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I was once told by a good friend not to reflect my life away and only look forward - good advice... I still need closure and though I may not be a blogger per se, this could be it...
I am around 12 years old... I have just formed my first bands '2on1' and 'ADHW'.
From this moment, I start continuously writing with whatever equipment I can use.
I'm in my penultimate year of High School - I have a hundred degree temperature, I'm performing my very first gig as a Pianist - and I'm severely nervous...
A shy, introverted, 3-year Straight A student and school nerd gets through the night.
I am taken aback by a live music scene right under my nose and run by a selective panel which all seem to join in one place - I want in... I have to grow up fast, adolescents are commonly guilty until proven innocent - but in my case, sometimes the innocence was consensually taken by the teachers...
Fast forward to Uni, after spending a number of years as an adolescent recording Jungle, Drum & Bass, European Hardcore and House music, I am now a gigging Drummer, I am playing Piano, have just taken up Bass and decide to play a few guitar chords...
Point Of Note... JC Larkin.
Confident of my newfound abilities which also including Artwork design, I record some demos with some 4-track and 8-track recording equipment I have saved up for and purchased, I record a series of songs for a project - The Versatile Experience.
Point Of Note... Rafael Perez
It's the new Millenium...
I am now working with my excellent singer cousin, producing his material, while still working on my own new material. I purchase a Vocoder wanting 2 sound like the late Roger Troutman... -
The Jungle days are over... I want to make some music with some real instruments paying homage to those I used 2 listen to. The Herbie Hancocks, Weather Reports, Omar... - listen@room.temperature.
I now have graduated, but under a cloud of unhappiness, rage, sadness, loss and vulnerability I stop recording and leave every project I'm involved with - But I still needed an outlet.
I have founded my own production company, I'm recording for artists in the UK and US via Internet which compared to nowadays and even then, was horribly slow!
With my new custom computer, backlashing lyrics and a new stripped-down sound,
songs about Jealousy, Controversy, relationship envy and malice manifest - Enemy 2 The Jealous is borne out of a statement I once said to my Mother about an introvert who was tired of being pushed around.
However on a lighter note, around this time I was doing well with a successful group who got sucked into the covers band vacuum - Sirocco Rituals...
Point of note... U know who U are
I did my first long tour ever to the mountains - a real eye opener which made me feel good about myself once again.
I came back and was asked to play my dream gig at Glastonbury festival that year (I would do this for another two years) and surrounded by open-minded musicians, I was inspired to write with a jovial manner.
I had resources to the technology that was needed and additional musicians to recreate sounds in my head that eventually resulted in a 17-track renaissance - A Journey In2 The RetroFuturistic - RetroFuturistic being a term I memorably 'borrowed' from a lecturer talking about '2001: A Space Odyssey'.
The biggest honour from this album came from a fact that one of the songs 'Jaco' - about Jaco Pastorius, was heard, acknowledged and respected by the family of the great Bass player and Rhonda Smith who was currently touring with Prince, sent me a personal e-mail stating that she liked my music.
I decide to take another break, but before I do, I want to try something different - a HipHop project. I record 10 different instrumentals and have found my ideal rapper.
two tracks make it onto a commercial compilation, but sadly I aborted the rest of the project.
I DID take time off to make a filmshort which is still my only one to date. A glorified 'pub crawl' around the areas that I frequent and had a lot of 'stroke' around at the time hence the name 'Drecountry' - a blatant sendup of Princes 'Uptown'.
Eventually, I closed down my company and refused to record for any more artists, so that I could concentrate what was to arguably be my most successful project to date... I'd be back in the studio, I formed my own girl band in tandem and heavily inspired by Maxwell and Floetry among others, Tales From The Funky Jam Suite is recorded.
point of note... John O'neill
I would spend the next few years with funk band Harambe, recording and touring with them as frontman - consequently forgetting, I still need to do my own material because I enjoyed the Harambe experience.
My brother at this time, is planning to take us out of what is now ubiquitously known as the 'Dyer Family Basement' by which, many session musicians have played... and make it public.
As a result, My Brother and I, alongside longtime cohorts start a unit which would eventually revolutionise Soul Jams as we know it today - Stone Jam... named after a unanimously favourite album by a band from Dayton, Ohio called 'Slave'.
I would eventually drop out and become a part-time member while Stone Jam would evolve - focussing more on Harambe and eventually dropping out of Sirocco Rituals - a Funk/Rock band consisting of Saiful Alam, whom was once part of the DreZone roster and incidentally performed on the same night as my first gig in High School and ended up studying together with (including Corinne Bailey Rae's future tour Drummer Samuel Agard).
The other member Dave Beauclerr, engineered the live sessions for the Tales From The Funky Jam Suite album and his father Alan Bunclark served as a nuturing mentor towards the technical aspects of my drumming... to say when Alan passed away was a serious blow is a radical understatement.
Sirocco Rituals evolved and consequently what has come to be known as 'Short Skirtz'...
I started writing a lot of Rock and NuSoul (more the former than the latter) and felt that after so many years predominantly as a singer, I was being restrained...
I parted ways with Short Skirtz... not too long later, I parted ways with Harambe.
Through splits and jaded nature, 10.1 was finally released with all tracks being numbers with the .1 suffix.
I didn't want to create a commercial album, I just needed a serious JazzFusion fix.
By now, doors were openig, but others were closing - by now, I'm a far cry from the nervous nerd you never heard and I can say that for myself.
Harambe and I still play - we even supported Dr. John 10 months after the parting of ways.
Because of my 'reinstatement' in Short Skirtz, I am now an award-winning Drummer...
I've even played for and met Prince Of Wales who has acknowledged my work.
point of note... John Du Prez
oh and Robin Williams calls me 'Mr. President'!
I have done a lot, yet there is so much more I know I can do and wish I can do.
Maybe I should write about it...
'dre
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