I am for the early part of my life, a self taught musician. I was lucky enough to have an upright piano in the house as a child, a jazz trumpet player as a father and an older brother who was pretty great on the piano, so there was no shortage of music around the house! I learned how to play a few chords and enjoyed trying to work out tunes I knew. As a teenager I started to write my own music using a keyboard I received as a present.
I left school at 17 to pursue my interest in music, with a music production and technology course. I went on to do a degree in the same subject, and then later a degree in popular music performance at Univeristy of Kent.
I have worked since then as a musician and piano teacher, and have a lot of experience of both live and studio performing, both solo and with various groups of different styles including jazz, blues, rock, and funk/soul.
A large part of my playing career has been working as a “cocktail” pianist, playing jazz piano at restaurants, weddings and other events. I also spent a lot of time working with covers bands such as The Blue House Band, playing classic funk, soul and blues hits from the 70s to modern day, and original songwriter Goldie Reed (Helen Garrod). I went on to play with the Matt Berry band (Channel 4, Mighty Boosh, IT crowd, Snuff Box).
Recently I have been writing and recording my own music, and my solo piano album “Earth”, inspired by minimalist composers Philip Glass and Max Richter is available on iTunes and Amazon.
My musical influences have mostly come from the jazz world, such as Oscar Peterson, Bill Evans, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea. Classical influences include Debussy, Bach, Rachmaninoff and Chopin, and I also have a strong interest in minimalist artists such as Philip Glass and Max Richter, and film composers such as Hans Zimmer and John Williams.