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Music has been in my blood from the beginning, whether it be listening to Deep Purple’s “Made in Japan” while my mum did the vacuuming and I was in my baby walker; going driving with my dad listing to all the motown classics; or my sister living through the grunge scene listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam.
I was first influenced to play guitar after watching Queen live at Wembley’86 and listening to Brian May play the “Brighton Rock” solo when I was 10. It completely blew my mind and I knew that I wanted to be a guitarist. I started building guitars out of cardboard and elastic bands and used my sisters painted fake nails as plectrums.
I had my first acoustic when I was 12 and started learning the blues but lost interest when I got my first electric about a year later. It didn’t take long before I joined a band with the other sweaty rejects at school. We would play Green Day covers and Stereophonics (being in a Welsh valleys school, Stereophonics was mandatory). As time went on and the music got heavier, all I would play was the heavy stuff (Metallica, Megadeth, Il Niño, Dry Kill Logic, Slipknot and the like) but the band split up and after school music wasn’t really at the top of my list of priorities.
During the 1st year of Media Studies in college, I started making music videos and recording ideas for a radio station. I got into Smashing Pumpkins in a big way (the band not the pastime) thanks to my mate Rich. I left college and starting working when I was 17. I didn’t pick up a guitar again for a long time but I did start DJing.
Sometime later, Owen the drummer from the band in school got in contact and I started going to couple of gigs and rehearsals with his new band. Later on the bass player left due to fact that he was shit and10 minutes later I got a phone call asking if I would fill in for a bit until the CD was recorded. We practised for a couple of months, wrote a couple of tunes and recorded a 4 track demo which sounded awful at the time but as I had never recorded anything before, I thought it was amazing. All of a sudden I was in a band. The only problem was I hated the bass, in my eyes it was boring. Playing 1 note at a time, always having one sound . . . . blah, blah, blah! I swore that I would never play a bass for as long as I lived but the more and more I played the better I understood it and I learned to love it.
My cousin, who was also a bass player bought me a Victor Wooten DVD for my 21st birthday. I watched it to death and after that point I was hooked. I studied more and more bass players, learning different techniques like tapping, picking, chords and scales. I went on to buy a couple of effects pedals. That’s when I really started to come into my own. I was trying to create a sound that when you heard it, you wouldn’t think it was a bass.
I stayed with the band for a further 4 years and it was starting to take its toll. I got introduced to Nic (Audio Terrorists) at the Riverside Tavern in Newport on quiz night by a cousin of mine visiting from Australia. After a couple of hours he mentioned that he wanted to put a band together and asked if I might be interested. He wanted to come up with a hip-hop/drum ‘n’ bass outfit. Although I was very interested I said I would think about it. I ended up having a jam with him a week later. This is where I met Nick Harrison and Anthony Clark for the first time. Nick was sat at his drum kit ready to go, Clarky was lying across the sofa in a pile not really saying much apart from the odd grunt now and then. John Godwin was the original guitarist at the time and remained until it became different to juggle his work around the band. Enter Anthony Clark and DISGRACELANDS was born.
Disgracelands turned out to be just what I wanted to do. It was challenging and experimental with no boundaries. After a couple of months everything was fitting into place and I left the old band.
After getting to know the boys I was introduced to huge family of friends, one of them being Gareth Lloyd. I met Nic in the Murrenger (quite possibly the best pub in the world) one day where he was having a swift couple with Gareth and we’ve been friends ever since.
Disgracelands were given the opportunity to play along side James Marsters. He was playing at The Point in Cardiff whilst filming Season 2 of Torchwood. Gareth asked Nick, Clarky and I if we would help him put together a couple of blues covers to play at the gig. Obviously we all agreed. This became the start of Blue Gillespie. Disgracelands and Blue Gillespie went on to perform alongside each other for the next 18 months.
Unfortunately, Disgracelands is no more. However Blue Gillespie has since developed into a dirty, stoner, bluesy, prog band and I luvz it!!!!
Up to now my music knowledge has expanded and become very diverse. I’ll basically give anything a chance . . . . . . . except EMO!!!
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