Loathe - The Maze, Nottingham, 28/08/17

At the time of writing this post, it’s just turned midnight, I’ve had 4 pints of beer and I’ve just witnessed one of the best musical performances I’ve ever seen. I bought one of the beers because there was a picture of a sheep on the pump and it was called “Nah Then”. I obviously ordered the beer in an accent. “Nah then, I’ll ‘av a Nah Then”. But the beer doesn’t matter. I won’t talk about beer again in this whole post. This isn’t an account of how good the beer was, although it was lovely. I’m here to talk about the gig. I need to talk about it now whilst it’s fresh in my mind and I’m still buzzing from it. I’m here to talk about what I’ve come away from that show thinking. To talk about what I now know.

Loathe are one of the best, if not THE best metal band in the UK right now. Without question.

Let me backtrack, if I may, and start at the beginning. I’d been looking forward to this show for a while, because it was lining up to be an absolute mate-fest. My very good friends and recent touring partners The Cartographer were the opening band. Derby/Nottingham tech metallers and all round good guys Taken By The Tide were in the middle of the bill. And, last but not least, Loathe were top of the bill. Skies have played shows with Loathe in the past, around a year or so ago, and Shayne (Loathe bassist) used to be in a band called Fed To The Ocean who we have toured and played numerous shows with. Not only was the music going to be strong this evening, so was the company, and that is always a solid combination for a great gig.

I got to The Maze at about 6.20, roughly 20 or 30 minutes before the first band. It gave me time to get beer number one in (ok NOW I won't mention beer again) and an opportunity to socialise with some of my friends before the loud distorted noise kicked off. But when it did, it didn’t half slap me in the face and demand my attention. The Cartographer are hands down one of the most exciting and enjoyable bands in our local scene. They’ve been around a few years now, but looking at them now compared to when they first emerged, they’ve come on leaps and bounds. Their tone has got better. Their movement and stage presence has got better. Their solidarity and tightness as a musical unit has got better. They are constantly on the up, and I feel like every time I watch them, they improve. I’m very proud of the lads for continuously pushing forwards, allowing them to bag shows like this. Pallets were mentioned during the set, which I won’t delve into too far. But it’s a reference to our tour when a Scottish man living in Swansea wanted to take us to the beach and burn things. Long story.

Next up was Miscreant, who I hadn’t heard of before. Occasionally, I feel you can pre-empt how a band is going to sound based on what their logo looks like. Theirs was a sort of death metal esque logo, bordering on being difficult to make out. The sort of logo that, if it was any more elaborate, would've looked like a distorted and fuzzy optical illusion. What I expected compared to what I heard and saw were sort of accurate. Sort of. They had death elements. Blast beats, dirty low vocals, that kind of thing. But what I wasn’t expecting was how unpredictable they were. Breakdowns and slam sections would appear out of nowhere. I’d predict a chorus or a bridge of some form and be musically punched in the face by a low low tone and one of the snappiest snares of the evening. I was massively impressed by their drummer too, who turned out to be a fill in drummer which blew my mind because he was so locked in with the band. The set flowed so well, picking up pace and slowing down all in the right places, never losing any weight. They won the crowd over quickly, and the room was full of appreciative nodding heads. I’d watch these again, for sure.

Taken By The Tide were the third band of the evening. Probably the most technically proficient band of the evening, playing around with time signatures like a childs toy, they were an undeniable force, as always. The last time I saw them perform, they only had one guitarist, Eric, who is an absolute musical genius and is one of those guys that’s annoyingly good at everything. I never considered what it’d be like to watch them with two guitarists. But that’s exactly what I was treated to tonight, and I have one thing to say. Flippin’ ‘eck. The extra guitar adds so much depth to their sound and tone, and the trade offs between guitars during particular sections completely adds to the impact of their set. Phil (vocalist) did a great job as always lurking across the stage and spitting venom at anyone brave enough to look him in the eye. As always, they were as tight as tight can be. The guitar work made me a little bit depressed inside because I’m not as good as either of the guitarists, the bassist has a 7 string bass and actually uses the entire range, and they displayed pure anger and attitude, which everyone in the room completely absorbed. They never let me down.

Harbinger were next up. I’d heard a lot about these guys from both social media and one of my house mates, Luke, who only likes his music if it’s low tuned and makes him want to fold in half when he hears it. Social media showed me they were going to be a very destructive force. An absolute powerhouse of a band. Luke told me that they were going to be heavy and tight and if I spent too much time watching the guitarists I’d get sad. Luke was also in attendance tonight, and ensured me this would be the case. I didn’t really know what to expect. But. All of it was accurate. From the very first chords and blast beats, I could tell that this was going to blow me away. And it did. Their stage presence was menacing, their musical technicalities were mind numbing (especially the solos, most of which made me want to go home and set fire to all of my guitars), the vocals were disgustingly good, and some of the breakdowns were so dirty that they turned Luke into a polar ice cap and he started to melt. If Luke was a trifle, his head was the cream, his torso was the custard, and 100% his legs were the jelly. They reminded me of a cross between Lamb Of God, Pantera and The Acacia Strain. Pulsing, musically impressive, punishing metal. Impressed isn’t really a strong enough word.

Last, and very not least, Loathe. I literally don’t really know how to verbally explain what I witnessed. I’ve seen Loathe before when we’ve played with them, and they were all about the atmosphere. They used to have two guys stand on stage with them, completely motionless in dirty t-shirts with their hands firmly clasped in front of them and with pillow cases/sacks covering their heads, completely oblivious to the chaos happening around them. Both visually and musically they were a sight to behold a year ago. But the band I saw tonight was not the same band. Not in the slightest. What I saw tonight was leaps and bounds not just above what I saw a year ago, but above the vast majority of the UK metal scene as a whole. The two pillowcase operatives (not their official title) had been replaced by TV screens, which had a movie playing that synced with the entire set. The lights had been programmed to be red and red only. The mask that Kadeem (vocalist) used to don was only used during the bands approach to the stage. Before they even played one note, I could tell this wasn’t just going to be any old show. A couple of songs into the set I was completely speechless. I felt like I was nervous, which I wasn’t, I just had adrenaline coursing through me. They were flawless. Everything was perfect. The vocals, both sung and screamed, were performed with ease and accuracy. The guitar tone for both guitars complimented each other, and complete with the bass created an enormous wall of aggression. The drummer was basically a robot. It was like watching them record the album, that’s how tight it was. As for the show they put on, they were more energetic than bands I’ve paid more than twice as much to see. I can’t name one single fault of their performance. Not a single fault. Nothing. The set ended and I was left hungry. I’d told myself I wasn’t going to buy any merch because I need to save money, but you know what? They earned my money. They deserved it. I haven’t watched a show that’s made me feel like that in a long time. Especially not a show in a venue that small. I’ve come away completely inspired and astounded. I also left wanting to give up on music a little bit because I don’t think I’ll ever be that good, but I'm hoping the positives I've left with outweigh that in the long run. Loathe are completely in a league of their own right now, and if they don’t blow up soon I’ll be very surprised.

If you haven’t checked Loathe out before, go and check out The Cold Sun, which is available in all the usual online places, as well as HMV in the good old faithful metal section. Check out the Prepare Consume Proceed EP too. Both absolutely SLAY and are so worth your time. Combine Slipknot and your favourite horror movie, and you’re sort of on your way to picturing how Loathe sound.

Nottingham was day 6 of their tour with Harbinger. If you were considering attending one of the remaining dates, stop considering. Go. You need to see this. You won’t regret it.

D.S
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What I've Been Listening To - August 2017

This month has been a solid month for music. Some really strong releases from some bands I love, and I've rediscovered some absolute gems whilst me and the boys were on tour. We play this game called "The A-Z Game" when we're in the van, where you go through the alphabet naming songs but never duplicating artists or bands. Passes time in the van and also stops us from trying to murder each other (We're all friends really. Apart from Adam, we all think he's a dick. Not really. Or do we.....). The albums below are the ones that have stuck out for me the most over the course of the month.

Neck Deep - The Peace And The Panic

Possibly my favourite album of this genre to have come out so far this year. I've followed these Mancunian pop punk heroes for a number of years now, ever since the Rain In July EP. The absolute balls to the wall punchiness about them is what made them stand out for me. Compared to all the other pop punk around at the time, they stood out and started to carve their route to the top of the game very much on their own. If you listen to their back catalogue in order, you can hear the progression and development of their sound creeping in with every single record. And they have absolutely found it with The Peace And The Panic. Without a doubt, this is their most polished record, seamlessly weaving from the punchy, anthemic choruses of single Happy Judgement Day to the stripped back, emotive heartbreakers like Wish You Were Here with absolute ease. I was also excited to hear Don't Wait when I saw that Sam Carter of Architects had done guest vocals on it, and my God it's good. I wasn't sure how it would come across, but Sam is nothing short of perfect and his vocal sits on the track like icing on a cake. Only the icing is cheese and the cake is a pizza. If you're a fan of the genre and haven't given Neck Deep a spin yet, start with this album and work your way backwards. You will fall in love with this record.

Wage War - Deadweight

Good Lord. What. An. Album. Tinged with Nu-Metal stylings throughout but retaining a solid modern metal tone and an absolutely punishing pace, Wage War have smashed it out of the park with Deadweight. If I had to describe it in one word, that word would be HEAVY. And that word covers every aspect of the album. Firstly, I want to mention the production, which is one of the best I've ever heard. You can literally hear every single instrument. It is so unbelievably weighty, but you can hear everything breathing, and it completely adds to the impact. Secondly, the songs. Two Years and Southbound are perfect album starters, setting the tone for how the rest of the record is going to progress, effortlessly combining crushing riffs and soaring melodies, a taste of what's to come. Tracks like Deadweight and Disdain have an almost Slipknot punch to them (which is absolutely NOT an issue), whilst tracks like Witness and Gravity provide a sense of calm amongst all the chaos. This record literally has everything. Like metal? Don't ignore Wage War.

The Gospel Youth - Always Lose

This is the first album I checked out by these guys, but I'd been hearing good things so my expectations were pretty high. This album has become one of my most regularly listened to since its release in July. Hailing from the South Coast of the UK, The Gospel Youth have made their debut very hard to ignore. Right from the off, I Will Deliver You To The Fireflies is a beautiful, heartbreaking start, and perfectly sets up the rest of the album. The dynamics are on point, rising and falling in all the right places, really keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout (unless you're stood up when you listen. Edge of the curb maybe?), and you continue to do so with everything that follows. Gin And Black Coffee has some really smart songwriting and intricate melodies, almost Disney-esque in places, both vocally and instrumentally. Songs like single Moods Like English Weather really pulse and breathe, constantly changing pace and exploding with a huge chorus. The album as a whole really reminds me of Fools and Worthless Liars era Deaf Havana, but with a slightly softer and less harsh tone throughout. If you love that album (I certainly do, it's my favourite Deaf Havana album), then this might become your new favourite album.

Reuben - Racecar Is Racecar Backwards

I remember when I first discovered this album. I bought an issue of Rock Sound, and this particular issue came with a compilation CD. I don't remember what it was called, but it was blue, and the first track was No One Wins The War. And thus, my love affair with Reuben began. I still think they're one of the most underrated bands of their time, and this album is still one of the most underrated albums in existence. It's in my top 10 albums of all time. Without a doubt. The album showcases so many different sides of the band, but without straying so far away that songs sound out of place. Blending absolute radio anthems like singles Freddy Kreuger and Moving To Blackwater with heavier hard hitters like Our Song and Missing Fingers, whilst also slotting in slower soothers such as Song For Saturday and the album closer Dusk. They are the post hardcore band that didn't get enough attention. In my opinion, there's no one like them, they're so unique, and this was the album that started it all. They split up a number of years ago after releasing their 3rd album In Nothing We Trust, and their loyal following has been dreaming of a reunion. I am a part of that. If you've never checked them out before and you like bands such as Alexisonfire, Poison The Well, Taking Back Sunday and The Bled, give them a go. You won't regret it.




I'll do another one of these next month. If anyone has any music they'd recommend, let me know, I'm always open to give anything a go. Literally anything. My iTunes has everything from Drake to Dying Fetus.

Thanks for reading!

D.S
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A Week Today...

In exactly one week, Skies In Motion release our debut album Life Lessons. We have waited a very long time for this moment. It feels like a lifetime ago. It's been an especially painful wait for me, as all the material currently available in the back catalogue doesn't have me on it. I joined the band after they released the Dreamer EP and just after they recorded the standalone single The Light. I've been dying to get music I've had a hand in writing into people's ears. We've released a few singles, so that's started to happen, but releasing this album is a milestone, and I can't wait to reach it. The end of one road and the beginning of another.

Not long after I joined the band, we played a string of really cool shows all over the UK. The stand out show, however, was with Killswitch Engage at The Rescue Rooms in Nottingham. Just us and them. Supporting our idols and heroes, but not just as A support band. We were THE support band. I held a door open for Adam Dutkiewicz and he said thanks to me, and I tried to respond but instead said "eeeiihhhhhh". The most surreal and stand out moment of my time in this band. I don't think any of us came away from that gig uninspired. And not long after that, the conversations began. "When are we going to start writing the album?". And after a practice a few days later, me and Andy sat down and started. The first thing we wrote was a very early version of what ended up being the chorus in Cascades. I had some riffs to contribute from when I was at University. I recorded a bunch of material for some coursework projects, part to prove songwriting ability, part to prove I'd paid attention and knew how to record stuff and not make it sound like a 5 year old did it. I sent all of this to Andy, and he took what I'd done and began to develop it. The backbone of the songs stayed, but they became something more than what I'd written. They essentially became the way I initially pictured them being in my head, but couldn't create alone. The process had begun. And we were all excited.

All the above was the easy stuff. The parts that flowed out of us or were already written took little to no effort to develop. It was everything that came after that that was the challenge. Sitting in my flat for hours jamming riffs to each other trying to find something that we could develop or something that was cool and needed tweaking. Some days we wrote a couple of riffs. Some days we wrote full songs. Some days we wrote nothing at all. Bare in mind this would be 4 or 5 hours at a time, and we were meeting up 2 or 3 times a week to try and get this all written whilst also juggling full time jobs, gigs, practices, relationships, eating, sleeping and so on. Some days we thought we'd never finish. And eventually, after many months, we decided to take a look at what we'd written, and when it was all put in a folder, we realised we had enough. More than enough. We'd done it. We sent it to Adam so he could write lyrics over it, turns out he'd had lyrics written before we'd even finished writing the record. So there we had it. We'd written the album. Now we needed to record it.

As I mentioned in my previous post, we recorded the album with Ben Gaines, our drummers brother. The recording process basically began with us giving Ben everything we'd done, him laying it all out into an organised project file, and then recording everything again, only with guitars that don't sound they're underwater and drums that don't sound like they've been imported from a SEGA game. The drums were the first thing we addressed, and mapped them all out in the software to a drum program. Even at that point they sounded great, but they weren't permanent as Sam wanted to record his drum parts (which he did like an absolute boss, I'll get to that later). Then me and Andy spent a few weeks smashing the guitar parts out. We wrote a LOT of intricate guitar parts and layers, this took longer than we expected. Some of the riffs really came to life when we recorded with Ben, and started to really stand out and become more impacting than we initially realised. It was a really enlightening and uplifting process. We finished everything apart from a couple of clean parts, we were on track. We recorded a few vocal parts, a decent chunk of them. But then, shortly after this, the hurdles began presenting themselves. We went on tour, preventing us from recording. I don't regret those tours, Europe is one of the best things I've ever done in my life, and the fact music allows me to travel and see the world is something I can never be thankful enough for. But when we got back, we were exhausted, and we didn't get back in the studio for months. And then we started arguing. Getting at each others throats. Nit picking, blowing things out of proportion, getting stressed out and burnt out, and it was swallowing us. It was becoming like a musical ocean. What I mean by that is, when you go out to sea, people always worry about sharks. About having a swim and a shark swooping in and making you its dinner. In reality, sharks don't kill that many people. The water kills thousands, people drown all the time. The sharks were the issues we were blowing up over, but these issues didn't really matter, we were already in the water. I feared we'd never get the recording finished. So I sat everyone down in the back of our van after a show in Birmingham, a sort of realigning pep talk of sorts. No shouting, no voice raising, a conversation between five friends, planning a route forwards and a goal at the end of that route. And it worked.

One of the first things raised was getting the drums recorded. So we booked studio time, 5 days of it, and Sam spent months preparing. He'd sit in his drum room for hours with headphones plugged into his phone and drum along to the entire album, time after time after time. He became a machine. And when we came to record the drums, he recorded everything in 2 and a half days. Normally beast mode is used in reference to people with big biceps and snapbacks that forget about leg day at the gym, but that day, Sam was the sole definition. He absolutely didn't forget leg day, there's some double kick patterns on this album that sound like actual thunder. He killed it. And now all that was left was the remaining vocals and a couple of guitar tweaks. Adam, Andy and I all have vocal parts on the record, and we spent a solid week or two honing everything in. Tweaking, adding things, taking things away, rewriting melodies, restructuring patterns and lyrics. Ben came up with a ton of good ideas and helped write one of the catchiest choruses on the entire record. And then, we recorded a tiny vocal part, one of the tweaks I think, and realised we'd finished. Like actually finished. The album was done. I can't explain the feeling of all that weight that lifted off me. It was a genuinely emotional moment. I mentally and physically felt lighter. We all had a celebratory pizza party afterwards which helped put some of the physical weight back on, just watched some videos on youtube and hung out as friends. Probably the first time we'd all sat back and just enjoyed each others company in months.

We both lost and gained a lot of things during this whole writing and recording process. We lost Pete, guitarist and founding member (who I replaced). We lost Lou, bassist and founding member (1st picture). We lost Daryl, bassist and Greggs no.1 fan (2nd picture). We've all lost relationships, both friendships and romances. Sam's lost some family members. We lost Adam for a few hours in Barcelona. For a big chunk of 2015 and 2016, we'd all lost our minds. But we have gained an album. A documentation of all of this. 12 tracks of music that we're proud of, that tell a story that's much bigger than the 5 of us. And we hope you enjoy it.

September 1st. This album will be available everywhere. PLEASE check it out.

You can pre order a physical copy by clicking here.

Thank you for supporting us.

D.S

&

Skies In Motion

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How To Step Up Your Bands Live Set In One Very, Very Long Day

I had a very productive day yesterday. VERY productive. Also a very long day, where I was out of the house for about 15 hours, but it was fully worth it. I nearly had the most recent Game Of Thrones episode spoiled for me, I spilt some tea on my leg and briefly locked myself inside a toilet, but these are merely tiny imprints on an otherwise smooth day. Mainly because a large chunk of the day was spent making the Skies In Motion set more professional.

I woke up at 9am, feeling fresh (ish, not a morning person), had a bowl of fruit and fibre and a cuppa, and headed over to the Heroic Audio headquarters. Heroic Audio is an audio production and recording company ran by a very good friend of mine, Ben Gaines. An aural wizard, idea generator, ginger viking and also the brother of my drummer, Sam. He recorded our album (did I mention we're releasing an album that's OUT NEXT FRIDAY ON SEPTEMBER 1ST), gave us a TON of good advice throughout the recording process and made it sound better than we could have ever imagined. We frustrated him so much throughout the process by being difficult and picky and very hard to work with at times, and he has openly admitted he hates us on numerous occasions, but he is still willing to work with us which is good of him. I mean he loves us really, if he really hated us we'd all be chopped up and thrown in bins across Derby right now. Anyway, I digress. I went to visit Ben to create a bunch of interludes to integrate into our live set. And for good reason.

Every time I go to watch a band, I'd say 8 or 9 times out of 10 that band has a backing track of some form leading in or out of songs. Often both. This is generally done in a couple of ways. The band, or at very least the drummer, will be playing along to click track that will be triggered at the very beginning of their set. A backing track will be running in the background, and the band follow the click track to make sure what they're playing is completely in time with the backing, which sounds SUPER tight. Or, one of the band will trigger pre made intros and outros as a way of leading us in and out of songs, which if done right and crafted properly, sounds so slick and polished. The latter is what we'll be doing. We currently don't do this. We used to, and our set was so so polished, and we used to get complimented on our professionalism so often. Now, I'm not saying we don't now, as we still get good feedback and comments on our shows, but I think if we re-introduced this element, we could really become a force to be reckoned with. So there I was. Re-introducing.

We've been playing the same set for the last couple of years, with the addition of one or two songs here and there. It is time for change. Not just to make things more exciting for the people watching us, but to breathe a bit of life back into the set for us. So we started. The song we started the set with is no longer in the set at all. I wanted to completely changed everything. I do not want to spoil it, but our set is starting with something really cool. It has impact, it's memorable, and most importantly, it's nostalgic. I won't say any more about it. You just gotta trust me it's cool. Then the fun started. A few of the intros required a small amount of composing to be done. Tiny compositions to lead us into songs in the set. Ben has more sounds in his recording software than you've probably come across in life, and knows the library like the back of his hand. We spent hours writing, crafting, scrapping, reshuffling, adding, taking away, drinking tea, talking about Game Of Thrones and telling him to shut up because I haven't seen the newest episode yet, more writing and crafting. And at the end of the day, we had everything we needed for a new set. Everything I had envisioned for our set to make it more professional. We nailed it out in about 8 hours. Perfect timing too, as we had a band practice almost straight after, so I had my opportunity to pitch the new set and the interludes to the rest of the band.

I had no idea if they'd like the changes or not. We are all very different people and in turn that makes us all individually very difficult to predict and read. Legit they might have said "Yo Dave are you high, this set is awful and those interludes sound like an aural version of a dirty nappy". But luckily for me, everybody was on board. Completely on board. We played through the set with the interludes, and it felt like it flowed better than what we'd been playing until now. I think we all agreed, we were all on the same page. Mission accomplished. Now, to test it out at a show.

We'll be debuting our new set at Macmillan Festival in Nottingham on September 2nd. A great day of music for an even greater cause. There's so many good acts playing all day, so much variety. We've been a part of this festival in the past, and regardless of whether we've been on the bill or not, we've always been in attendance. This will double up as our album release show, so it's gonna be a good one. Come and party with us. To grab a ticket, click here.

See you in the pit. Well, I won't I'll be on stage, but I'll be able to see you in the pit.

Actually, thinking about it, I won't be wearing my glasses on stage, so I probably won't know if you're in the pit at all. I might not even know you're there.

See you at some point during the festival.

Thank you for reading. I'm gonna go and listen to the new Neck Deep album and do adult things like washing and cleaning.

D.S

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A Man & His Music. And Quiche.

Hi. Hey. Hello. My name is Dave, I'm 28 and I'm a slightly Brummy sounding fella currently living in Derby, UK. I don't have a lot of hair on my head but there is quite a lot on my chin. I get told that I smell nice on a regular basis, and I don't really do anything special to create that smell. I can't tell you what my secret is because I don't even know what it is. Maybe it's because I worked at Lush for a while and the scent has stayed with me? Probably not. I realise I've started this sounding like a sort of weird dating ad, so I'll move on.

Ahem.

I love music more than I can accurately put into words. It's been there for me for as long as I can remember and it's never let me down. It took me under it's wing at a very young age, showed me a path to walk down, and I chose to sprint. I've been playing instruments since I was 4 years old, been performing in front of audiences since I was 8, been playing in bands since I was 14 and have been composing and recording my own material ever since. I'm currently in a metalcore band called Skies In Motion, and we're on the verge of releasing our debut album Life Lessons. Like. We're releasing it next week. Next Friday actually. It's that close. I'm also craving a job in the music industry, specifically working with PR or Journalism. Before I get into all that, though, let me back track a bit and give you a bit more background on my journey to where I am now. I'm not going to give you a full telltale history of my life because that would take forever to write and you'd probably die (or at least wish you'd died) before you reach the end, so I'll try to keep it brief. That said, I am going to start right at the very beginning...



....When I was still in the womb (I did say I'd start at the very beginning), my mum used to play Cliff Richard records to stop me kicking and calm me down. From that moment on I decided I'd try and avoid Cliff Richard as I progressed through life. I think. I have one of my mums old Cliff Richard cassettes, and part of one of the songs is missing because I pressed record on the sound system and decided to start laughing, probably out of pure joy and pride for making the music stop. I'm pretty sure I had been born by this point, I don't think I reached out from the womb to press record. Anyway, I'll skip forward a few years to where things really started to happen. I also promise I won't bring up Cliff Richard again, I've written his name more times in this paragraph than I've said it in the last decade.

I don't remember a lot of the music I grew up listening to, as my parents weren't overly musical. They'd listen to the radio sometimes, but wouldn't go out of their way to purchase music or have it on in the house all the time. The only thing I do remember listening to is Queen. I remember my dad playing Queen a lot, and I remember really liking it. I suppose if it's the only thing I can remember listening to when I was a kid, I must have liked it, as that has stuck with me all the way up to now. It made me curious about music and about how it was done. What were those sounds I was hearing? What was making them? And then, at Primary School, at 4 years old, I was given a recorder. Everyone in class was given a recorder. Most kids in class would just blow down it and laugh. Some would just hit other kids with theirs, like a musical baton. But I realised if I put my fingers over some of the holes and blew, the noise changed. That was my first experience of playing an instrument, and it hugely intrigued me. I took it seriously very early on. I attended extra curricular music classes and as the years went on, learnt how to sight read. I can't remember the first piece of music I learnt to play, but I do remember learning the Titanic theme at some point and annoying my parents with it because I was so chuffed that I could play it. I wasn't the biggest fan of the film (there was room for Leo on that door and I'm bitter about it), but I was proud of myself that I could play something recognisable that didn't sound like a whistling kettle.

A few years later, when I was in Year 4, a nice lady called Mrs Lewis came into the class and asked if anybody was interested in playing a stringed instrument. I shot my hand up into the air straight away, excited at the prospect of learning something new. I was taken out of class and into the schools assembly room, where a number of other kids from different classes and of different ages had also gathered, and we were all given the choice of what instrument to play. I chose the violin and, on that day, I started playing music as part of an orchestra. I approached the violin exactly the same way I approached the recorder, by attending classes after school, learning to sight read for my new instrument and making my parents wish I'd taken up a quiet hobby like drawing. Initially, as an ensemble, we were terrible. At the time we thought we were the best in the world, but in reality we sounded like an orchestra falling down an unfortunately lengthy stairwell. We were playing simple things, things like nursery rhymes and camp fire songs. We performed them to parents at cute little matinee events where all the parents could go "ooh look over there that ones my child aren't they talented" to each other. Even though we sounded awful, gotta be nice to your kids haven't ya? It wasn't until I went to High School that things began to develop. Mrs Lewis worked with the High School too, and it was then that the more challenging music began to be introduced. We started learning some of the simpler classical compositions, pieces of music with distinct motifs meant for specific areas of the orchestra. At this point everyone had been playing their instrument for a good 4 or 5 years. We actually sounded good. We also did performances for parents, but this time the applause felt genuine, and teachers and parents alike were actually impressed. This was the first time I started to feel a buzz from performing, and I liked it. A lot. I wanted more than the school orchestra. So I joined a second orchestra. Tamworth's Youth Orchestra.

I think I was about 12 when I joined that orchestra. And it was daunting. I thought I'd played with talented people at school, but this was full of people that were something else entirely. I was part of the lead violin group at the school, but here I slotted into violin 2. Part of the rhythm section. The caliber of musicians was so much higher here. And the music was far more challenging. Actual big time classical pieces. Adaptations of pop songs for ensembles. I remember we did a version of Yellow Submarine. I think we also performed Montagues and Capulets from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet suite. I was being challenged every single time I attended a rehearsal, and being surrounded by superior musicians and hearing those soaring melodies made me jealous. I wanted to be good enough to play the tough stuff. So I started to practice more at home. I took gradings so I had something to show for my hard work. It's worth noting, by the way, that when I had the opportunity to choose my GCSE's, I didn't choose music. I didn't feel like I needed it. Because I was learning so much outside of school, I felt I could dedicate study time to something else (because I was complete nerd) and leave music as an extra curricular activity. And so I continued to grind. The orchestra performed at schools, local town halls, not-so-local town halls, concert venues, special events. I finally got my violin one spot. I was so happy. I was technically able to play the music I'd been yearning to play for the last few years. And then, when I was 14, something unexpected happened. Something that completely changed the course that I was on. My best friend showed me Linkin Park.

Until this point in my life, the most aggressive music I had heard was by Red Hot Chili Peppers. By The Way was the first album I bought with my own money. I loved it, but not enough to avert my focus from playing violin. At this point, classical music had all of my attention. Now, I can try and encompass exactly how I felt when I heard Linkin Park for the first time. What ran through my skin and made all my hairs stand on end, what hit me in the chest when Papercut kicked in. But, I can only really explain it one way. Hybrid Theory blew my mind. I had never heard music that aggressive before. I'd never heard guitars distorted like that before. I had never heard vocals so full of pain and anger and emotion before. I spent a large portion of my childhood being bullied (because, as mentioned before, I was a complete nerd), and this was the first time I had heard something that I could really connect with. Music that didn't just impress me and grab my attention, music that spoke to me and understood what I felt. My friend burnt me a copy of the CD, and I had it on repeat for weeks. I started holding my violin on my lap like a guitar and tried to pluck out the notes and play the riffs. I stopped practicing for the orchestra at home because I was too busy trying to play guitar on my violin. And then I thought to myself, "why don't I just get a guitar and learn how to play one properly?".

I pitched it to my parents. They were not cool with it. "We bought you a violin and you don't play that anymore, what if you do the same with a guitar?" they said. I mean fair play, valid point, but at the time I was just like "I HATE YOU YOU NEVER LET ME DO ANYTHING I WANT TO DO I'M FOURTEEN I'M BASICALLY AN ADULT GODDDDDD". And then they pitched to me that I could have a guitar if I paid for it myself. That way if I don't play it, I'm wasting my money and not theirs. Smart parenting, that. So I got a Littlewoods catalogue (like the internet but in a big thick book), and found an Encore Stratocaster copy with a sunburst finish that came with a softcase and a tiny 10 watt amp. I think it cost about £100 for the lot. At the time, I'd never seen anything so beautiful. I was still scared of girls that weren't my mum at this point, so all of my love could be poured into wanting this guitar in my life. I went to my local corner shop and got my first job, a local paper round delivering the local newspaper to local people. It got me about £10 quid a week. My mum saw how much I wanted the guitar and offered to give me a few quid here and there to do chores around the house, allowing me not only to raise the money quicker, but also potentially waste their money that they made a big point of not wanting to waste, which means I sort of did reverse psychology on my parents. I quickly raised the money, ordered the guitar, and a few days later, it came. I think I cried. It was the first thing I'd wanted with all of my being since I was bought a Thunderbirds playset when I was a kid. I then became a teenager that spent all of their time in their bedroom listening to music and trying to figure out how to play it, only appearing outside of my room for toilet breaks and food. The school didn't have guitar lessons, so I decided I'd try and teach myself by playing songs on my CD player and pausing after every single note until I found the note on the guitar. It would take days to learn, but when I finally learnt a whole song I was so happy. By this point I'd branched out from Linkin Park and I'd found Metallica, Avenged Sevenfold, Funeral For A Friend, Sum 41, Killswitch Engage, Guns N Roses and a whole host of others, and I was trying to learn songs by all of them because I was completely in love with playing guitar.

I joined my first band, called Above Ruin, by knocking on someones garage door with my friend Matt and telling the people inside they were playing Slither by Velvet Revolver wrong. We showed them how to play it, we all got on, and from then we ended up jamming every week. We covered Metallica songs initially, and a few Diamond Head songs too, and then we started to write our own material. I'd never written my own material before, and I fell in love with the process almost immediately. Writing a riff and hearing the drums one way in my head, only for our drummer to play something completely different and better over the top. The combination of minds, I couldn't get enough. I stopped learning other bands songs, because now I needed to write my own. Before we knew it, we'd entered a local Battle Of The Bands competition, and we played our first show. My first performance with a band. I had never experienced a buzz from performing like the buzz I got from that show. I knew straight away that this was leagues above what I was doing with the orchestra, so I quit. We didn't win the competition but it didn't matter, I got the taste that I needed. I needed to dedicate all my time to guitar and being in a band.

During this time, I finished my GCSE's and decided I wanted to continue my studies into Sixth Form College. I'd also decided that I wanted to pursue music fully, yet I'd shot myself in the foot by not doing it at GCSE. Enter Mr Moss and Ms Møgelmose. Two very important people who completely inspired me and allowed my love for music to flourish. Mr Moss is one of the most enthusiastic people I've ever come across, and his love for music was unmatchable. Sometimes we'd have lessons where we wouldn't get to cover the subject matter because we'd all end up waffling about music instead of doing what we were supposed to. He was an incredible flautist, pianist, vocalist, multi instrumentalist, and his passion for his subject made me hungrier in my pursuit. Ms Møgelmose treated us, her first A Level group, like a little family. I remember when we left school, she gave us all a notebook with a recipe written in the front to get us started in our adult lives, something to continue to build on. These two teachers were pivotal in me being where I am today, I just didn't know it at the time. I explained to them both how badly I wanted to do Music as an A Level, and they agreed to let me on the course provided I could catch up with the work I should have covered at GCSE level. Challenge accepted. I worked my ass off. I studied other things at A Level, but not really, I was only bothered about Music. I also didn't play guitar once in lessons, Mr Moss thought I was a drummer until my parents told him I played guitar. The school had a drum kit and I wanted to play it so I said I was a drummer (I'm not a nerd anymore by the way, I'm a cool rebel with highlights in my fringe and a camo hoody). I learnt how to play on a non existent air kit in my bedroom with a singular drumstick that my friend Dan threw into the crowd at a show. Not even kidding. Worth noting my parents didn't know I could play drums either. And somehow, I pulled through. I did it. I got an A. I'd begun to travel down my path, and my parents fully got behind me and encouraged me to pursue music. My parents are an enormous reason that I am where I am today. They never once tried to mould me a certain way or send me down a specific path. They taught me right from wrong and not to let anyone dictate to me what I can and can't do. So I began to do exactly what I wanted by furthering my education.

Shortly after finishing Sixth Form, Above Ruin split. We all remained friends, but musical tastes had changed and we all went our own ways. I joined a band with some friends I'd met since turning 18 called Embrace The Plague, which ended up changing its name to Thrones due to the personnel change. Just as we'd started to jam together, I started a course in Birmingham at The Academy of Music and Sound, studying Music Practice. The course was essentially a 2 year performance and theory workshop, teaching me the ins and outs of my instrument and all the necessary skills to go forwards and be able to perform at a professional level. I musically developed a lot during this time, learnt a lot of different techniques to aid my playing, learnt a lot more theory, and learnt how to sight read for guitar which I hadn't managed to teach myself at home. I also learnt how to headbang and run around a bit on stage without either falling over or making it look like I was mentally ill. The way I perform, compose and approach music has a lot to do with those 2 years, I owe a lot to The Academy. And it showed in the music I wrote with Thrones. It became the first band that I played shows with outside of my hometown, and we made it to final rounds of Battle Of The Bands competitions both locally and regionally. We recorded 2 EP's, and I began to find my feet and my writing style. I passed my course, and I planned to go to University where I could continue to broaden my knowledge and also stop annoying my parents by coming home at 4am and falling up the stairs.

I applied for 5 Universities, and got offers from 3, but decided on the University of Derby. I studied for a BSc in Music Technology and Production, a course that was focused on the recording side of the industry. I had to leave Thrones to fully dedicate my time to my studies, but we all remained close friends and still are today. Going into University, I felt like all I needed to learn was how to record music, and then I would essentially be a jack of all trades. I could write music, record music and then perform music. A literal one man band. And so I went in with open eyes and ears, hoping to become a human sponge and absorb every piece of information floating around. My first year went great, passed everything I needed to pass, and set me up nicely for my second year. All smiles, eagerly awaiting another year of trying to balance learning and drinking heavily, the biggest roadblock appeared near the beginning of my second year.

On the 14th of January 2011, my mum passed away. It wasn't a surprise at all, but it didn't make it any easier to deal with. 6 years on, I'm still struggling to deal with it now. For 4 years she had been suffering from Mesothelioma, a form of cancer that attacks the lungs that is commonly associated with coming into contact with asbestos, which was connected to some of her work environments in her late teens anf early twenties. You breathe in the asbestos, and the disease can lay completely dormant until one day it just decides to wake up. It chose to wake up for my mum when she was 55. She was initially given 6 months to live, and that was when I was 17. She was determined to see my 18th birthday, and she did. Then she set a new goal, which was to see me finish college, and she did. Then to see me turn 21, which she did. Then she wanted to see me graduate from University. She didn't. She is the strongest, most resilient, kind hearted, loving, thoughtful, passionate and beautiful human being that I have ever known, and the reason I am still pursuing music is because she would murder me if I strayed away from my dreams. My sole purpose in life is to do right by her and make her proud. I refuse to stop until I do. Flat out refuse. I am a reflection of her, and I pick up where she left off.

After some time off of University, I plunged straight back into my studies. Learning whilst grieving was a real challenge, but I was surrounded by good people and the tutors were all incredibly understanding and helpful with the situation. I struggled but I knuckled down and finished my course. I graduated with a 2:1. I learnt everything from how to operate Pro Tools and analogue mixing desks, all the way to how to acoustically treat a recording studio and the acoustic properties of a range of different materials. The course covered a lot of the business side too, explaining performing rights laws, copyright laws, marketing, how a record label operates, the growing demand to consume music digitally rather than physically and so much more. The course was great, I loved it, but I learnt so much that I came out of University not really knowing what to do or where to go with my degree.

Fresh out of Uni, I decided I'd get any old full time job, save up money, buy a ton of recording equipment and essentially build my own sort of home studio. I'd start recording bands and artists from home, build a business for myself. I meant well, but I lost my way. I ended up slipping into a routine of paying my bills and spending the money I was earning on not being miserable. I'd been a couple of bands with friends back in Tamworth but couldn't commit to having a full time job in Derby as well as the band, the distance became an issue. I had the exact same equipment I had whilst I was at University and wasn't saving enough money to upgrade any of it. A large chunk of my friends I made in Derby had moved either back home after University or just generally moved out of Derby. I ended up feeling kind of lost, until I joined a band called Vectors with a group of friends I'd made in Derby. We wrote some cool, super heavy material and I felt like I was starting get my mojo back. I was dying to play some shows again and really get some music back in my life, but things started to slowly fizzle out as everyone had their own commitments to adhere to. And then I saw a local band advertise on social media that they were looking for a guitarist. That band was Skies In Motion.

Initially, I did nothing about this information. I took it in and remembered I'd seen it, but said nothing. Didn't send any messages, just sort of thought "oh that's a shame I hope they find someone". And then I bumped into Andy, the guitarist, whilst at work. We worked in the same nightclub at the time. I just asked him what was happening. And then some noises came out my mouth that sounded like "I want to try out". I didn't know I was going to say that when I went into the conversation, but I said it. And Andy told me "Record a video cover so I can see your technique and playing ability". The next day I got straight on it. I taught myself the song by ear in less than a day, a skill I picked up from all those years of pressing pause and play when I was a teenager, recorded my video and sent it. If you want to watch that video, click here. The quality is awful, and it's by no means a perfect cover. However, they watched it, they liked it, and a few days later I got invited to a practice. What they didn't know was that I'd begun to reignite my fire and I'd spent those few days learning the rest of the Dreamer EP by ear. I turned up, we played the entire EP in the first practice, with a few cock ups of course, but it was enough for them to give the job to me. I had a month to get things tight, and then we started playing shows. My life was musical again. I was beyond happy. A step in the right direction. A step forwards.

In the last 4 years I have jumped from job to job to allow this band to have the breathing room it needed to flourish. We've lost members, gained members, argued, made up, but most importantly we have done some incredible things. We've toured across Europe and the UK. We've supported a ton of bands that inspire us, most notably Killswitch Engage who were one of the first metal bands we fell in love with. We've been on the radio, we've been in magazines, we've been on podcasts, we've played festivals, and now we're almost at the biggest milestone of this bands life so far. We release our debut album on the 1st of September. I never ever thought I would release an album, and I'm about to. An absolute dream, and I'm going to be able to cross it off my list next week. We're so proud of it. We're smack bang in the middle of a PR campaign at the minute, all in aid of this release, and I'm so excited for what comes next.

As for my job situation, I recently thought to myself "Why am I getting jobs that I don't want, to fit around doing something I do want? Why can't both things be something I want?". And so that's what I'm doing. I have finally figured out what I want to do, what direction to head in with my degree. So one of two things is going to happen. I'm either going to get a job in journalism or PR, which is the preferred outcome. Or I'm going to die of old age looking for a job in journalism or PR. I'm 28, I've got a lot of gas in the tank, I'm prepared to hunt and grind for as long it takes. Getting what's necessary for this career path is my new sheet music. This is the beginning of that push. A new chapter of my musical journey.



Well, that wasn't very brief was it? When I started writing this I literally intended on saying "I love music, give me a job I want please and also come and see my band at a show maybe" and it kind of became something more than that. Perhaps I needed to write all that. Perhaps I needed that release. But that is exactly what I intend on this blog being. A release of sorts. A sort of ongoing documentation of my journey from here on out. Things that happen in the band, things that happen with me, music I find and fall in love with. Music is everything to me, and this blog is going to be one way of expressing that.




.....Oh right, yeah, the quiche thing. So. Uh. I love quiche. A lot. More than anyone else I know. Possibly more than anyone else ever. For example, if you invited me to your wedding reception and quiche wasn't on the buffet, I can't describe how disappointed I'd be. Like legit I wouldn't be angry or upset, I'd be a whole other level of disappointed. One of my friends bought me a quiche and wrote my name on it at his wedding reception. True story. Just remember that. A man literally catered for MY love of quiche at HIS big day. He got married and had to worry about the general smoothness of the entire day and had to cater for a ton of other people, and he put something on the buffet that was SOLELY FOR ME. I didn't even ask him to do it, he just understands. That's how much I love quiche. Ironically I probably won't post that much about quiche, being a music blog and all. But occasionally I might. Who knows?


Thank you so much for reading. Sorry if any of you died reading this, completely unintentional.

D.S
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