Bio
I'm a British guitarist and songwriter, born and raised in London. Some of my earliest musical memories were from my grandfather, a farmer who used to make musical pipes out of reeds with a penknife. One of these pipes was my first instrument, followed by a mouth organ, another gift from my grandfather. I had piano lessons when I was seven but got hooked on the guitar when I was fourteen or so.
I absorbed a lot of different music growing up, mainly from the second-hand Tape & Record Exchange in Camden Town - Rock, 80's synth, Soul, Classical, Folk, Jazz, Prog Rock and a dose of Heavy Metal. I slept outside Hammersmith Odeon once to get front row tickets for Iron Maiden. I have Nikko McBrain's drumstick in my drawer and a Tommy Lee drumstick too. I saw Ozzy Osbourne front row at Hammersmith Odeon with Jake E Lee soloing in front of my nose - I plucked plectrums from his pickguard. They were purple and had his autograph on them. I met BB King once backstage at Hammersmith too, and in the same year had a jam with Huw Lloyd-Langton from Hawkwind.
But as an acoustic/folk guitarist I was possibly most blown away watching Jerry Donahue playing The Claw on a telecaster and hearing Jorma Kaukonen's Embryonic Journey for the first time. Possibly the earliest songs I loved were from an 8-track of the magical Bridge Over Troubled Water.
I released my first EP of acoustic pieces at the end of 2015. It was a pretty rough affair, home-recorded, but received some positive feedback from folk and indie reviewers - notably Tim Carroll at FolkWords and the Italian music journalist and biographer Giancarlo Susanna.
In 2018 I crossed paths with some brilliant players - Steve Lodder (keyboards), Davide Mantovani (bass), Marc Parnell (drums) and Steve Waterman (trumpet) who I've been fortunate to record with since. First on my single Give Me Your Horse - with the great Guy Pratt on bass - and then on my debut album Fag Ash and Beer (2019) followed by Always Seeking (2023). The latter had guest performances by the wonderful Kate Kurdyak (vocals) and the phenomenal John Etheridge (lead guitar). In between albums, I released mainly solo guitar / vocal pieces. I write and record more than playing live - if there are any shows I'll update my mailing list - feel free to join, below, if you’d like to stay in the loop.
I've recorded some new material which I hope to release as an album, or long EP in the not-too-distant-future. I've released three singles from the album - Watery Moon, Duel and It'll Be Alright (October 10th).
Also see:- Q & A with Darren Johnson in June 2023 after the release of "Always Seeking". Darren also interviewed me in December 2019 after my debut album.