I grew up in a musical household in Twickenham in West London, My Dad Ross was a singer in the Joe Loss band and passed on the musical tradition, that he got from his Father, to all 5 of his sons. The eldest, Declan, went on to become well known musician Elvis Costello and us four from my Dad's second marriage all played in bands together under the names Second Nature, Slainte, The MacManus Brothers (originally enough) and Riverway, named after the street we grew up in.
The second youngest of these brothers is me, I was only a year old when Dec's first album came out so seeing him making a huge success in the business was massively inspiring and I decided from an early age that music was the only path I wanted to follow.
I grew up playing everything from current pop to Irish Traditional music and even raided my Dad's old records to discover "new old" music.
My first gig came at the age of 12 and by then I had already started putting pen to paper to write some of the most truly horrible songs, but it was a start.
It was the Irish Folk scene in London that provided the first proper outlet for me and my brothers and we formed a band called Slainte, this band went on to evolve into The BibleCodeSundays, a critically acclaimed band in the UK and the USA that I am still playing and recording with today.
Despite always playing in bands that had recorded original material I had an urge to record an album of my own songs, other albums I had made were always a team effort and I felt the time was right to make the album I had always wanted to make, but it was a bit of a daunting task as these are some of the most personal songs I have ever written.
I have always kept a keen interest in acoustic singer/songwriter music, such artists as Ron Sexsmith, Neil Finn and Ryan Adams have inspired this album "Strawberry Hill" and my family and friends have all helped to make it happen.
A special mention has to go to Adie Hardy at Unit2 studios in Park Royal, West London, who let me into his studio to record whenever he had free time, he was very patient with me as I experimented to help the songs to evolve from bedroom demos to full album tracks.
Also Adam Brown and my brother Liam helped to get the ball rolling at the very early stages. Adam played guitar on the first sessions as I was unable to following a motorbike accident where I had broken my arm. Both Adam and Liam made vital contributions in the early sessions and I was able to lay the foundations for my vision of how it was going to sound.
I took my time in the recording process and as the album grew I called on friends and family to come and play on it and finally it is complete.
I hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I did recording it.
Ladies and Gentlemen I give you "Strawberry Hill" |
