The Early Years
I lived in Woking, Surrey until the age of ten, before moving to Bransgore in Dorset (after a year in Chippenham, Wiltshire) and at this time my parents bought me my first organ; a Baldwin Howard Skyline 244. I quickly moved to a Yamaha B75-N (which I used with a Logan String Machine for a time) and from this I moved to the ‘mighty’ Yamaha D65 Electone. By this time my interest had moved into other areas and the D65 was supplemented by a DX7 synth, a Teisco monophonic synth and a Korg KPR-77 drum machine. Later studio gear included the Yamaha RX15 and Roland R8 drum machines as well as a second DX7, an Oberheim Matrix-6 synth and a Akai S700 Sampler.
After leaving school in 1983 I had a few jobs including a brief spell at Eddie Moors Music in Boscombe, Dorset in 1984. Around this time, I started writing music. One of the earliest pieces was a jazz waltz called “Jazzmine” which I wrote when I was sixteen and which was recorded by Peter Hayward in 1984 and published in Organ Player magazine (which later became Keyboard Player).
Wales – 1988 to Present.
We moved to Wales in 1988 (via Ferndown in Dorset where we lived for a few years), when we bought various organs, including a Technics E66, a Yamaha EL90, a Technics G100 and even a 1937/1938 Hammond Concert E which was originally installed in Canterbury Cathedral during World War II.
I joined my father Gerry in the music engraving business in 1988 and was one of the first people in the UK to use Coda “Finale” scorewriting package (which I still occasionally use today).
In 1996 we started a mail-order business, specialising in organ & keyboard music called MSS Studios ORGAN1st. This business is still running at ORGANS.uk. We branched out into publishing a series of books for organ and keyboard and set up a record label, producing CDs for various organists including Nicholas Martin and Alan Haven. We also produced four CDs called “Theatre Organ Echoes” which were compilation CDs produced from the master tapes of the Amberlee Records and Audicord archives, which we bought in the early 2000s.
In 1998 I produced a CD of original material called “Lines in the Sand” and a matching music book arranged for organ & keyboard. The pieces were picked from various compositions I had recorded from 1983-1998. This was followed by “The Snowdonia Photo & Music DVD” which was produced in 2004 and updated in 2007. I also produced another CD called “Reflections” which including music from the DVD.
I have used various keyboards and modules over the years, including a Korg M3, Yamaha CVP-307 Clavinova, Yamaha Motif-Rack XS, Roland xv-5080, I am now exclusively using virtual instruments including Komplete Ultimate, Toontrack Studio Drummer and various other virtual instruments.
I have produced various recordings over the past few years, including three five-track EPs “The Lone Tree”, “Feel It” and “The Island”, all of which are available on iTunes and Amazon.
I released various singles during 2021, all of which are available to stream. My lastest are “Dance No.1”, “Dance No.2“ and “Wake Up” (released on 17th January 2022) which were all produced on Logic X Pro with various vocal samples.
