I play double bass and beatbox with the band Nizlopi which me and my best friend Luke formed when we were about 16, having played music together since we were 13. I started playing guitar aged about 11 or 12 when my dad showed me E major, and then how to tune it de-tuned, then he left me to work out the rest for myself. At the time this was hard for me but now looking back at it, it has given me a great ear and an almost obsessive practise ethic when it comes to music. I swapped to electric bass after meeting Luke as he was looking for a bassist for his band. At first I saw this as a step backwards but then, fuelled by my competitive nature, I quickly grasped how to play (often over-playing), and got into the whole slap funk thing.

I studied jazz music in Manchester and my Double bass teacher was the great Jon Thorne, he taught me how to sing my parts and to listen to all music and find what sang to me. I first started playing double bass aged 18 where my mum borrowed money and purchased my first double bass "Blue". This was a plywood bass but after a while really began to sing. Sadly I had a bad teacher and gave up within a year. I restarted when I was 21 in Manchester in the final year of my jazz course and practised 8 hours a day so that I wouldn't fail. I gave up the electric straight away as once you've fallen for the double you never really look back.

Nowadays, with the success of Nizlopi, I’m able to play and meet double bassists from all over the world. I get session work with singer / songwriters and I’m in 2 jazz bands as well as studying orchestral bass with Charles Wall in Birmingham in my spare time, so it's a busy and happy world of double bass I live in.

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