BIOGRAPHY
London-based, Midlands-born drummer, educator and composer for stage and screen
Recently I’ve been working more and more as a composer for stage and screen, with projects including the soundtrack for the award winning animated short film "The Fell We Climb” and a new musical theatre show about Teenage Jiu Jitsu Suffragettes in development where the title song has already been nominated for the 2023 Stiles + Drewe Best New Song Prize.
I was born in Sutton Coldfield, just north of Birmingham, and displayed from as young as 4 a keen interest in drumming.
After 5 more years and several broken knitting needles later, lessons began along with enrolment as a marching drummer in the local Boys Brigade and Cub Scout bands.
Birmingham’s Music Service was and still is very vast, advanced and demanding and I soon became actively involved not just as a drummer but also as a back line percussionist - but it was always the drum kit that was the most comfortable and while taking the chair in Birmingham Schools’ Jazz and Big Bands respectively, I began tutelage under Malcolm Garret from the Royal Conservatoire.
I composed my first pieces of music for GCSE and A level music and I've never stopped writing, composing and arranging.
An interest in acting and Musical Theatre took me in a different direction as an early adult, receiving a 2.1 BA Hons degree in performing arts from the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, but I capitalised on my first love and my interest in the stage by joining the cast of STOMP.
As well as being an original member of the London cast and world tours of STOMP, I've also appeared in London and European tours of De la Guarda and Buddy – The Buddy Holly Story – before settling in London permanently where I eventually reconnected with my love of composing and producing.
In 2016 after years of self-education as a music creator I decided to hang up my full time STOMP boots and engage fully in the craft of bespoke music creation.
I have composed for Lad Bible, Kartoffle Animation Studios, Argos, and Milks Gone Bad productions along with a few library placements for Oook Audio and SCORED.
I work in LOGIC X with several 3rd party plugins and industry standard sample libraries including Spitfire Audio, East West, Heavyocity, Cine Samples, Output, Native Instruments, Sound Toys, WAVES and FabFilter to name but a few.
My musical inspirations cover stage, screen, rock and pop including Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Gershwin, Bernard Herrmann, John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Howard Shore, Danny Elfman, Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin, Michael Jackson, Prince, Omar, Abba, The Beatles, The Who and much much more.
I also work in education as a music practitioner for Haringey Shed – an inclusive youth theatre company, and Brent Youth Theatre Company where I have composed 2 children’s musicals. I'm also a peripatetic drum kit teacher, music IT teacher, and Body Percussion teacher for Waltham Forest Council, as well as a teacher for a select group of home-schooled drummers. When not composing or teaching, I can be spotted anywhere in the UK as a session drummer for various function and tribute bands.