Biography : Background StoryI would first like to take the time to thank you for visiting my website.I fell in love with music the moment I fell in love with the piano. It was the piano from school, in the corner of the hall, with a dark green cover that was impossible to put back on. Every so often, the piano was uncovered, and I would lift the lid to see its ivory teeth smiling at me, but I was never allowed to touch it. You could say it was my curious and rebellious nature at the age of five or six, to investigate this instrument when the teachers back was turned, to see how long I could play until I was caught. School may have tried to prevent it, but my parents helped me by buying me a keyboard. Although the keyboard was lighter and easier to press, it only made the presence of a real piano stronger, overpowering me more. Eventually my parents bought me a Clavinova - weighted keys, sustain, and sensivity. I practised every day, starting with chopsticks and Golden Axe, and then started to write my own pieces. Secondary school offered me far more support musically, as they would let me play every break time on the grand piano. I practised the same things constantly - I think people got bored, but it helped me to develop my technique. It was there I wrote the Fantasy Sonata. I would play when people walked into assembly. People at school might not have known me well, but they always knew me as the guy who played the piano. I'd done a couple of school concerts in primary school, and one in secondary. I played one of the Fantasy movements, I remember making a mistake and having to improvise out of it - whew! It was around this time at the age of 11 or 12 where I got into drums. I built my own drums at first and then got my own kit, again from my parents! I used to play really quietly and put cardboard and tape over everything. Over the years the volume slowly crept up, I hope nobody noticed! I formed the band Confusion with my brother. We jammed at school a lot and wrote songs. He was the first to get into rock music, and inspired me to try it out for myself. When I was 6 months from leaving school in 1997, at the crucial point in youth where everything suddenly becomes important, my problems got the better of me and I suffered a breakdown. It turns out my obsession with the piano and music encrypting into my brain came with a price; an anxiety problem. It was a problem that altered my life since finding the piano, but now it would alter my life drastically. I had to start again from square one... Continue...  |
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