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
x
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