After Soneni and I got married in 2013, our band took a collective break to live life a little bit and eventually become parents. It’s so weird that we all ended up having babies in the same year (2015) but that story is for another blog! I decided to use this break time to go back to my musical roots and get back to basics by spending time solely on music production, something I hadn’t done for a number of years.
I’ve always produced a variety of sounds but launching solo as a DJ/producer I wanted to make music that I could play in the clubs, music people could dance too. After a few months experimenting with sounds, in early 2015, I found a musical space i was happy with and began planning an instrumental EP which I thought would be the best way to launch as a solo artist and showcase my production skills.
January 2015 was a difficult time for my family. My Grandad, the centre of the family along with my Grandma, passed away. My Grandad was a very strong man. He and my Grandma had 6 kids together and the came over to the UK from St Vincent. He was an inspirational man, someone who was full of integrity and had everyones respect. He was warm and welcoming and had a calming effect on everyone he met. During this time I used music to express my feelings. One night I sat down on Logic and closed my eyes and just let the music flow. The track ‘Life Is Beautiful’ was created.
It was an expression of my feelings at the time; confused, unpredictable, a variety of colours, a mixture of sadness and inspiration. I think this comes through in the music as the synths collide and bassline rumbles along to the busy drum pattern. Life Is Beautiful was written as a tribute to my Grandad.
Over the next couple of weeks i added two new tracks, Made Me Feel and Only You, and the EP was complete. The Life Is Beautiful EP was released on 25th May 2015 on my record label ER Soundsystem.
RIP Grandad.