In my final year of school I had something of a transition of interests. My passion for skateboarding, skateboard design and skateboarding videos which had consumed me for much of my school years, gave way to my new obsession with Tommy Emmanuel and the acoustic guitar.
By the time my GCSEs were over and the summer hols rolled gloriously in, I had many finger style guitar pieces written and was beginning to learn how to record them myself at home on Cubase. I loved the process of retreating into my headphones and zoning right in to the inconsistencies of my playing and trying to achieve the perfect take (and learning there’s no such thing).
I was transfixed by clever arrangements using the independent thumb technique pioneered by Chet Atkins and, I hope, anchored in musicality by the ideologies and sheer soul of Tommy Emmanuel’s playing and YouTube teachings (a brand new phenomenon!).
It was a time of branching out in terms of my musical listening and I like how there are so many different styles represented on the album, from gypsy jazz, through the Celtic traditions to pop and the prog rock of my dad’s collection where my interest in sound began.
I revelled too, in the packaging of my creations into an album, obsessing over the track order, design and production. On my typewriter I made typed up sheets of background info on all the tracks, inspired by the extensive backstories to my favourite albums. See the image.