about
I'm a displaced Brit living in USA. I bounced from London to Boston and then Brooklyn and am now in Henderson, Nevada. An interesting journey to say the least.
In my distant past, I wrote songs for other artists and got paid (sometimes) by publishers when a song of mine was (sometimes) covered. That was a pretty cool job, but the song writing process was often reduced to a cookie-cutter mindset which, for some of us creative types, gets to you in the end. And when it got to me, I decided that I'd prefer to be the master of my own destiny.
I transitioned from music, to music tech and invented the Stepp digital guitar, a digital guitar that, in its day, was pretty impressive and used by musicians including Pete Townshend, Go West, Tears for Fears, the Bee Gees and Kate Bush. The technology at that time wasn't perfect, so that's something I'd like to return to one day - an uncompromising digital instrument that feels exactly like a guitar, but can digitally interpret every touch, slide, bend, pluck, strum, mute, hammer-on and pull-off without any latency to create sounds from MIDI synths and sample libraries. I've been thinking about it long enough to know what has to be done. I've got that on my bucket list :) Anyway, I digress,,,,
Fast forward to today... I write and record for me first. I'm a huge fan of classic British music (Beatles, Stones, Kinks, Zeppelin, Bowie...). It should come as no surprise that I use technology to record "in the box" whenever and wherever the inspiration takes me. I use a MacBook Pro via a UAD Apollo audio interface into Logic Pro X. I play guitar and piano and use a Fender Tele, Fender Jazzmaster, Epiphone Sheraton II Pro, Taylor acoustic, Paul Reed Smith PRS Custom 24, '57 Epiphone Broadway hollow body, Fender Jazz Bass, Nord Piano 5, 70's Sho-Bud Pedal Steel, Gretch Lap Steel and of course a Stepp digital guitar
Sometimes, a few random chords magically suggest a melody. Other times it's an event (see my write up on the Boston Marathon bombings, which inspired the tribute song and support that I wrote about here). Sometimes, a phrase or idea inspire a song. I can't explain how it happens, I'm just happy that it does, because it's pretty magical and somewhat therapeutic. I've been fortunate enough to hear from people all over the world who have enjoyed my music and when any of my songs touch anyone, it's a wonderful bonus and makes it even more worth while.
Please check out my music here and on iTunes, Amazon, Bandcamp, Spotify, etc...
Feel free to email me or share my music via the links and buttons below...
Thanks for dropping in,
Cheers,
STEPHEN
