MacJams.com - Artist: Shimky

Music Background

Here follows a long-winded musical background that is more for my benefit: to commit my memory "to paper" while it is still (somewhat) intact. I was forced to have classical piano lessons from the age of six. I hated them and never practised. These continued until I was fourteen when I used the excuse of having to revise for my 'O' levels to stop having lessons. I'd just failed my Grade 5 (although I blame it on the terrible flu I had at the time). During this period, I was also forced to take violin lessons for a year. I think this gave me an appreciation for the piano, I hated the violin so much. When I was thirteen I bought my first album: The Pleasure Principle by Gary Numan. It turned out to be a massive influence. Soon after this I discovered the genius of Jean-Michel Jarre. Having stopped piano lessons, I didn't touch the piano for a long time. But one day I wiped the dust off the ivory and tried to work out Cars by Gary Numan. This led on to more tinkering and I began to discover lots of cool things. I fell in love with writing music and lyrics. To the detriment of my expansion, I never took up lessons again and didn't got round to learning anybody elses tracks properly except for excerpts from Jarre and Numan, and two tracks which stand out in my memory: The Way It Is by Bruce Hornsby and the Range, and The Morning Fog by Kate Bush. Inspired by Numan, my dream was to own a synth, and my wonderful dad bought me a CASIO CZ-1000 keyboard for my fifteenth or sixteenth birthday. I was hooked. I joined my first band when I was sixteen - Max Slam - and together we recorded 4 tracks at Blue Strike Studios in Harrogate, England. The first track's music was written by me in a fit of inspiration. I wish I still had a copy - it was pretty good. We also took part in a benefit concert with other bands at our school; one of only two times that I've played live. When I was eighteen my dad momentously upgraded me to a ROLAND D-50 keyboard. That was in 1987 and I still use it - although only as a dummy keyboard (shock/horror!). If someone can tell me how to set myself up so that I can switch between the sounds on the XV-5080 and D-50, I would be most grateful. At nineteen I started strumming E, G and D chords on my mum's very old and crappy Spanish classical guitar. It had the worst action in the world - it was more like a violin! Around this time I met Mark Wharton, who at that time (I think) was drumming with metal band Acid Reign. He went on to play with Cathedral and Cronos. Mark and I recorded on his 4-track one song that I wrote, Sunset in Parador, with me doing keyboard/vocals and him on guitar and 2nd vocals. This time, I've managed to keep a copy. I just a 4-track to transfer it. I had a complete hiatus from playing and composing for about four years and then I joined a school in Wetherby teaching nine to eleven year olds basic keyboarding on Saturday mornings. I also started giving private lessons in Harrogate. The whole thing was a farce: although very good with children, I didn't have the musical background to be teaching. I dreaded the moment that a parent would ask me to go ahead and play something! I was roped into helping with a school musical and I can't exactly remember what happened - I was either sacked when they discovered I couldn't actually play the piano or I quit before they found out. I think it might have been the former. Anyway, straight after I stopped giving any more private lessons for fear of more embarrassment. Around the same time I started practising with a dear young lady with the idea of playing jazz in pubs and functions around North Yorkshire. She was extremely enthusiastic and was prepared to teach me a lot about jazz and music in general. To my disgust I squandered this golden opportunity, was lazy, didn't practise and messed her around. I can't remember this woman's name. She was Kev Peachman's girlfriend at the time, I think. It was she would got me the opening at the school in Wetherby. Soon after all this fiasco (or during) I joined my second band: This Is It. I was twenty-five. This was a group of excellent musicians, way out of my league, headed by Adrian Payne. I kept telling them I wasn't up for the job but, luckily, they woudn't take no for an answer. We took part in a Battle of the Bands at Harrogate Theatre (the second and last time I have played live) and Radio York (I think it was) played one of our tracks on air. Ade kept travelling down to London for talks with the husband of Eddi Reader (former lead vocalist of Fairground Attraction) and he almost decided to become our manager (I can't remember his name). Just when I was starting to grow as a musician, I left the band to go to university. After I told Ade, I sat in the toilet of Harrogate Theatre's small downstairs bar and cried harder than I have ever done in my life. I knew I was letting Adrian and myself down in a big way. In the first year of university I carried on for a while tinkering and recording tracks on my own. I was living with my dad for a while and was able to make use of his baby grand (wow!). However, I somehow just stopped playing during this year and didn't play again for about eight years. When I was thirty-two, I suddenly had a pang, dug out my D-50 and started playing again. Later the same year, in 2001, I bought myself a ROLAND XV-5080 sound module. I "got hold of" a version of Cubase and finally started sequencing - something I had wanted to do for almost two decades. The following year I bought a black Takamine electric acoustic Bruce Springsteen Special and start teaching myself to play (a very slow process). I took guitar lessons in Zurich with a great Argentian but soon dropped out as those childhood feelings related to forced piano lessons resurfaced; basically, I was a lazy bastard and couldn't face having homework. In 2002 I also bought a bona fide copy of Cubase VST for PC. In 2003 I joined my third band: Porno Pete & The C.I.A., with work colleague and friend Ian "Boz" Borrowdale (formerly of 1960s English band, Universe). They wanted me to play keyboards but, continuing my life-long insistence that I was crap, I insisted on playing guitar. I wanted to learn and thought that putting myself into a sink-or-swim situation would propel me towards regular practising. But some things never change and I left the band soon after joining rather than buckling down and "facing the music". Considering I was teaching myself, progress on the electric acoustic was not bad at all. The same year, aged thirty-five, I bought a Duesenberg Starplayer Special electric guitar in "Trans Orange". I went the whole hog and also buy a Line 6 Pod XT effects kidney. It is a gorgeous set-up but I soon realised that I shouldn't have moved on to electric until I had mastered acoustic - it seemed like a whole new ball-game to me. At the beginning of 2005 I bought a 12" PowerBook, discovered Garage Band and wrote "The Head Of The Kev" in a fit of excitement - all in one evening (well, I remember going to bed at 7am). I came across MacJams and posted the track, which lead me to meet lots of very nice, encouraging people online. I went crazy a few months later and bought a mike, a mixing desk and a Korg MS2000B keyboard. January 2007, and I'm done with trying to create the perfect track before posting on MacJams. This is supposed to be FUN! So I've posted "Shark" and hope to do a lot more this year...