Long ago, in a music classroom far away (well, in Hull, actually!), a 13-year-old boy surprised his music teacher by suggesting that he would like to learn to play the bass guitar. Thus, an extensively varied and colourful music career was born, which is still thriving today! Through decades of live performance as a musician and vocalist, professional DJ, radio presenter, songwriter, recording artist, and, more recently, a composer and recording engineer, this career has provided me with a unique insight and wealth of experience I can apply to just about any project or commission.
Even before my career began, I had a love of music from the tender age of five, which I can vividly remember, beginning when my dad took me into the local record shop to buy my first ever record – Loop de Loop by Frankie Vaughan! My parents had a particular love of music in their teenage years, too, with both embracing a wide variety of musical genres from the progressive and exciting days of the forties and fifties. My dad had even performed as a crooner around the local pubs and clubs in the Midlands before settling down with my mum. Music, therefore, was destined to be engrained in my DNA!
Moving on several decades… Sonorous Hue has been born. I now find myself deeply involved in writing tunes and composing more intricate music utilising many and varied instrumentation, surprising myself at some of the ‘earworms’ I come up with, as well as the more serious and classical-inspired compositions that my mind dreams up. I am not one of the modern composers using AI and other pre-made ‘patches’ to build a tune. Everything I produce is imagined, played, developed and produced by me. I do not use patches or create tunes using anything pre-made. I would rather build a drum beat that suits the music I write instead of using one of the samples or loops provided in the DAW I use. Unintentionally, a lot of my creations have an ‘old school’ feel, with fleeting sensations of the warmth and familiarity of the traditional tunes that were used many moons ago but sprinkled with a newness and freshness that adds to their appeal.
So, whatever you need, be assured that I will provide you with something a little different and without the robotic coldness that many of today’s tunes seem to embrace.
In future blogs, along with other fascinating facts and features, I will be chronicling my career in the music industry, from my early days listening to music as a child, my passion for record collecting, my first school band, the first gigs as a semi-pro musician, through my DJ and radio presenter period, to getting back to live performing and to where I am today, including all stops in between – even my first efforts at songwriting as a teenager! It will be the first time I have ever written about it, so it will be a journey and a half for me, especially when trying to remember all of the relevant facts that have made my experience within the music industry so very special.
I hope you enjoy the journey with me!
Till next time………