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bio
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Biography. What’s your musical background and who are your main influences? I had a guitar constantly in hand from about age nine. I studied jazz for about five years with guitar maestro Bruce Clarke. I think I started songwriting from about 14-15 onwards. Rock gigs came thick and fast and my jazz gigs fewer and rarer as I focused more on songwriting and riff playing – and that really peeved off Bruce Clarke. In terms of guitar playing, my earliest influences were jazz greats such as Joe Pass, Charlie Christian, George Golla, Larry Carlton and then I discovered the beautiful lyrical simplicity of Mark Knopfler’s style and Gilmore’s and Clapton’s. Later Hendrix, Keaggy and Gary Moore really got under my skin. I like lyrical, passionate, real gutsy dig-the-pick-hard-in-the-string playing...the fast glossy stuff dazzles me but also loses me. The single biggest influence has been Phil Keaggy – although I can’t even begin to do what he does! In terms of songwriters, as a child of five I was always running a fever which saw me bedridden for a long periods of time. My sister would have the radio on and in my feverish, hallucinating state I would soak up the sounds of Dylan, The Beatles, The Stones, The Eagles and Led Zeppelin. Later I listened to very early Pink Floyd with Sid Barrett, and their later stuff, Larry Norman, Leonard Cohen, Dylan and more Dylan… I love listening to a well crafted albums where all songs form part of moving, coherent whole. Since the age of about 18 these are the projects I’ve worked on: Topic of Conversation VCA College Big Band with Steve Sedergreen Life Member Here & Now CD Lo’Fi’s – Michael Mancev and Paul Colman Vex – Michael Mancev solo album Kornerstone – with Ben Swift On the Air – Blah Records Compilation Tom Osborne and the Slowburners EP – featuring the song writing talents of Paul Grech Vex EP
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