Hiya.. this is my website… in the times of Facebook, Myspace and the like, the website is seen by some as being old hat now… i like old hat.

this one is designed by my old buddy Mark at Paragon design… dude’s got a good eye. we use to play together in a band called Rhythm & Groove playing covers in pubs around Auckland as you do… RnG was one of many cool musical forays I’ve been a part of  during my career as a musician…

I first began playing music at the age of 8 or earlier  when i started piano lessons with a family friend Lynn Owen who played honky tonk kinda party music at local parties around my home village of Te Karaka near Gisborne.. after the lesson I’d get to eat packets of chips and other junk as she own the local dairy (7-11, corner store… as you may know it)… i was over the moon when ‘Burger Rings’ hit the shelves and they remain a favourite junk food though I’ve not had them for a while now.. am watching my weight. Moro bars were aplenty too… Mars bars were an inferior imitation as was pepsi to coke and so on..

I then  moved on to another teacher, one of two nice gentlemen who lived nearer to Gisborne and both taught classical style piano out of their little house…

piano was pretty much something i learned while my hands were getting big enough to play guitar, the instrument i was always peetty keen on.. my high school, Waikohu college didn’t have any saxophones so they were out of the question otherwise i probably would have been a saxophonist.. whilst in Australia in 1999 i did sell my camera to buy a clarinet and learnt that and some sax for a bit though…

age 11 i started guitar lessons and have remained an anti social guitar playing hermit ever since.. kinda joking…

lessons at the college from Kerry Parsons, Pat Davidson, the music teacher, and Graeme Gordon a folkie kinda geography teacher dude, crystalised my hunch that i’d really like the instrument… i remember running my finger tips along brick walls in an effort to harden them up for playing chords… i remember battling for weeks with the F chord… still my least favourite chord after all these years.. i don’t know many chords though… mainly because i’m lazy and don’t like learning hard jazz chords!!!

first performances were in the class rooms and in the school orchestra as the bass player and doing solo classical pieces whilst completely crapping myself at school orchestral gatherings..

i moved on briskly to playing in school bands with the other kids interested in music.. covering music by Clapton, Dire Straits and amusingly, Bon Jovi!!! 14, what an age.

A three piece band that myself, Jerry and Phillip (rest in peace my friend) formed called Misty Waters took top hounours at a local band competition with an original song ‘Shoot to kill’ (so young we was). the prize was a day in a local recording studio recording the song… that! was a buzz.. i have a distant memory of putting it on at the school gym when we got back to the school and buzzing on it… haven’t heard it for years now…

soon after that with guitar lessons continuing with local jazz head Colin Blakely, i was asked to join a local punk band Intelligent Foolz.. classic.. imagine an exceedingly shy, fresh faced farmer boy in a punk band if you will.. main writer Clayton Nelson had some interesting songs and his partner i think her name was Marge or something played a cool old stlye Ibanez bass that weighed a tonne… but seeing as i was heavily influenced by Knopfler it was kind’ve a mis-match.. my departrure came about pretty much when i had to choose between a gig with this band of dubious future and my sisters wedding… family comes first.. all through the nineties when dirty gats were the bizzo i couldn’t help think ‘the Foolz’ could’ve gone places.. maybe

I then linked up with Waiherere based bass player, Gabriel and his son Matenga playing drums. They were into The Cream and Led Zeppelin… yeah!!! we mostly jammed but played one or two gigs… or did we? the memory fades.

around this time my bro Steve introduced me to Pink Floyd and Albie or Uma introduced me to Bob Marley… Jimi Hendrix found his way onto my stereo. It was a live recording and the feedback was insane and freaked me out, i didn’t get into him til further down the track… the Beatles i hated because they wore suits.. Lennon i love, and George Harrison.. ‘Jealous guy’ and ‘While my guitar gently weeps’ are still two of my favourite songs.. a bass player friend at Lytton High school got me into Santana.. i remember first hearing Santana’s feedback sustain (humbuckers and a mesa boogie) and trying to find out for years exactly how he done it… we didn’t have youtube then… even if we had’ve i was anti-computer till my mid twenties…

my first electric guitar was a Hondo SG copy that i bought with a Gorilla amp and payed for by cutting thistles on the farm… years later when i moved to Auckland i walked into the rock shop k’ rd and there it was hanging on the wall!! i’d sold it to buy my first Fender guitar, a Fender Lead Three. This is a rare though not sought after guitar… a search of google images doesn’t eve turn up a picture of one!! it’s incredibly reliable guitar with two splittable humbuckers. It’s never been re-fretted and I’ve owned it for 20 years!! I used it most intensively when with Rhythm & Groove playing three nights a week for a couple of years.. it is a beast! A Gisborne guitar collector was a bit put out that a young farmer boy beat him to it and even called to discuss it if i remeber correctly… still in great condition this guitar comes out once in a while to gig or jam..

I moved to Auckland aged 19 to do the audio engineering course at SAE and to persue music. I’d seen Alex Griffith and Shane Wills play in Gisborne supporting a touring blues artist and knew they lived in Auckland… musicians such as these i wanted to meet more of..

my computer phobia meant i failed the course. it was during the time when computers were about to take over the recording industry… we learnt how to cut & splice tape and record on 24 track reel to reel tape. we were supposed to learn how many kilobites you could fit into a megabite and stuff like that.. computers confused the shit out of me and still do mostly…

early forays into the Auckland music scene i found incredibly daunting.. it was a big city to a young farmer boy and it took a while to find the cool spots where an exceedingly un-cool youngin could walk in, get a drink and hide in the corner waiting for a chance to play.. Shooters bar in Mercury lane was one of the first such places i discovered along with the Gluepot corner bar and then Java Jive which became my home away from home..

musicians around the scene included the aforementioned Shayn & Alex, Christine White, Big JT, Andy Blue, Sam Snake, Mark Laurent, Willy Siefert (Rest in peace buddy) Kiri Eriwhata, Karen Hunter, Katie Soljak, the list goes on & on..

one guy who blew me away was a brilliant violinist Jono Lonie who i heard jamming at Java often.. also the previously mentioned Mark Steven.. Jodie Butler and JT were a great duo… Mark Heke’s Ponsonby express was a favourite as was Shayn’s Swampdiggers, Ronnie Taylor band and so on.. Paul Ubana Jones came through once in a while, i’d met him in Gisborne when i went to see him for one guitar lesson.. his playing blew my mind and i decided i couldn’t fit much of what he was teaching into my little cranium so i said thanks and carried on my way..  jam sessions with Andy Blue were mad and continue sporadically to this day..

around these times i was looking for bands to play in and ended up joning up with a guy called Louis “Lalo” Moreno and his buddies playing Santana and the contemporary rock of the time, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Smashing Pumpkins, Red Hot Chilli Peppers etc.. playing with Louis and Juanito Muzzio (the red hot Chileans) in particular, influenced me greatly and gave birth to my love of Latin rhythms (although i haven’t learnt any properly) and percussion. Lalo’s mad ‘play all the rhythms you can if at all possible at the same time’ style and Juanito’s smooth touch on the conga saw  a whole new realm of music opened up to me..

around the same time i was also playing with the likes of Christine White, Sam Snake, Mark Laurent, Freddy Limbert & Willie Siefert.. even a gig with the late Sonny Day. a gig for which i was sooo not ready..

The band that Louis and I formed tore apart due to bass player issues. this put me off being involved in originals bands to this day. Louis and i caught up two weeks ago for the first time in 12 years… it was a blast!!

at this stage i started hanging out alot with jamming buddies that i’d met through Christine. Brother Bryce, Kelroy, Eddie (rest in peace buddy), Karlos and co… we drank and jammed and done missions that needed doing in the name of a good time and some cool music!! many a good party at some place or another and road trips to the far north.. great times…

all the while as i had gone off the idea of bands, i was playing  around Auckland as a solo performer or in duos with Katie Soljak, Simen ‘Bluekeys’ Taylor and others and working the day job on building sites mostly labouring in the fine art of plastering with the aforementioned Kelroy..

into the aimless cauldron was thrown the opportunity of a trip to Australia… the ensuing 15 months of back-packing, hitch-hiking, busking & seasonal work was an amazing time… travelling around Australia with people from all over the world heightened my awareness of music from different cultures… South American folk music, Gamelan, Eastern music, African drumming Aboriginal dij etc..

it was while on this sojourn that i bought my first percussion instrument.. a Darbuka. i had met Eyal from Israel when he was busking in Kings Cross in Sydney. He is a great multi talented musician who plays Darbuka, Jews harp, guitar and piano. he taught me the basics of playing the darbuka and we jammed extensively and traveled..

one of many highlights of this trip was the Woodford folk festival ‘98… the sheer diversity of culture was astounding… Tibetan Monks, Blues artists & jug bands, zydeco groups, aboriginal reggae bands, belly dancers and contemporary artists such as Colin Hay from Men At Work who was sublime as a solo artist.  then Byron Bay Blues festival ‘99… where acts such as Jeff Lang, Ben Harper, David Lynley, RL Burnside and many more amazed me. Seeing Tony Jo White at Byron Bay influenced me greatly. Ruby Hunter was beyond words.

after traveling the east coast i got back down to Melbourne where i brought my Darbuka which i still use. busking on the Melbourne streets was a great place to learn this amazing instrument.. it’s a city with a vast array of cultures and when busking i would have Turks, Egyptians and others who knew how to play darbuka stop and demonstrate different techniques.. ultimately i didn’t learn a great deal of traditional rhythms from the middle east but i learnt how to play the thing and developed an original technique of sorts..

back to New Zealand for the millenium and i saw in the century by becoming a vegetarian and delving further into the world of meditation having been inspired in this direction by Eyal and friends back in Auckland…

the music floundered or flourished, i’m not sure which, while i wrote some songs..

around this time i met the legendary Rod Redgrave at Java Jive… Rod is a great  multi-faceted musician who plays any instrument he gets his hands on… we’ve been jamming & giggin ever since.

at the end of 2000 i was asked by my good friend Mark to join his covers band Rhythm & Groove and i became a full time ‘professional’ musician.. during the two & a half years playing with this brilliant band i also released my first album ’sowing the wild notes’.

towards the end of 2003 as RnG lost momentum, celtic pub band ‘the grail’ asked me to join and because they had Jono Lonie playing violin & mandolin and i was curious about Irish music in particular, i joined. Four months or so later we were jetting off to play a residency gig in Ibiza for six months.. this was an incredible experience and my love of the Spanish language and culture endures still.. this band was my first taste of playing celtic music (or a form of) Jono’s fluent musicianship and flare never fails to impress fellow musos & audiences alike and when we returned to NZ i asked him to play some shows with Rod & I… “The Three Mulleteers” were born..

work began on a second album, I continued playing solo & duo gigs and the Mulleteers were finding a niche in the Auckland pub scene…

Rod had re-introduced me to African drumming and i loved it… occassional gigs with his friends in Tamani and various others are a massive buzz, the drivng incessant poly-rhythms create a majestic potent energy unparalleled in my experience of the music world… and the melodic instruments such as the ngonni, kora & balafon.. wow!  Jimi Dale i first met after returning from Australia when i needed a new head for my darbuka, my first impressions were “what a spaced out cat!!” turns out that’s pretty much it… a great dude and teacher of African music and dance.  i met his friend and mentor Mohamed Bangoura for the first time in 2003-ish when he was here doing concerts & workshops with Jimi. Mohameds teaching and performing of the music he loves is something else! jamming and performing with him during his regular visits to New Zealand has been like stepping through a doorway into another world, a very rich and ancient world of music in harmony with life..

early in 2006 i was asked to do sound for touring musicians Jon Sanders and Mark Crickard at lopdell house in Titirangi. as i sit here typing from my brothers place in Sligo, Ireland, whilst on tour with Jon i’m reminded of how much this one chance meeting has brought to my life and career as an impoverished troubadour.. heh heh after playing a few gigs with Jon while he was in nz he invited me to play gigs in Ireland for the first time. the three months spent in Ireland in ‘06 were times full of great people, some surfing, traveling and outstanding new musical forays.. apon returning to new zealand i gradually became more involved in the folk and trad irish scenes..

at a blues recording session with Roots Music Aotearoa in auckland i got to catch up with one of my favourite bass players, Alex Griffith. hearing that he wasn’t gigging much i asked him if he’d like to play on my original music and in the meantime do some gigs with the mulleteers… so after a couple of years giggin the three mulleteers now had a designated  bass player!! and the original music side of things could progress seriously with Alex getting to work co-engineering and playing bass on the remaining songs for the album i was haphazardly producing..

and then, yet again Rod introduced me to another amazing musician, Indian guitarist, sound engineer, producer Warren Mendonsa. after filling in for Jono at a mulleteer gig, we formed a side projct blues band which has had some great sessions playing old rock blues like the cream and so forth…

the folk scene re-introduced me to brilliant multi instrumentalist Dave Khan with whom i’d played a gig a while back… Dave has since stepped in to fill in for Jono several times and our duo ‘the two daves’ continues to formulate nicely in a bluesy kind’ve direction…

the music path continues with a current tour of the UK, Ireland & Germany with Jon Sanders & Toni Geiling while projects wait back in NZ…