Welcome!
Hey. Glad you could drop by. Have a seat and a cuppa.
I'm a maverick pianist and retropop/classical masher-upper from Berkshire, England. I'm lucky enough to play the piano for a living and young-ish people jump around to it. I love getting creative with other people's melodies, whether at work, for satirical purposes or for the simple delight of leading old songs down new paths.
BUT I've also created plenty of original work (whatever 'original' means): swoonsome string arrangements, theatrical melancholy, occasional disco, many guest singers. You get the picture.
A sort of ABBA/PSB/Divine Comedy/Pink Martini/Beethoven smoothie, if that helps.
This nominally 'solo' output has involved much musical collaboration en route, and led to the development of a more obviously classical project called Cherry Mint Koala, with the absurdly talented Tony Woollard on cello and Charlie Brown on violin. Live performance stuff by the three of us and other being-inventive-with-a-minimal-budget promo visuals can be found on the Sound & Vision page, along with a curated set of audio offerings.
With no particular intention in mind other than cathartic release, from Sept 2019 I began a series of satirical mash-up songs, mostly about everything sinister or stupid connected with Brexit and right-wing populism. These have all been bashed out on my trusty Yamaha piano and recorded in rough n ready one-take fashion on my phone. Despite the dodgy sound quality, quite a few people online seem to have appreciated the effort and sentiment... You can find all that stuff on the Topical Satire page.
Meanwhile, during 2023 I've been hard at work on two new albums (one pop, one classical - with inevitable crossover) collaborating with more guest musicians than ever before, plus my usual array of wonderful guest singers heard on previous albums. Really looking forward to sharing this new stuff over the coming few years!
The first track released - a Cherry Mint Koala piece called ‘Ode to Ukraine’ - is now available to stream from all the usual online providers (links top right). Or scroll down to listen here.