So I get a lot of questions about certain things – my recordings in particular. On this page I aim to answer as many of those question as I can.

Where do you get your inspiration for your songs from?

A: Without wanting to sound cliched, nowhere, and everywhere. I take my inspiration from life, and of course the music I listen to. My lyrical style tends to err on the slightly cryptic, I’ve no desire to be intentionally cryptic, but equally I prefer a more indirect writing style, ie rather than telling a particular story or writing about one thing in particular, I prefer to just go wherever my stream of consciousness takes me, and so most of my songs, whilst having a ‘core’ to them, if you will, are more thoughts and ideas about people/subjects/experiences, rather than being directly about people/subjects/experiences etc.

Recording - How? Why? Where? What?

A: I do recording, for the most part, in my home studio. Occasionally I’ll record some stuff elsewhere, like for drums I often like to record in other studios, as my studio isn’t built for recording drums!
 All the equipment I have I’ve worked hard for – I’m not particularly well off, I just choose not to spend as much money on some of the things that other people might. I think everybody generally has some kind of hobby they like spending money on anyway, and mine is recording

My home studio

Here is my full list of gear to date:

Quad core Asus P5QL-SE PC w/ Windows 7 64-bit and 4gig ram
Pro Tools 9
Echo Layla 3G audio interface
Alesis Monitor One MKII’s with matching power amp
ART Pro MPA II valve microphone preamplifier
Behringer Eurodesk MX3282A mixing desk (used basically for monitoring signals w/ zero latency when tracking)
Sennheiser HD201 headphones
Tascam Portastudio 424 mkII
Yamaha DD-55 drum machine with Yamaha KP5 kick trigger
Yamaha PSR-550 synthesiser/keyboard

Pro Tools 9 plugins:
All the ones that come with PT9 (obviously)
PSP Pianoverb
Massey Tapehead
Miroslav Philharmonik
Tea Towel Drums
EZ drummer lite
Waves Ren Maxx bundle
BFD Eco
Pultec EQ bundle
DUY Z Room
SPL free ranger
Flux Bittersweet
Blue Cat Freq analyser

My microphones:
Sontronics STC-10 x2
Sontronics STC-2 LDC
Audio technica AT2020
Shure unidyne III
Prodipe TT1
MXL R144 ribbon
2x RED12 handmade SDC
Red5 Audio RVK7 drum mic pack

Instruments:
Martin DXK2AE acoustic guitar
Yamaha Pacifica 012V electric guitar
Yamaha Pacifica 012 electric guitar
Faith Saturn 12 string acoustic guitar
Kala KA-B baritone ukulele
Freshman acoustic guitar
Yamaha RBX170 bass guitar
some crappy mandolin

I also have a trace elliot super tramp twin combo valve amplifier & Marshall MG100DFX for my electric guitar, along with these pedals:
Digitech Whammy
Holy Grail reverb
Some chinese delay and fuzz pedal
Boss blues driver
Boss DS-2
GLX distortion
Digitech Grunge
Boss CS-2 compressor/sustainer
Boss chorus (can’t remember which one)

Lastly my room also has been acoustically treated, albeit a bit haphazardly (with some DIY acoustic panels I made myself), but it sounds relatively decent

How long have you been playing guitar? How long have you been singing? How long have you been performing as a solo artist?

A: Of course naturally these answers will quickly become outdated, but currently, at the age of 22, I have been playing guitar for around 12 years (so since I was about 10), singing for as long as I can remember, and performing as a solo artist for around three years.

Any other questions feel free to email me – I try to reply as much as I can!