Me and music...
My relationship with music began quite early in my life. I was a late arrival in a family which already consisted of two brothers and two sisters, so I was subjected to their varied musical tastes from the word go. The younger sister liked Prince, the elder sister liked 'indie' stuff like Echo and the Bunnymen, Tracy Thorne and Yazoo, the younger brother liked Top of the Pops and the elder brother liked the big prog rock and heavy metal acts like Genesis and Iron Maiden. My mum liked folk and Motown, and my dad liked jazz and west coast rock like Steely Dan and Supertramp. Diverse or what?
For the most part I just listened to whatever was playing, be it The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (for the umpteenth time) or my dad playing Ella Fitzgerald records at 78rpm in order to reduce us into hysterical wrecks. But I was gradually forming my own tastes and was noticing that a certain type of music was being played more - and I liked it a lot. The synthesizers had arrived! (Argh!) This period produced one of my favourite albums of all time: Jean Michel Jarre - Zoolook (1984), which my brother was good enough to tape for me. That was when home-taping was a very 'anarchic' thing to do...
Another minor epiphany occurred in the mid 1980's when my parents, short on ideas for what to get young Jim for his birthday, decided upon a boombox. In fact the boombox to the left; a Fisher PH-511L radio cassette recorder with a built in microphone! Ah if only they'd known the trouble this thing would cause... Before they knew it I was staying up until goodness knows what hour, twiddling the tuner up and down the frequencies and discovering a whole world of radio. It filled my imagination to bursting, and seriously interfered with my sleep patterns.
In spite of this my parents let me keep it, and it wasn't long before I was beginning to tune in regularly to my favourite shows. Particular favourites were the Radio One DJ's like John Peel, Annie Nightingale and Steve Wright ("In the Afternoon"). There was also Adrian Juste, a little-remembered 'cult' jock who had a Saturday afternoon comedy show which I listened to religiously - hence 'cult' following. He was heavily influenced by the former BBC Light Programme presenter Jack Jackson, continuing his style of 'interacting' with pre-recorded classic comedy clips and light hearted records.
Then there were the pirate stations. There were several that operated in Manchester in the late 80's - early 90's, but due to their nature it's virtually impossible to trace their history, let alone who was involved. I can remember one called Faze FM and another named Fresh FM. All I knew was that they were playing music which was very different; it was music that gave me a buzz when I listened to it. This was the Acid House era, and it eventually made its way onto mainstream airwaves via Pete Tong's Essential Selection which started in 1991.
I was getting more and more into electronic dance music at this point, and was particularly taken with a duo I heard quite often on John Peel's programme - Orbital. The first 'dance' CD I ever bought was their first album, untitled but known as the "yellow album" by fans, and I had literally never heard anything like it, so hypnotic and uplifting. This was something of a golden era for the dance scene, with the level of creativity cranked up by drugs and new forms of music coming thick and fast. I discovered techno, hardcore, rave, acid breaks, Belgian techno (eh?), the list goes on. It all came through the radio and filled the space between my ears.
Around early 1993 I started hearing a weird variation on the hardcore theme. It had no uplifting chord progressions, it was just hard breakbeats with a bass line and effects. Drum and bass, in fact. Of course it was called jungle to begin with, and it was pretty uncomplicated stuff, but I loved it. This was clearly what hardcore was supposed to evolve into.
By this time I was well and truly hooked, not just on dance music, but music as an entity, something tangible - it was something which could relay emotions to me as well as any written word. Several magic moments followed as the years progressed, including Pink Floyd at Earl's Court (October 28th 1994 - a very special treat that was, thanks Dad!), Orbital at Manchester Apollo (May 15th 1996) and the Reading Festival (August 1996).
At some point during all this I passed through college, I think I did anyway, and got a job and an income which unlocked all manner of music buying possibilities. I started buying vinyl and with the help of a small loan purchased two turntables and a mixer. I'm sure I thought I was heading for celebrity status at the time, but I soon forgot about that and just enjoyed having the equipment, making a few mixes for friends and going to the record shop every Sunday. I suppose it was inevitable that I would soon start making music of my own.
And so to bring things right up to date, I purchased Propellerheads amazing Reason software in February 2002 and have been using it to make music ever since. I wouldn't say I was a professional musician by any means, but what I lack in skill I make up for in, er... other stuff. So far I have produced two tracks deemed good enough to get signed, but I don't know whether or not I will be able to make a living from it. I'm the first to admit that this quite a self-indulgent hobby, but I just want to make weird dance music, and if it makes a few other people jerk around spasmodically, well... good!