hope you enjoy looking at the page and hope you have a brutal day!
Yo Was wondering if you knew anyone that plays synth/drums in the London/SE area? I have a backlog of London/Brighton/Midlands gigs and I'd much rather do them with a permanent live band. Any word would be appreciated.
