Early Days
I grew up in a creative and musical family. My mother taught me to sing as an infant with 'singing games' at bath time. I began playing instruments with the recorder at primary school at about seven adding the violin at nine. Whilst at primary school I won the Newark Rotary Club String Player of the Year award and the following year the Musician of the Year playing the recorder. I also won first place in the Piano Accompaniment section of the Grantham Music Festival playing violin. I picked up my first electric guitar when I was ten and began practicing more seriously when I started secondary school.
Inspirations
My musical influences are varied: David Gilmour, Jimmy Page, Matt Bellamy, Eric Clapton, John Etheridge, and Gary Moore. Current classical influences are Marjan Mozetich( 'Affairs of the Heart'), and Henryk Gorecki ('Symphony No3'), Vivaldi, Greig, Beethoven, Schostakovich, and Brahms, (I also 'borrowed' a great 'guitar riff' from Henry VIII)!
Early Days
A special mention here is needed to my primary school teacher Vicky Thorpe who mentored me through the Young Musician of the Year and taught me so much about how to use phrasing and dynamics when interpreting and performing music.
At secondary school I was a member of The Southwell Minster School's String Group, and School Orchestra and became leader of the orchestra and principal violinist. The programme of material was technically challenging, this really stretched and developed my playing abilities. The orchestra provided me with opportunities to perform abroad and to become more independent. I toured Europe three times with them, playing venues in Austria, in the St Mark's Basilica, Venice, toured southern Provence, and performed in the Czech Republic. I'll always be grateful to Duncan Lloyd, my Head and Director of Music at The Minster School Southwell for organising these inspirational performance opportunities.
Harddrive
Together with friends at school we formed the band Harddrive, it's here that I first began to explore writing my own music. I wrote 'Totally Fused' which we recorded as single in 2006, and on the strength of this we were chosen to open Newark's 'Live and Local' Music Festival in 2007. We also played live on local radio.
When Harddrive split (the usual musical differences) I began working on my own material and playing gigs with friends. |
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Performance and Recording
Duncan Lloyd is passionate about encouraging young musicians, through him, in my final years at school I joined the Southwell Ensemble (I still play for them whenever my schedule permits). My first concert was to support the Southwell Choral Society in their performance of Eternal Light - A Requiem by Howard Goodall.
The Tree of Life by Albert Marshall, and
The Darkling Thrush by William Handysides.
In 2010 a local studio, Extreme Music Studio, asked me to work with singer and musician Ian Moore on tracks for his new CD. A fantastic learning experience and a great opportunity for me to develop my skills in improvisation, playing, composition and performance.
During the Autumn and Spring of 2010/11 I joined other musicians under the direction of Henry Burnett to perform in his charity production 'A night at the Musicals'. We had four sell out shows in Mansfield, Nottingham, and Southwell.
'I also 'borrowed' a great 'guitar riff' from Henry VIII!'
Not the usual 'Gap Year'
Between leaving school and going on to University I took a year out and used this time to explore my composition and production skills, make contact with other musicians, and developed my playing and performance. In the autumn of 2011 and summer of 2012 I got together again with Ian to write and record new material.
We decided to re-record all the previous material ourselves and to add new songs to our repertoire. I co-wrote the music with Ian on these tracks and also arranged, recorded and mixed all of them as well. The summer of 2012 saw me busy mixing Ian's album Wallflower View.
In 2011 I also auditioned for, and successfully joined the Nottingham Philharmonic Orchestra (NPO), My first performance with them was Mahler's 5th on October 15th in the Albert Hall Nottingham. March saw us back in the Royal Concert Hall performing Debussy: L'Apres-midi d'un faune, Dukas: The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in Bb minor, Op. 23, Rachmaninov: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45. (I was also 'promoted' to the first violins for these performances). I'd like to thank Mark Heron (conductor), and everyone in the orchestra for all their support and a great musical experience.
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During this year I was keen to get as much practical experience of the music industry as possible and wrote to a number of recording studios looking for work experience of any kind. This resulted in the opportunity to work with Brickbeat Studio Lincoln. I helped to build a new vocal booth, picked up useful recording and mixing techniques, and networked with interesting local musicians. Through Brickbeat I met and subsequently performed with singer songwriter Emma Thorpe as a member of 'The Listeners', the folk duo Aspen Sales, and later recording and production work for Charlie Johns.
'Good times, but now also time to move on...'
The summers of 2012 and 13 saw Ian and I performing as 'Fabian Moore' at Southwell Folk Festival.
University
In 2012 I moved to Guildford to study for a B.A. Hons in Music. It was here that I met Nikita, and together with Greg (Grey) and Gareth formed the band STITCH. (Gareth subsequently left the band to be replaced by Lawrence, on keyboards. Lawrence left the band in July 15, after graduation).
Throughout my 2014 summer break I was kept busy mixing new STITCH recordings, and also rehearsing with Emma Thorpe for her gigs in September and October 2014.
STITCH had a great 'Summer of 2019' which saw us play at The Ise of Wight, and Bestival Music Festivals (amongst others) and headline a spectacular end of year Finale Show at the Oslo Hackney. Sadly after this, in December Greg quit the band and STITCH have now disbanded. Nikita continues as a solo artist. Look out for 'Nikkita' on Instagram, Soundcloud and Spotify. They were good times, but it's now also time to move on.
Going forward...
I'm proud and excited to have a new job working in the Music Department for Sony Games. I'm immersing myself in music for games, the opportunities are inspirational: I'm loving learning and developing my skills, and meeting lots of new creative composers and musicians who all share my passion for music, narrative and sound. I'll continue to perform live and collaborate with friends to write and make music and can't wait to play live for you when venues re-open.
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