Mix Engineer & Composer
I was born in Windsor Ontario Canada in 1969. My Father was trained as a Cathedral Organist/Choirmaster & Harpsichordist at Guild Hall London and my Mother taught Ballet. Both had been active in local drama societies. The family returned to their native England in the early 70’s and then we came to Australia in 1974.
As a very young child, I was fascinated by my Father’s record collection and his monophonic valve Hi-Fi. It wasn’t long before I was listening to music of my own (Neil Diamond’s “Jonathan Livingston Seagull”, Holst’s “The Planets” and then “Best of” Jan & Dean). My brothers brought pop music into the house with little AM radios. I listened to the Top 40 and developed some favorites. We also watched the now famous Countdown TV show on Sundays and that introduced me to Rock & Roll as a visual style. The New Wave artists like Adam Ant, Joan Jett, and Duran Duran really caught my attention and I feel set me for life.
My Father built harpsichords for a while when I was a teenager and I helped him design and build these very special instruments. When leaving school I wanted to be a record producer just like Alan Parsons. I spent some time in studios but opportunities didn’t seem to be there for me. To have material to work on I bought myself a Casio CZ-1000 synth and started experimenting with it. Soon I was composing my own pieces.
I started writing New Wave style songs that were strongly influenced by the Hi-NRG that I was hearing in nightclubs. That quickly expanded into EBM Industrial under the name Aeroplastic Voice. On the side, I was commissioned to write some more laid back ‘meditation’ music. I flirted with Metal as Destructor Creator Destructor. I then slipped back to pure electronic music as Column 3-57. Eventually, I dropped pseudonyms to work under my own name.
I knew the bride when she used to rock and roll
Between about 1989 & 1993 my Demo Tapes (yep cassettes) got me phone calls from several mid-size Independent Record Companies (with distribution channels through Majors) who wanted to talk. One was even talking a backing band centered around a guitarist I knew from Uni (who was to go Top 40 a few years later with another band – most of whom I knew).
Sadly with each label I spoke to, it ended with one partner wanting me but the other not. I will always remember one label owner having to make the phone call where he sheepishly admitted that while he really wanted me, his partner had made the proclamation “No Techno shit!” and he had put me in that basket (despite my music not being Techno at all).
Later dealings with labels always went the same. Really eager, then “Sorry we love you but”: no money, not the sound, people aren’t buying… Eventually, the doors just closed and I stopped sending tapes, CDs, mp3s.
I didn’t give up making music or even working on understanding what makes music work or not work. Fashions have come & gone (Rock, Disco, Punk, New Wave, Rap, Glam Metal, House, Grunge, Hip Hop, Death Metal, Girl Bands, EDM, emo, Idol contests, AutoTune, Hipster…) but none of them matter, the core of what makes great music is the same.
I composed for several short films “27th” and “The Extraordinaries of Food”. One of my pieces was also used for a promotional film for a community center. In 2010 I scored for the short film “Unrepentant” which was a joy to work on for the interesting subject and scope I was allowed to be ‘interesting’. Unrepentant has won several awards in film festivals including a “Best Music Score” from Wildsound 2011 for my input. “Out Of The Box” got another two awards in 2019.
Musical Influences (condensed)
Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, Duran Duran, Gary Numan, Ultravox, Japan, The Human League, Icehouse, Alan Parsons, Patrick Cowley, Psychedelic Furs, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Seger, Hank Williams (Ole Hank), Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakam, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden
There is an interview with me at the ResonantFilter Blog
This one is more recent and you hear my voice Teflon Tomb Interview
One on the musician site Drooble Musician Interview
I now live on the sunny Gold Coast in Australia with my partner IT Expert & Author, Jane Stockwell and our girls. I also offer Tarot Counselling. If you think that last’s not very R&R look up how many records from the 70’s & 80’s were made about Tarot and related subjects – I ain’t arguing with Rainbow, Iron Maiden, Mike Batt…
I put this video together for a song on an album of mine from 1992. It is about how I realized that part of my life was closing (see above). I think I did this because someone was refusing to accept that I ever almost got signed as a singer. I think he then said this was utter shit so he had other reasons either way. Why are people so mean?