I met my drummer Dom through a mutual friend,  a fellow musician and crazy brilliant man, who thought our differences would balance well - he was hugely right. Dom kicked me into gear, focusing me on what I really wanted to do - stopping me spending all my energy playing guitar for others, and finally got me singing and writing for myself, and sharing with him stupid humour only we appreciated.

Dom passed away two years ago - cancer. He's still one of my biggest influences, musically and in terms of attitude. 

Since he's passed it's felt right to do things by myself ... maybe that will change one day.




Just how difficult was it coming up with a band name that you all liked?

Kinda easy in the end - when it's the right name it feels surprisingly obvious and you wonder why it was so hard for so long!

What are your musical influences?

I started out loving anything that had great harmony - Beach Boys especially; I was honoured to meet Brian Wilson this year at the Pet Sounds tour. 

More recently, I love all the people showing you can still captivate people these days with just a guitar and a voice - Damien Rice, his incredible successor Ed Sheeran, Chris Cornell acoustic - and the people who've always done that - Jeff Buckley, Nick Drake.

 

If you weren't playing the instrument you currently play, what would you love to play instead?

I wish I played drums well enough for the studio. Tapping them in on a keyboard doesn't really count. Somewhere Dom is laughing at me.

Do you sing about personal experiences in your songs? How do you  feel exposing your heart on stage?

I am surprisingly comfortable with singing personal stuff onstage. In some ways it's like therapy; it's a safe and strangely beautiful way to explore things that would be too painful any other way.  I hope other people can relate, too, and find it helps them feel their way through things as it does me.

What can the audience expect to hear from you guys at 24 moons on Wednesday?

The audience will get a guy with broad shoulders and slim fingers who will be playing acoustic like a quiet storm, singing intense, epic little melodramas, and hopefully they'll feel that too :-)

 
Hmm ... I'm way happier than most of my songs. And singing really unhappy songs makes me happy.