TRACKS OF MY YEARS

'I Want To See You Tonight' is, at its heart, an ode to to love. It is about the small moments, the brutality of love and finding the beautiful in the simple.

"Be My Baby" by The Ronettes always makes me think of my childhood. I always remember waking up to my mom getting us ready for school and blasting the oldies station and this is one that was just seared into my brain. It always sounds like a magical, timeless piece of music with the "Wall Of Sound" and Ronnie Spector's voice cutting through like sunshine on a cloudy day.

The first CD i bought was The Who's "Who's Next" I remember that it was the one that i didn't have in my collection and i found it somewhere cheap and since I knew a couple of the songs on there i figured it was a safe purchase! lol! It became my alarm CD as it was the only one i had for a while and waking up to "Baba O'Reilly" every morning certainly affected my teen years in an intense way! 

 I don't feel guilty about it but i really dig a lot of "boy band" "90's/2000's pop" music, particularly Backstreet Boys. I remember working at a factory at the height of their fame when they had like 3 or 4 hit songs on the radio and i would hear them all day and i knew all the words and would find myself singing them all the time. They are well written songs! Lyrically some of them leave a little to be desired but melodically and harmonically? Magic!

"Mountain head" is a Canadian band that has a sound, flavour and style all their own. They really have put a lot of thought into all the little details and have created a whole world for you to get into. It is reminiscent of bands like KISS, ZZ Top & Alice Cooper in that regard where you could really get into the theatrics of the band but they also had their own sound and could play their instruments, etc. Also having met them and knowing that their a couple of down to earth good dudes off stage is the icing on the cake for me.

My latest track is called "Dancing Fool" and its off my brand new album "Second Arrow" its an upbeat Stoney rock & roll tune about letting go of what doesn't serve you anymore be it relationships or obligations, friendships, etc. Its in Open G tuning which is always a great tool to write a song in as it takes you out of your usual standard tuning chord shapes and progressions and allows you the opportunity to create new riffs and melodies that you might not necessarily play or find on a regular tuned guitar.

I remember dancing around the living room to ‘Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go’ by Wham! at a very young age. I can’t say exactly how I got from that to making weird, experimental rock music... but it brought me a lot of joy at the time!

The first piece of music I remember buying was actually a vinyl copy of the late Meatloaf’s ‘Bat out of Hell’ from a car 

boot sale for £1! I was about 6-years-old and was blown away by the cover art – all fire, motorbikes, and demonic winged beasts!

‘Fat Lip’ by Sum 41. The snobby, 33-year-old part of my brain likes to pretend my tastes have refined since I was first hooked in by this track... but the 12-year-old in me took over recently when this started playing at my wedding and I was teleported back to 2001. I took over the dancefloor, screaming to my guests that I wouldn’t "become another victim of your conformity”!

‘One Tuun’ by Jomo Tuun – a 6-track, progressive metal masterwork. Spectacular musicianship, big riffs, complex rhythms – everything I love, really. Some of the band are from East Anglia, where I’m from, which makes it even better

My new track ‘Rainmaking’ is a progressive metal track full of heavy, polyrhythmic guitar, bass and drums, whilst laced with melodic, textural vocalisation and spoken word. I’ve also released a gentle, electronic companion piece alongside it called ‘Drip.Drip..Drip...’, which expands on some of the ideas in the main track, but in a different way for me, as there are no guitars at all – just keys, synths and electronic rhythms.

My parents love Status Quo and the sad truth of the matter is that rubbed off on me. So I'm ashamed to say my favourite childhood track was probably Whatever You Want by the Quo. I also liked it because it was on the Argos advert and one of my favourite pastimes was browsing the catalogue.

It was American Idiot by Green Day, great record, still love it.

The Quo.

I absolutely love all of Phoebe Bridgers' stuff. If I had to pick a song it would be Funeral, it makes me cry every time.

Is called Clouds Hold Up The Sun, it's my debut single as a solo artist and it's out right now on the legendary Fierce Panda Records. Written at a particularly low point, the song has set me off on a salubrious escapade delving into song writing as a means to tackle both life’s more miserable moments as well as embracing the uneasy, fanciful and sometimes just odd parts of my personality. Lot's more to come.

 David Bowie was my favourite musician as a kid, I dressed up as Ziggy Stardust to go to my primary school disco and 'Space Oddity' was my favourite song. - Jessy 

 I was brought up and raised inside of a happy happy family. 

A big house, Two happy parents, my younger brother and me. A perfect family. 

During year 9 at high school, I was 14 going 15, then came a time when our perfect world fell apart. 

The song 'Stay together for the kids' by Blink-182 was really the only thing I could lean on, while trying to be the best big brother I could be. - Andy

 Saw Parkway live and they opened with this song. I reckon the shivers are still ingrained in my spine. Along with other live music experiences rlly drives me to make people feel cooked shit with art. - Ash 

 This would have to be one of my most memorable songs. The Pixies have some great tunes that everyone would know the second they are played. But this one hits home for me. ‘Hey’ by The Pixies is one of those songs that you’ll never forget when you first listen to, every time you listen to this song after that it brings you back to that moment. Just hearing those guitar sounds puts you into a feeling of nostalgia. I remember getting Jessy to listen to this song in the car on the way home from one of our camping trips. He instantly fell in love with it and I don’t blame him for it. Now whenever I play this song Jess will always make a cheeky comment about the time I first played this song for him. Nostalgic - Ed  

 I think everyone who has ever heard this song gets filled with instant joy and an urge to smile or jump around and dance. The first time I heard this song was probably on some sci-fi movie but then my dad started to show me E.L.O and it all clicked. Ive played this song on every single road trip with my mates and everyone knows the melody. I think although it’s an older song it will be ingrained in many generations to come, its lyrics will always be relatable and the joyous piano and drum synchronicity is infectious. The tempo is perfect and the little guitar tones are sublime, all topped with a layering of Jeff Lynnes angelic and smooth vocals perfect for any sunny day. - Matt