I’ve been a sound engineer, musician and producer all my working life. In the 1990s, aged 14 I started gigging my own songs at songwriter’s clubs my father was playing, and following him around Abbey Road Studios picking up tips on how to produce my own bedroom recordings. I took an early gap year at 16 to work as crew in the live events industry before entering Music College and then University, where I began playing and producing on other people’s records. Throughout this time I ran and promoted live shows in various London venues. I started working in live sound aged 21 and tour managing shortly afterwards.

​Having grown up around astrologers and writers, in 2008 I was invited to apprentice part time in my family business while continuing to cut my teeth in musical environments. At this point I’d begun sound engineering at Green Note, one of the UK’s most prestigious grass roots music venues, focusing on tradition-inspired music from around the world. Over the following years musicians that graced our stage included Amy Winehouse, Martin Carthy, Graham Coxon, Ed Sheeran, Tim O’Brien, Michael Kiwanuka, Anais Mitchell, Toumani Diabate and many more. We were even visited by Leonard Cohen! It was a great honour to win the public vote and be awarded London’s Favourite Music Venue at a ceremony hosted by the Mayor of London in 2015.​

Meanwhile I was also recording with numerous acts either in my home studio, larger studios such as Livingston or Real World, or on location in abandoned shacks, rural hideaways and, once, a network of caves in rural Ontario. Early on I had a stint working for Rock Star Games on GTA5, and helped design and film a project called Gig365 that followed accordionist Michael Ward-Bergeman playing every day for a year, with gigs as diverse as US prisons, Venezuelan care homes, Native American reservations and classical halls with Yo-Yo Ma. This was the beginning of working more with video and has led to regularly shooting/editing live performance and producing showreels for organisations like Folk Alliance, the London Music Awards and SOAS University.

​Over the years I’ve toured as a performer myself, and as an engineer and tour manager with American roots troubadours Groanbox, New Orleans trumpet legend Leroy Jones, British folk-jazz genius The Magic Lantern and world music innovators Touki. I’ve worked sound desks in almost every conceivable setting, from tiny clubs and village halls to theatres, large auditoriums and festival stages. I was even once a judge on the Edinburgh Comedy Awards (probably the most fun I’ve ever had!). But my heart has always been in the grass roots music scene - I’m at my happiest in intimate shows where it feels like you can touch the music.

​For several years I fit this music career alongside formal studies to eventually take over content creation and curation for my family’s astrology business. It was my uncle Jonathan’s intention I preserve and present his library once he was no longer able to. Unfortunately that came sooner than we all hoped when he died suddenly in 2016. I was faced with a choice: either step up and assume some version of the role he performed combined with the vision he’d had for me, or to renege on my family and their business partners in the organisation they’d established. Being someone who delivers on commitments is very important to me.

​Almost overnight I found myself on the front page of national newspapers and magazines in the UK as well as Australia, North America, Japan, South Africa and many places in between. In the following years being a featured writer in print media took up most of my time. But although I lessened musical commitments, I never stopped sound engineering or producing. The creative energy I gained from this was what sustained me. Yet when lockdown arrived as the pandemic hit, and music wasn’t viable, I discovered a new passion.

​In 2020 I began to study counselling and psychotherapy and completed an Introductory BCAP Level 2 qualification. Since then I’ve completed my full Level 2 and Level 3 and been accepted to study a Masters in Psychotherapy. I always approached astrology as tool to get to know ourselves better: I don’t think I can predict the future much better than anyone else (neither did my uncle), but it does give us clues as to how people with recognisable personality traits may react in certain situations. I’m proud of the work I produced: the quality of the writing, the connection this fostered and the help, hope and solace I was able to provide. But as I’ve matured in my understanding of my own self, and the deeper reasons I do what I do, I’ve come to realise that astrology is something I’m ready to move on from.

​In my teens and early 20s I dreamed of being famous. As I’ve grown older, settled and had a family, I’ve realised I don’t actually want the limelight: I prefer helping others to shine. Forging genuine connection, sharing in someone’s experiences and watching them become the best versions of themselves (whether that’s in a musical environment, or other walks of life) is what makes me happiest and where I have the most to offer. In moving forward as both an aspiring psychotherapist and a seasoned music producer, I feel I’m in a better position than ever to make a difference. And I’ve decided to start living the kind of life I aspire to.