I was born in Nova Scotia, Canada where my dad was training to be a fleet air-arm pilot for the Canadian Navy. My mom was a prison camp survivor, captured as a child in Java when war broke out. They met and fell in love in London, and just before my tenth birthday they returned there, but this time with my three brothers and me in tow. We had moved around a lot during my childhood, and this was to be my dad's last official posting.

We quickly settled into the English countryside and way of life. At weekends my parents' friends always seemed to be dropping by and more often than not a party atmosphere would develop - my dad playing jazz and blues on the piano in a haze of cigarette smoke, with me sitting beside him absorbed in the magic. By the age of eleven my own practice time at the piano gave way to improvising around melodies, and I started to write songs about emotions and experiences I was yet to have.

Steely Dan and Ricky Lee Jones made big impressions on me musically and lyrically during my teens, and my free time was occupied by catching up with those prescient "emotions and experiences", pouring them into new songs and recording demos at a friend's home studio. I was fortunate that there were a couple of good music venues nearby, so I went to gigs most Saturday nights after whiling away the afternoon browsing in the only record shop in town. When I was seventeen I met a songwriter who was living in London and I spent most weekends up there experiencing a musician's life and going to recording studios. Suddenly school seemed pointless as I knew what I was going to do and couldn't wait to get started.

I enrolled in a music college and supported myself partly by singing on demos for a publishing company. Somehow the tapes were heard by Mike Scott who asked me down to the recording studio to sing on a few tracks which ended up on The Waterboys' album "A Pagan Place". Prior to that I'd landed a gig with the legendary Jack Bruce and Friends, opening for The Police at a huge stadium in Germany. It was like getting early confirmation for my decision to follow a path in music... and my parents were feeling less anxious too!  After college I was introduced to the Fun Boy Three as a backing vocalist and keyboard player and spent the next year recording and touring with them to promote the "Waiting" album produced by David Byrne. They were at the height of their popularity by then and trying to break America, so I got a taste of what success - and all its pressures - felt like. An active session singing career followed, and I was encouraged to become more creatively involved with other bands and artists I'd met through work and out clubbing. Being on the road and recording with a diversity of talent rekindled my original objective to write and perform my own material, but with a different approach.

Dance and electronic music had definitely become influences on me, and though I think of myself first and foremost as a songwriter, I wanted to explore the possibilities of mixing up my songs and lyrics with beats and samples to see where they could go. I formed a band with a couple of like-minded friends and within six months of being together we had a deal with Virgin Records. Left to our own devices we ended up producing and recording our debut album in London and New York, with mixes by Freddy Bastone and Arthur Baker and making a video in Los Angeles. Through the whole experience I think we'd all found our strengths and directions...they just happened to be different from each other's. We went our separate ways and I slipped back into doing sessions and touring again.

I kept writing and recording and subsequently signed a solo deal with Warner Bros Records. On hearing an EP by Skylab I felt Howie B was the right producer for me and he kindly agreed to do a few songs. DJ Muggs and Goldie delivered exceptional mixes of the title track "Bee Charmer" and as a result, produced further tracks on the album. My record was promoted by several videos (one of which I got to film in Mali), a national UK tour supporting Morcheeba, and solo dates in Europe.

As well as writing songs for film and TV productions here and in the US, I have since collaborated with the Japanese electronica outfit Silent Poets on their album "For Nothing", and with the experimental drum'n'bass outfit Mao.

My album "Love Runs Faster" is released on the 'dacoda' label and is a collection of songs moving between different moods and genres. Recorded and produced with Barry Flynn, who was also involved on "Bee Charmer", it includes contributions by musicians I've had the good fortune to meet and work with along the way.

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