As a teenager I watched gigs at Stratford Jazz and was always amazed by the calibre of the musicians that played there. Alan Barnes, Paul Sawtell, Steve Tromans, Gilad Atzmon, to name a few. I had an ambition to play the club with my own group. The twist in the tale was that I ended up running the club at the start of 2015 and booking my band was a cinch!
In my debut Light from Dawn I set out to document my experiences and feelings of the last 10 years. Being brought up as a stiff upper lipped Brit, I realised that trying to suppress emotions doesn’t really work, so I cathartically explored the light and shade. The album explores some dark times but it is interspersed with joy and reflection. Some of the darker songs explore bitter sadness, resent and tracks like 'The Fall' and 'Ghost in the Mirror’ show the descent into spiralling negativity, whereas ‘Smiles’ and ‘Stronger than you think’ reflect on the beauty of life and the joy that fill your soul and make you dance around the kitchen.
Its an age old story-telling approach to discover the deepest corners of one's emotions. The idea of light and shade in music is not highly original but this album is hugely personal and describes in music all that I fail to communicate in words! Music has an incredible way of influencing an audiences thoughts and feelings and I hope that, when listening, people can relate and explore their own 'life moments’.
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