To condense a 25 year story I borrowed a bass (in Devon, UK) at the age of 12 to form a heavy metal band. 2 years later I went on tour with a Zimbabwean Chimurenga and Sungura band and worked together for 6 years. I moved to Bristol aged 21 playing mainly jazz, Congolese soukous and Egyptian. At 22 I went to Senegal and was adopted by Ziguinchor’s famous Cissokho family where there were 6 different bands in the immediate family and they all needed a bass player. These were kora led bands I worked with back and forth between Senegal and the UK for 3 years. Solo Cissokho, Sadio Cissokho, Seckou Keita and in Senegal I also guested on stage in Dakar with Orchestra Baobab and Cheikh Lo. I would organise tours in UK and Sweden and bring Sadio Cissokho over to perform. Senegalese mbalax and Afro-Mandingue music gave me a very unique understanding of the relationship between drums and bass.

Aged 25-26 I got bored of music and attempted to become an international businessman shipping cars, vans and containers of part worn tyres to West Africa as well as running a taxi company in Gambia. I had no idea what I was doing and it all went horribly wrong. I was unknowingly doing business with a professional con-man who then murdered somebody and went to prison for life. After bankruptcy and a few other unfortunate things I went back to playing bass.

In 2016 aged 28 I found myself in Australia at a yoga centre where a sacred music festival was happening. Four 10 piece bands showed up with no bassist. I offered my services and each band did 1 song each which was 1 hour each. Afterwards the head Swami requested me to go with them to China & Kazakhstan to perform the following week. The short notice visa was challenging so I joined them in America after that and have since been regularly performing Kirtan and Indian devotional music with tonnes of acts since in many parts of the world.

At 29 I formed Edd Bateman’s West African Love Affair and co-produced my debut album with 15 different West African artists from 8 different countries and composed most of the tracks in the national genre of the musician I was dueting or collaborating with.  That band survived for a couple years but I was always just saw as a stepping stone for my own band leadership and career experience.

Aged 30 I got a call from London’s Jazz Cafe saying they wanted me to put together a West African tribute to Talking Heads. I bent the truth and told them they were my favourite band. I pulled together Congolese, Cameroonian, Senegalese and Guinean musicians for 5 sold out shows which birthed a new project and a new level of income from live shows much greater than I’d previously experienced. One of the band members tried to lead a revolution and oust me so I had to sack him to quash it. I’ve had to sack a fair few musicians over the years sadly and that usually ends the personal relationship alongside the professional one.

Aged 33 the lockdown hit and we couldn’t tour so I started the World Music Method and pulled together many great musicians I knew and many I didn’t but were soon to become my friends. I only ever wanted to perform and hate admin but had to learn a whole new world of non rock n roll skills like web design, video editing and copywriting. I’m still developing daily in my understanding of how to run a business and manage a team. It’s hard and not natural to me but I keep working on it.

Aged 36 live music came back with a bang and in 2023 I performed with 40 different artists. I had to increase some of my long formed depping skills about how to play songs you’ve never heard with musicians you’ve never met infront of large crowds of people but I’ve had a lot of experience there and since quitting drinking that year it seems the pressure of that is my new high. I started World Music Method jam sessions which featured a different headline artist from a different country each time and I would be playing bass with them. I had some nice opportunities to play with Afghan, Pakistani and Indian artists which have led my ears and musical interests in a new direction.

Aged 37 (this year) I thought that what was missing from the World Music Method site was a community aspect and I can’t stand how social media sites are designed to mess with people’s brain chemistry, get them hooked to a screen, suicide rates are higher than ever in young people, and I don’t like how the majority of “private” communication goes through Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram messages which are all the same company and certainly not private. So I decided that if there is anything I don’t like in the world I’ll just do what I can to change it and built a social media platform to attach to this site that has no algorithm, no adverts, no tracking, no nonsense. it will be interesting to see which direction it goes in.

Musically this year has been pretty interesting too, probably nearing 150 gigs. Since producing Vieux Farka Toure’s “Malian Guitar Evolution” course I’ve got to know Vieux’s manager who also manages Desert Blues guitar legend “Bombino”. One July evening I got a call saying that Bombino had sacked his bassist and they needed me to fly to Italy the following day and join the tour. Somehow I was able to find cover for the 9 shows I had over the following fortnight and off I went. I learnt the songs on the flight over and then got to the first gig and they didn’t play most of those songs. We did 11 shows in 15 days throughout Italy, Slovenia, Poland and Denmark. While the songs are mainly released tracks there is no setlist and no warning about what song is coming next. Bombino jams for a few bars in the key of the coming song where I’ll quickly identify the key and then the drums come in and off we go. Most days I’d listen to their live recordings on the long journeys between shows, occasionally during soundcheck I could get the rhythm guitarist to show me an intro of a song I’d heard the night before. If a song was played in one key on one night it might be in a completely different key the next. Even on show 10 and 11 there were atleast 3 songs Bombino played that he knew I’d never heard but he’s a very in the moment kind of artist. Despite this everytime I’m chatting with people in the crowd they were completely shocked to hear and never realised that I hadn’t played with him before. Coming back from that tour and finishing off the UK wedding season was a massive comedown going from living on the musical edge to playing some really dull tunes in comparison.

Very happy this site is up and running and I can finally get to know more about who is a part of this World Music Method community and hear about you musical journey. Send me a connection request and if you have any questions just message me.