If you’re a promoter festival or someone looking for a professional bio, then have a scroll down, this bit here is gonna be a little informal round-up of who I am and where I’m from for anyone who’s interested in my story and how I come to make a full-time career in music, despite being fully independent and doing everything myself..

Like all good stories, my one starts in a council house in Braintree, Essex.

I’m from a single-parent, low-income household. I was bullied at school and for a lot of my life I didn’t really feel like I related to anyone or belonged anywhere, so growing up it felt like I had the odds stacked against me. As I got older I found out I was neurodivergent too, it felt like I’d gotten all the stamps on the world’s weirdest bingo card.

I then got into music completely by accident. I did a bit of singing and that growing up, but nothing too serious, just a laugh really. It wasn’t until my best friend from school bought me a guitar for my 15th birthday after I had expressed an interest in leanring did I start to consider music as an avenue. I was in sixth form studying to become a banker and then one night I had a banging gig and found the rush of playing live. The next day I applied to change courses and study music.

I spent a few years busking on the streets and playing in pubs. I then went and studied Songwriting in London. Not because I wanted a degree, I just wanted a way to move out of Essex for a bit, and a government loan that I’ll probably never make enough to pay off felt like the right and only option, and I wasn’t wrong. Although I ended up getting a degree, I don’t feel like I really learned anything from studying music. What I did learn from my time studying in London though was the art of the sesh and where sells the best Guinness (The Dundee Arms in Bethnal Green in case you’re wondering. I worked there for a bit too. I can still smell the truffle oil they’d serve on their sandwiches. I also met Saoirse-Monica Jackson from Derry Girls in there once whilst I was havng a pint, she was lovely).

I’ve always had this love for playing live, so when I first moved to London I went onto openmicfinder.com and printed out every open mic they had in London at the time. I cellotaped about 30 sheets of paper to my bedroom wall and made it my mission to play as many of them as I could and ticked them off as I went, and I made a pretty good dent too.

In the summer of 2020 I moved out to Ireland for about a year and it wasn’t until my return did I start to really go at the music. I’d play anywhere that would have me, building up my live experience as well as my life experience. I ended up going through quite a lot, and although it would break me for a while, I ended up letting it make me, and this is where my songwriting began to change and I started to write about the things that go on inside of my head. Also, I was going to therapy for years before that, during that and I still do after it. I love therapy, I wouldn’t be who I am today without it, it’s made me a better and happier person, and has also greatly improved my songwriting funnily enough.

I then get my first van in January 2023. This would enable me to spend my weekends playing not just in Essex, but the whole country, without having to pay for a hotel. All I did was put a bed in the back of it, email/message places online to see who would have me, and away I went. I then spent the following 2 years living this funny double life of gallivanting up and down the country on the weekends playing gigs to strangers and getting smashed with the locals, then come Monday back to my job of doing admin. The funniest one for me was spending my first Boomtown Fair in 2024 stripping down to my underwear on stage for fake Boomtown money to use it on the storyline/quest, then 48 hours later pretending I’m a normal, civilised human being in zoom meetings with managers.

I’ve always struggled with work. It’s not that I don’t like working hard because that’s not true, I love working hard, I just don’t like working hard at things that don’t interest me, which is why I had 26 jobs. Well, I actually had more than that, that’s just when I stopped counting. It’s probably part of my neurodiversity, but I’m just not very good at jobs. I hate having to be in the same place, I hate having someone tell me what to do and if and when I’m allowed to have holiday, and I’m really prone to making mistakes and missing things due to a poor attention to detail. I was a PAYE nightmare. (great band name)

Which is why I’m so appreciative that I get to do music full-time now. My old job were basically handing out voluntary redundancies in 2025. I had a choice: don’t take the redundancy and stay comfortably uncomfortable in the security of a job that was easy but I didn’t really like, or take the leap and plunge myself into the unknown and hope for the best and risk having to get a harder, worse-paying job.

So I did the latter.

I basically looked at my money and worked it out: worst case scenario I have a great summer of just doing music and then I have to get another job at the end of said great summer. But yet here I am, I haven’t got another, and I’m still full-time self-employed doing music. Madness. Although, I still have this thing in my head of “right, you’re probably gonna have to get another job soon as this fun won’t last forever”. A part of me thinks like this because I am literally just about getting by, but another part of me thinks like this I think to keep reminding me just how lucky and appreciative I am.

See, since going full-time with music, my life changed. I no longer feel burnt-out, I have more energy, I understand myself a lot more, I don’t feel the need to drink anymore, and my mental health is just the best it’s ever been. I get to do what I want, when I want, and have fun doing it. It’s a neurodivergent heaven, and one that I am actively trying to keep. Sure, I have far less money than I ever have, and the finance side of things can be stressful, but to me I’d much rather scrape by enjoying my life and connecting with people than work a job that I hate and be able to put away savings. I found that if I want something, I’ll make it work, so I’ve completely reduced my outgoings in order to ensure I can maintain a life in music, and I’ve not regretted it once.

You’re probably wondering how I managed to go full-time with the music and get gigs, and the answer is simple: years of gigging, gets you more gigs. I’ve played over 1,000 times now, and I’ve found the best way to get more gigs, is to play more gigs. The more gigs you play, the more music-lovers and people who work in. music you play to. A lot of it is word of mouth for me, although I’m no stranger to sending an email/message to a venue/promoter etc. But basically by the time I quit my job I’d played my 1000th gig, and that’s years and years of gigging as much as I can and posting online. I’m now at a place where the cogs are starting to slowly turn and I’m now at a very small place where I can just about get by. Sure, I’d like things to grow, but for now I’m just appreciative that I don’t have to go to a workplace that I hate.

A big part of what keeps me going is my love for people and wanting to help people. I used to really want to be a therapist but I didn’t want to study again. Now, I get to help people in a different way. You see, a lot of my music is about mental health, and sometimes I’ll write a song based on my own experience in hopes that it helps someone who has been in my shoes before. I really do love and care about people deeply. Sure, there’s some interesting folk out there and some less nice than others, but you bulid your radar pretty quickly and you learn who to and not to keep around you and invest your time into. I’ve found for the most part people are pretty lovely, and a big motivator for me is travelling round, connecting with people, having a laugh and hvaing honest conversations. It’s the absolute best.

I also love delivering workshops to kids in care, primary schools and secondary schools, as well as students at universities and colleges on subjects such as mental health, neurodiversity, how to make and maintain a self-sufficient and independent career in music, as well as songwriting; how to do it and it’s benefits. I absolutely adore doing these because I have a deep love for people, helping people, and teaching. Doing these genuinely excite me so much.

I sometimes have people ask me for advice for doing music, If you’re a live performer I would say this: play as much as you can, embrace failure, make sure you enjoy the process including the hard times, and be nice to everyone you meet, even if they’re a bit of a dick. You get gigs from playing gigs and people generally don’t want to help you if you’re a bit of a knob. Also, it just feels amazing being nice to people. My outlook is if I give up I definitely won’t make it, if I keep going there’s still a chance.

Anyway, I think that’s everything. There you have it. No smoke and mirrors, no label or management, no parents’ names in blue hyperlinks on Wikipedia, just some council house busker kid who loves playing live and wants to help people.