ABOUT ME

LIFE

I’m originally from Lincoln, where I spent the first 18 years of my life gaining height and rudimentary social skills. Started playing guitar at 13. Went to university in Norwich, studying Swedish in an attempt to secure complete unemployability for the REST OF MY LIFE (and, just to be awkward, spent a year in Sweden, studying music). I now live in leafy Surrey. I play music, listen to music, watch football, read books, drink beer, eat food.

WORK

I’m a freelance musician and transcriber. I’ve also taught guitar in the past, but not right now. Here are some of the main things I’ve done…

jamtrackcentral
This is a business I set up with Jan Cyrka, later joined by Steve Norton. We’re a download site, selling a range of groovy guitar products mostly based around backing tracks for jamming purposes. There’s more to it than that, though… we have guest performances by some pretty amazing players, album downloads, lessons and loads of free stuff.

Custom Transcription
My freelance transcription service. If you need some music (mostly guitar, but I do other instruments) written down, get in touch! Given that I’ve transcribed a few hours worth of Guthrie Govan, Zakk Wylde and Alex Hutchings solos for jamtrackcentral, you can be assured that I’m not easily frightened ;-)

Guitarist magazine
I’ve been their main transcriber since the mid-90s, as well as producing hundreds of technique articles, product reviews and tracks for the accompanying monthly CD.

Other stuff
I’ve done stuff for Guitar Techniques, Guitarrista (Spain), Guitar & Bass (France), the Korg UK company magazine and Classic Rock. I wrote a book called Legends,showing how the styles of the all-time greats can be used as a springboard for developing your own style. I transcribed all the music for Neville Marten’s book Giants of Blues and two Wishbone Ash books. I also co-wrote and recorded music for an Alpha Course cinema advert and a Gateway Computers TV ad.

PLAY

The Spaghetti Factory is my home studio. It started back in 1995 when I bought a Tascam Portastudio and a couple of effects units (all squeezed into one corner of the tiny flat I lived in, the cables coiled across the floor like spaghetti) and has gradually evolved into a digital setup, based around an Apple Mac G5 running Logic Pro. Oh, and there’s a few guitars, too. And some effects units. And more spaghetti.

Composing and recording music is my idea of heaven, but I just never have as much time for it as I’d like. It’s the old time/money problem, y’know? My main music site is offline at the moment, but I have plans to create some new stuff and spruce up some of the old stuff. I’ll get it sorted soon, I promise…