How'd you get started in music?
I remember listen to my parents record collection when I was about 6 or 7. My favourite song was Speedy Gonzales by Pat Boone. It was around that time that I bought my first single. I know that it was a male solo artist but I can't remember who it was.Then when I was about 10 I had a cassette tape by The Beatles which I played over and over.
When I arrived in Australia I got the Shakin' Steven's album Shaky which I loved. A year or so later I was at a friends house (it always starts at a friends house doesn't it) and I picked up a guitar and thought someday I will get good at this but it was after seeing the movie La Bamba that my parents bought me a guitar and I started learning it.
Learning and playing the guitar has been a great journey!
Who are your inspirations or influences?
Oh, there are too many. When I first started playing I heard the David Lee Roth Skyscraper album with Steve Vai who is so totally unique. That led me to Eddie Van Halen and Joe Satriani. You can hear little triad movements in songs of mine like Smile which I got from Eddie. I realised that he has a thousand of these triad movements so I made it a priority for myself to make up a thousand for myself. Leading on from that I got into Randy Rhoads which led my to Zakk Wylde and onto Slash etc.
Then, of course, I got turned onto the blues with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Gary Moore, BB King etc and jazz as well.
Also when I was a teenager I heard Rondo a la Turk by Mozart which I instantly fell in love with so I've always liked classical music especially Mozart's piano concertos. This led me to discover Haydn etc and more recently Irina Kulikova.
So really my influences are from every genre of music which you can tell from the album These Days by Deep Down which has ballads, country and jazz influenced songs and a few rockers.
I must say that I am very lucky in that I had the same dream as Randy Rhoads in that all I want to do is teach guitar and write out my own pieces. It's something that Randy wanted to after he left Ozzy and it's something that I do today so really I'm very fortunate.
What advice would offer aspiring performers?
There are four main things;
1) In order to play live you must know the music that you'll be playing in your sleep so make sure to practise the material more than you think that you need too.
2) Make sure that you are sorted in the other non-musical aspects of the gig well before the actual gig. This might mean the clothes you'll be wearing, your gear, your merchandise stand etc.
3) Don't worry about making a mistake. It took me a while to figure out that most of the audience can't tell if you play a wrong note of you just keep on playing.
4) Have a positive mental attitude. Think positive. That actually goes for all aspects of life.
How do you set yourselves apart from other bands or singers?
Ha ha. Well take a listen to Sirius. It uses advanced harmony to create a soundscape. It's not something that I've really heard on fingerstyle guitar. It's not traditional jazz although it used jazz type chords. Satriani uses jazz type chords too and it's called rock. Anyway I'm sure my music can be categorised in some way but let's call it soundscape music for the moment.
Actually the nearest music that I can think of in concept is Allan Holdsworth. He played incredible guitar but he created soundscapes. He was incredible really.
Any new gigs or albums in the future?
I plan on recording and releasing my original fingerstyle instrumental guitar pieces for my Youtube channel regularly so subscribe to keep up to date with that.
Therese the singer in the band Deep Down has recently had a baby so were on hold for the moment but I'm sure that we'll release more music in the future.
Feel free to check out his latest works courtesy of his links & special thanks to him for the interview so until then I'll catch you on the flipside. Stay awesome & rock on!
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