History

My interest in music began at about the age of 5 when I found a melodica (a wind instrument with piano like keys) in a cupboard at home. I soon figured out a few simple songs on my own, namely Do, Ra, Mi and Fraro Jacques. Not too much was made of this until I reached the age of 10 when my parents bought me a keyboard and I started going for piano lessons. Learning music the classical way, I did exams through the royal School of Music and Trinity College and went on the do my grade 7 exam. By the time it came to do grade 8, I had found an interest in a new musical instrument, my Mom's old guitar.

At first I found it quite difficult to play to guitar and was ready to give up quite soon, but after a bit of perseverance things started to pay off. At the age of 17 I wrote his first song, Caught In A Trap.

In my first year of university I became friends with Chris Houston through a shared interest in music. I also bought my first electric guitar, a Hohner Rockwood. Chris had always fancied being a bassist and on a trip to Seattle bought himself a second hand Ibanez. We used to play together in res, but never really got a band going. Chris also didn't return to university for a second year.

Second year came and I had written a few songs by now and was ready to start a proper band. A friend of mine, Gilad Hockman (now a member of the legendary Buckfever Underground), joined up as the bassist. He didn't have his own bass so he practiced the lines on his guitar. We were going to play our first gig with him doing all the lines on his guitar, but fortunately one of the other bands lent him their bass. It was the first time he had ever played a bass. We also didn't have a drummer yet and so recruited our friend Jon Savage (also now a member of Buckfever Underground and MD of Kryptonite Productions). Himself not a drummer, but rather a guitarist in drummer's clothing. All in all the first gig went relatively well. We played our 4 songs and the crowd were duly impressed. We soon recruited a permanent drummer, got a second guitarist and christened the band LURK. The highlight in LURK's short career came when we supported to Dolly Rockers on their gig in Grahamstown. The band ended with a appropriate band as on the last chord of the last song LURK ever played the speaker stack on the right had side of the stage crashed to the ground.

During the course of that year I also played in a covers duo called Savage Woods with the aforementioned Jonathan Savage. This partnership led to the forming of a new band the following year, Karmik Drink.

Karmik Drink was a five piece with a female vocalist, with all the songs being written by Jon and Myself. We came second in the battle of the bands competition that year at university and at the end of that year we went on a national tour. Which was pretty good considering that we survived to singers and two drummers, we managed to stick together through it all.

The following year, this is now my fourth year at university, Jon and I went about putting the band back together. Having struggled to find a new replacement singer we decided to let Jon sing the songs and we decided to find a new bassist due to, let say personality differences with the old one. The new band was called Liquid and we started this off by performing at the Wingerdstock music festival in Cape Town. We also came second in the battle of the bands competition on campus and supported a number of visiting rock acts to the campus. However all things must come to an end and having finished my degree headed back home to Johannesburg.

I first of all tried to start a band with a drum and bass DJ, I wanted to try out something a bit different. However that soon fell apart. It was soon after that that I was contacted by a band called Rob The Train. They were looking for a guitarist who could sing, play bass and possibly also piano. I was their man. Rob The Train played a number of gigs around Johannesburg, was interviewed on radio, both national and regional and even appeared on national television with our own home made music video. However that was to be our peak. Tension started to creep into the band and people were obviously not happy. We decided to take a break, and have since never played together again.

To fill the gap I started a duo with a friend from work, Keaton Davis, called The Third Man. We played a few gigs, mostly in a whole run my an ex mercenary, but mostly just did it for fun.

It was about this time that I bought myself a studio sound card and started working on a number of songs at home. The few songs eventually became a full album of twenty tracks that went under the name of "Are Their Spirits Here?". With nothing to lose I sent off my CD to BMG Records Africa who liked it enough to offer me a recording contract. However I had just accepted a contract to teach guitar at Appel Farm Arts and Music Center in New Jersey and would have to put things on hold for a few months.

On my return to Johannesburg BMG were ready to go ahead with discussing the deal, but suggested that I perhaps try my luck in lands further a field. The South African rock scene is very small, in fact by world terms its tiny, and though BMG could release an album, chances are I would never be able to make a living at it in SA.

So on there advice I now find myself in London. Well actually I found myself in London two and a half years ago. Soon after arriving and having gotten the boring stuff out of the way like finding a job and a place to live, I set about forming a band.

The first person to join was a guy from Essex by the name of Nick. Can't remember the guys last name. I decided to have a hand at playing bass for a change as my main instrument and so recruited Richard Welch on vocals and guitar. We had a few practices with this line-up, but due to personality clashed between Richard and Nick, Richard left the band. I then took over as vocalist and guitarist and Rob Masterton joined the band as the bassist.

We named the band J Cubed and soon recorded a demo called the Lights EP. We played a number of gigs around London and had one of our songs, Sleep, on a Matchbox Recordings compilation. However after a personality clashed between myself and Nick, Nick left the band.

In the meantime, I was sending out demos to publishers to see if I could get a song writing deal. One of those demos ended up in Austria where a company called TMP picked it up and offered me a publishing deal. They also offered to record one of the bands songs as a single with the view to working on an album.

With a potential deal we quickly recruited Sophia Erikson on drums. Sophia was our vegan, female Swedish drummer. Things went pretty well with Sophia and she soon learnt all the songs and added her own touch to the sound.

However just as things started to look up, we hit a few snags. Sophia got tired of living in London though, and after a few months left the band to return to Sweden. TMP also lost their investors in the record label and so had to pull out of discussions about the recording and publishing contracts.

Just before Sophia left we recorded the drum tracks to a about 10 songs and I set up another home recording studio. I took her drum tracks back home and set about recording a J Cubed album. A number of tracks from those sessions are nearly finished now and are due to be sent off to record companies soon.

Having lost Sophia we recruited drummer number 3 to the band. Nathaniel White. Nat added a new punchiness to the sound and from our first gig to our second things were really looking up. We were playing at our best ever. Though, as seems to be J Cubed's fate Nat felt that he couldn't be fully committed to the band and has so left us.

Its now just Rob and Myself in the band, but don't worry, you'll be seeing us playing live again soon. In the meantime we are sending out demos to labels, writing a few more songs and putting a bit more time into promoting the music before we once again unleash it onto an unsuspecting crowd.