About
John was born in 1977 and grew up surrounded by music. Growing up in the countryside surrounded by bird song, he remembers this as the first music he heard and still influences his songs today. Without a television for most of his childhood he explored his dads record collection and says “I was inspired particulary by Lynyrd Skynrd and Grateful Dead records. Being vinyl, I studied the record covers and loved the sound of this old format” The 80’s music scene did not really inspire John and with his uncle introducing him to AC/DC,it changed his musical world forever. He recalls, ‘I remember getting the High Voltage and Powerage records off my uncle and soon bought the whole back catalogue, simply the best rock band on the planet’.
During his school years his brother started playing the guitar and for the first time John started singing and writing lyrics “It was like punk, melodic rock” he recalls. Soon he formed a band with his brother and a friend and wrote over 20 songs, playing 1 gig to friends and family he says “we were pretty good as my brother is a really good guitarist, but due to musical differences we split up.”
During the 90s John attended college and was exposed to many different forms of music, particulary the alternative music scene. He says, “Grunge came along in the 90s and changed everything, and after hearing porch by Pearl Jam, I got into the whole Seattle scene”. With this inspiration he and his brother formed a band at college, but did not last long and went their seperate ways
The rave scene was also big in the 90s, particulary psychedelic trance and drum and bass. And instead of playing guitars everyone was on the mixing desks. But John did not mind, “I loved the trance scene it created a whole sub-culture, away from corporate control”. With this introduction to dance music his brother formed an electronic outfit with his friend, leaving John to head out on his own. “I started playing guitar and after hearing the albums “No Code” and “Yield” by Pearl Jam, I knew what I wanted to do
After playing basss for four of five years John decided to take up the guitar, learning basic chords on his mum’s old guitar. It was a profound period of soul searching and through the exploration of mystic literature and pagan cycles, his early material was a representation of this intense spiritual experience. Though the early songs were slight imitations of his influence, the ground was set to explore more. Through a major setback with life in 1999, he found the strength to come through to read books profusely, leading hom to the guitar again. He bought his acoustic in 2001. So the groundwork was set he self recorded his first songs from a four track,songs such as Mindset and Can We Live Together showed improved confidence.
This eventually led to his first Ep in 2005 called ‘Red Sky’, a tribute to the Native American Indians, who’s struggle surfaced in many of his songs. With a website designed kindly bu his brother, he continued to record his first album ‘Nibiru’ in 2005, with songs such as Isolated & galaxies from 2005 to 2008 it proved to be a very productive period, a release of countless songs, with the albums, Mysterious Circles (2006) and Vimanas in 2008. Johns songs refelcted an empathy and understanding of social injustice, from the indigenous struggleto an anti-war stance, particulary the Iraq war happening at that time.
Esoteric influence surfaced on his fourth album ‘As Above, So Below’ realeased in 2011, through literature & alternative news footage, the hidden aspect of human culture interested him. Songs such as Celestial Sphere and Hidden reflect this, there was an ancient profound history to humanity and infinite space is a part reflective in this. Times changed suddenly in 2012, with his mum diagnosed with Cancer.
John managed to record a concept album called ‘Hegelian Dialectic’, about a mans struggle with insanity & his corruption of the soul, selling out! It also contained on eof his best songs called Memories a tribute to his mum and played at her funeral in 2014. With this great loss music became a lifeline & songs were a form of therapy. With his sixth album ‘Lullaby’ set for release, John says ‘everything in life happens for a reason’, however unsettling and tearful, it makes us who we are. I like to think people leave a legacy & this surfaces in most artisitc ventures. Love conquers all & our bodies are just vehicles for this life, it’s just a small part.
