Vision
A Place
Music is a presence and a place inside us. The composer Phillip Glass said: ‘[music] is a place which is as real as Chicago, or Sydney or any place you’ve been to. It’s an absolute, actual place and once you know where that place is, you can go there’.
In my tribute song to Nick Drake called ‘A Golden Thread’, music leads ‘to another world.’ For those who dwell on the magic of the evening air / Do not despair / music’s everywhere’.
Sometimes at the end of a piece of music or song, we have a feeling of being ‘suspended in time’. The present moment becomes ‘physically extended’ and ‘drawn out’, as we reside in a sense of heightened awareness.
A Language Without Words
Music is a language that lays all bare. Emotions, soul and experience. It’s a unique language without words that reaches deep within all of us. We are never alone as long as we have music with us.
Music From Afar
The ancient Greeks believed the planets revolved around the earth, creating a ‘divine music’ which was inaudible to mortals. I found a metaphor here for inspiration. It is when a ‘mortal’ hears this music for a second – before it’s gone! A momentary and sudden music ‘from afar’ becomes inspiration and creativity for us as songwriters.
Influences
The coastline, coves and windswept cliffs of Cornwall are the inspiration for many of my early songs. ‘Heading for the Shore’ was my first ever song about the ocean and how life is enjoying the journey rather than reaching the destination. The tide creates an ever-changing marine landscape, and the sea is a metaphor for life in all its movements and changes
Peter Gabriel was an influence on me for his diverse musical creativity, passion and experimentation. However, my greatest inspiration was Nick Drake, whose subtle and laconic songs combine intensity and attention to detail with a carefree touch and spontaneity. There is an ‘otherworld’ quality to this music that seems to come from a lost age. His lyrical ballads are timeless and unfettered by any musical ‘style’.