Shawn Colvin,
Radiohead,
Alanis Morissette,
Sheryl Crow,
Tori Amos,
Jeff Buckley,
Joni Mitchell,
Joan Baez,
Tracey Chapman,
The Sundays,
Lloyd Cole,
Indigo Girls,
Embrace,
Dance music,
Classical music (Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Korsakov etc),
James Taylor,
Jon Strong,
The Cure,
The Eagles,
Garbage,
Joan Osborne,
Motorcycle
Where to begin... I wrote my first song, 'The Hedgehog Song', when I was six years old and whilst the sad story of a hedgehog getting run over doesn't feature at too many gigs these days, it does mark the starting point for my love of music. It was also around this time that I started to learn piano, which was the main instrument 'til my teens when I taught myself to play guitar - much better for expressing all that teenage angst! I also found that songwriting came much more naturally to me when sat with guitar in hand and that's still the case (though I do still love to play the piano and occasionally write piano based songs too). From there I started gigging at folk clubs, before branching out into the wider music world. Even though most of my songs start out life on an acoustic guitar I don't really see myself as an 'acoustic singer-songwriter' type thing. I write songs for myself and for other people, sometimes I play solo gigs and sometimes I play gigs with my band or sometimes its somewhere in between or mix of the two. I've also been writing and recording with some dance producers including 'The Thrillseekers' and our single 'By Your Side' was a big fav with likes of Paul van Dyk, Pete Tong and Armin van Buuren. Another collaboration, this time with Riley & Durrant, led to several of my existing songs getting a dance treatment and I even got to perform them live in Ibiza!!
All I've ever wanted to do is to make a living from my music and there have been times when this has seemed tantalizingly close and others where it's felt like success would always be over the horizon, but I've been fortunate enough to have people around me who have never stopped believing in me and my music and that's kept me plugging away. As for the future... well, like many people I have a job/career, family and so on - all the distractions of modern life. It's still my goal to be able to give up the career and make a living from music and that's what I'm focusing on now. I've got a manager and 'interest' from the music industry (whatever that actually means) and I'll be doing some more recordings and releasing more material this year. I really want to get more good gigs in and a tour would be great. I'm totally determined to make things happen for myself now, and I'm going to start keeping a blog to talk about my journey - the highs and the lows - and I'm hoping that this will be not just of some interest but also maybe of some use for others in a similar position to me.
Hello, Gina, and thanks for accepting my friendship. I'm enjoying your sound very much. I love Milestone and Hotter Than the Sun is really cool and poppy. Don't hesitate to ask me for my support. I hope you will go over to loneboystore.com and request my song Tattoo. It's been Number 1 for several weeks and slipped back to Number 2.
I have friends up your west coast but plan to visit next summer and get to Halifax. Hope we get to meet.
May I take the cheeky route once more and sneak a plug for Breathing Space at the Shire Hall at Howden on Saturday June 21st on to your comments please? Full details via the link to the Howden Live website on me myspace page.
Sat May 10th, The Little Num Num Club, Chris Helme album launch special! City Screen Basement, York
Starring Chris Helme, who will be playing loads of tunes from his new album 'Ashes', which will also be available to buy on the evening! Also playing are Hayley Gaftarnick, Karl Culley, Jonny Dobbs and Andy'the dj'Gaines.
Doors at 7:30pm, cheap tickets onsale from the box office Hope to see you there!
SATURDAY 8TH MARCH, The Little Num Num Club @ City Screen Basement, York.
Starring: Lights (Ben Leftwich), Andy Gaines, Edwina Hayes, Nick Mackay, Jont, Bright Young Things and with guest DJ Miss Abigail Fuzz inbetween and after!
Cheap advanced tickets now on sale from the venue!
sweet voices are always welcome in my mind...so thanks so much for the teamwork together with thrillseekers...love the vocals on "by your side" excellent work...
