When I Used to Be Brave Enough to Play Live The Finsbury, London — 10 May 2023 I found some old photos recently that made me wonder slightly what happened to me. They’re from an open mic night at The Finsbury back in May 2023. There I am, guitar in hand, actually standing in front of real people and playing music. Voluntarily. Which feels slightly unbelievable now. I wasn’t exactly confident back then. I remember being ridiculously nervous beforehand. I’d spend the whole day

Most of my songs start with words. Usually a line appears in my head, refuses to leave, and eventually I have to do something with it. You’re A Little Too Close was completely different. This one started with a feeling. I was on holiday on one of those ridiculously hot, slightly sweaty summer evenings. There was a real Latin feel to the music around me and this little tune appeared in my head. Naturally, instead of just enjoying my holiday like a normal person, I started reco

I thought writing songs was supposed to be the difficult part. Then I released one and discovered I was also expected to tell people about it. Repeatedly. This, it turns out, is not my natural habitat. I can happily spend hours with a guitar playing the same few chords over and over again. I can rewrite one line fifteen times because one word doesn’t quite feel right. I can record something, listen back, change my mind, change it back again and somehow convince myself that th

I Bought a Double Bass. This Was Probably a Mistake. I’m not entirely sure when “it would be nice to play double bass again” became “I should buy a double bass.” But apparently it did. I found one for sale and, rather than doing the sensible thing and thinking about it for a few days, I went to see it. That was probably my first mistake. Because once I’d played it, I was obviously going to buy it. Which led to a problem I had somehow failed to consider until that exact moment