I have always been fortunate enough to be able to sing, in fact, my great grandmother was an Opera singer, so it must run in the genes. I used to sing in the choir at school and did the solos at Christmas, with my mum sitting there mouthing the words in time with me from the Pews. I studied music at school and even played the Tenor Sax for a while. I think a lot of it though comes down to my dad, who was an amazing guitar player and bought me one at the age of 9, but I wasn't really interested at that age, it looked too much like hard work.
I listened to the likes of AC/DC, Henry Gross, Nazareth, The Stones Boston, Zeppelin and many more thanks to my dad bringing me up on the good stuff. I loved watching him play along with the guitar parts, or zone out with his headphones on, playing guitar late at night if he couldn't sleep or was waiting for me to come home from a night out (which he always denied of course when I asked him, but that's when we had our best conversations). We wrote a few tunes together too and he accompanied me on stage at school performances a few times and on some early gigs, playing at the pubs. Music has always been a huge part of my family upbringing. I remember Mum and Dad picking me and Erika up when we were little and dancing round with us to AC/DC or something… it was fun.
I've been in and out of bands from the age of 16, because finding people who are committed to what you are really trying to achieve is tough. I think you get to an age where you think I don't want to compromise anymore and that's when - if you're lucky - things start to go right because you are being true to yourself.