“… One of my teachers first introduced me to the likes of Queen, Booker T, Little Richard and others because they thought It’d be a good musical/keyboard education. Looking back, I have to say, even though I didn’t care much for it at the time, they definitely weren’t wrong. The first musician to leave a lasting impression on me was Brian Setzer and his orchestra. I first got into rock n roll after seeing Jerry Lee Lewis set a piano on fire, but I was amazed at the mixed rockabilly / big band sound. It was completely fresh to me and now any good playlist has to have their versions of ‘Mystery Train’, ‘The House is Rockin’ and ‘Rock this Town’ or it’s not worth listening to.
It wasn’t until a lot later on that I realised how diverse ‘rock music’ really is: legends like Dream Theatre, Dire Straits and Porcupine Tree are all big inspirations for me. I once wrote some songs with my mate where we tried (badly) to recreate the sort of sounds you’d hear on a Nine Inch Nails track… We’re still waiting for that project to take off. Luckily by the time I was doing regular gigs I’d gotten a lot better at my instrument!
Despite the constant pressures we face against people who believe we should spend more time leading ‘normal lives’ (which seems pretty boring from what I hear), I can’t imagine myself not going on tour and playing music. For me, there’s no greater feeling than seeing a great band absolutely killing it on stage which is exactly what Blackwater Conspiracy is all about. The first time I played through the songs it felt like I was going home to my rock n roll roots and I love having the NWOCR crowd to fall back on and discover new artists carrying the baton for rock n roll.”