BISCAY
Path to Success
When did you first get into music? As if often the case a musical family – my father and his father were both ‘good amateur’ piano players, and consequently me & my two brothers all learned instruments and sang. Music was also heavily encouraged in my schools – free instruments and 1 to 1 lessons were available (sadly no longer) along with multiple school bands. They sounded horrendous, but gave us our first opportunities. In short, both Nature and Nurture! Who or What inspired you to pursue a career in music? Burning out in Advertising helped!! As Bowie said the great thing about aging is you eventually become the person you were always meant to be. I quit a big job at 36 and went to study at Berklee School of Music, then latterly Trinity College of Music in London, and have been on the path ever since. How has your music evolved since you first began performing/songwriting? The big change was songwriting – up until I left Trinity everything had focused on instrumental skills and playing the ‘jazz repertoire’, I then wrote my first song in 2008 and when the guys in the then band (which was purely covers) played it, they said “we must record this”…..from that moment everything changed and the covers were steadily dropped….. I’m sure you have shared the stage with a lot of talented artists/celebrities along the way. Would you share 1 or 2 of your favorite stories with us? Certainly the scariest moment for me was debuting at Ronnie Scott’s in London 2 years back when the singer Lianne Carroll asked me to guest with her on one night of her Xmas residency. Being aware of all the jazz greats who played there (and whose photos cover the walls) was the most intimidating experience ever…it didn’t help that as I walked on the stage I saw photos of Jeff Beck, Mike Stern and Joe Pass. Pretty scary as a guitarist - I didn’t exactly feel worthy! Given I then had to accompany Lianne solo meant mistakes were not an option. I survived.
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One other celeb moment was when Tim Minchin actually came to watch us at the 100 Club in London. He stayed for whole gig and insisted on buying a CD!!!
