DJ Interviews: Unspoken

Hello everyone DJ Dizzy here & I interview a band who answers to the name of Unspoken so enjoy the interview.

How'd you get started in music?

I grew up in a very interesting household.  It was always full of people as we had pretty much an open door policy.  I was the youngest of 4 children and the only girl.  My father was an intellect and a very unique person with little or no interest in music, but my mother loved music of all genres and always had the record player on and was dancing around the house constantly.   We used to gather around the TV every week in anticipation of “Top of the Pops” to see the latest songs on offer and each of my brothers took to something different, so the music was always varied.  At the age of fourteen I learnt a couple of songs on the piano and at the age of seventeen I picked up my first guitar, writing only one song, and subsequently putting it down and not picking it back up til much later.  For many years I didn’t have much to do with music as my main interest became surfing but  I did my fair share of Karaokes, but really did nothing else other than sing in the shower for years and years.   After a battle with Leukemia in 2009, and a subsequent Bone Marrow Transplant in 2010, I guess I just decided that I should really fulfil this dream of performing and so sort out a local band.  My first band never got out of the rehearsal room and the next band, “Rifflover” (a rock band), was the polar opposite, and within two weeks of joining them I was out singing 3 songs at an open mic with them, albeit very nervously.  Several months later and lots of practice we were out and were getting gigs.  As my confidence grew I started playing a baritone Ukulele and was writing my own songs and performing at local open mics on my own, as well as gigging with the band.   I found that I had a knack for writing songs and when I started to play guitar, thought that I would take some lessons from a local musician called James Henderson.  Never having really been a conventional person, and always wanting to run before I could walk, I asked James if he could teach me some nice little twiddly bits to go into a song that I had just written.  I played for him and he immediately asked me if I wanted to record it.   So the lessons really went out of the window and James helped me by playing and recording the track for me to sing over, very successfully.  I was hooked, I wanted my own band, and that’s when “UNSPOKEN” was born in January of 2009, and since we have gone from strength to strength, and the songs keep on coming.  Just recently I did my very first performance as a solo artist with my less rocky numbers and hope to pursue that too.

Who are your inspirations or influences?

From an early age my biggest love of music was Elvis.  Bit of an Elvis nut honestly, and I guess that’s why I sing with a low voice, years of singing along to Elvis.   At the age of 12 my parents took me to my first concert to see “Don McClean” at Newcastle Town Hall and I was hooked on live performance.  Don McClean has since been a firm favourite.  In more recent years I have developed a fixation with “Nick Harper”, a brilliant UK acoustic artist.  As for rock bands “Free” is a firm favourite and we do perform several covers from Free, but my all time favourite band has to be “Pearl Jam” and have seen them several times.  “Soundgarden” is another favourite and I am sad to say that I never got to see them, but have written a song dedicated to Chris Cornell on his demise.   I am very good at empathising with events and people and find a lot of inspiration comes from others, drawing inspiration from all corners of life.  I think that music is one of the biggest outlets for emotions and find it very cathartic.

What advice would offer aspiring performers?

Feel the fear and do it anyway and remember your failures help you to grow, so try not to be disheartened by them, but learn what doesn’t work and move forward, and always, always perform to your very best standard whether you are performing in front of a crowd, or only a handful of people, always give 100 percent, you never know who is watching, and always keep it real, keep it true to who you are.

Any new gigs or albums in the future?

We only have a couple of gigs left for this year, one, an acoustic performance at a local pub doing a mix of covers and originals and then a bigger gig at TRILLIONS in Newcastle as a support slot for “Four Colour Ghosts” where we will be doing all originals.   We are hoping to get back into the studio soon to record as we have more than enough material for an album now, and I also have some solo 

I wish them nothing but luck in their career & their success so until then I'll catch you on the flipside, Stay awesome & rock n roll!