Wow! If you are here, you are either really interested in my work or you have a slight problem with compulsive reading! Don't worry, apparently about 20% of the populous shares your issue. The following is a brief biography, with some unpublishable bits omitted. There might even be some shiny photos for the non-compulsive readers amongst you.

I was encouraged to perform on stage from a very young age, largely due to my strong reading ability and lack of inhibition. Always singing, dancing or acting, I was taking leading roles in productions by the time I was 8. I was also encouraged to play musical instruments, which I did with varying degrees of success. I had music tuition from the age of 7, but didn't really take it seriously until I was about 12, when I started playing in bands.

Throughout my school years I was involved in numerous productions, both in and out of school, and was a member of several bands, one of which performed at the national festival of music for youth. It was a natural progression when I headed to university to study for a performance degree.

Bands include: Still Down Gill

After university I became interested in music production and started learning the dark arts of Cubase and Ableton. As with many aspiring artists, I had a variety of careers or day jobs to support my art projects...

My first job was as an office administrator, a great entry-level role to begin my career, but it was always going to be a stepping stone into something more interesting. I moved into sales for a few years, which was more challenging, but high pressure sales positions were clearly not for me and it was time for a career re-think.

I took a few months off to travel and ended up in a factory job in the north of England, fabricating rooves. It was hard work, but it paid well and I was able to save some money for my next adventure. After a year or so I got a job as a conservatory fitter, which was even harder work, but better paid. The work was extremely physically demanding and I wanted to find a trade which more suited my diminutive stature.

While fitting rooves I got the opportunity to retrain as a painter and decorator, a job which requires an eye for detail and more than a little artistic flair. I was lucky enough to work on a number of National Trust properties in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire, which was a great experience, but I was still not satisfied. I wanted to work in the creative industries, so I took a leap of faith and moved to Manchester to pursue my music career.

I moved into a flat in Manchester and got a job working in a bar, hoping to meet other musicians and play in more bands. Whilst working as serving staff I ended up getting some kitchen experience which lead to me working as a chef for a couple of years. These jobs served their purpose, as I made many music contacts in Manchester, but I literally couldn't stand the heat, so I had to get out of the kitchen.

Music projects: Flat Pack Gallows Album

Having made plenty of music contacts and beginning to get paid work as an artist gave me the confidence to become a full time musician, during which time I toured Europe 4 times. It was a great time and to an extent, we actually lived the dream. It is however always challenging as a touring musician to manage finances. At this point some of my music colleagues with teaching experience, suggested becoming a music tutor. I taught privately for a few years and then began doing music workshops, which lead to me teaching in both primary and high school. Fast forward a few years and I had a successful music tutoring company, providing outsourced music lessons to primary schools and was enjoying my life as a teacher, until the outbreak of Covid19 in 2020. The pandemic put a stop to all music lessons and I was forced to close my business. Driven by a desire to teach older students and a long running interest in tech, I decided to retrain on a full-stack software development bootcamp.

I had always been interested in technology and had dabbled with coding in the past, but never really taken it seriously. Coding kind of runs in the blood: My father has been a developer since the late 60s. My mother and both siblings are also employed in the tech world. I had no industry experience in coding prior to 2021, but I have been using a PC since my dad brought a BBC computer home with a whopping 32kb onboard home in the mid 80s. I later experimented with early Macs, which largely meant just clicking on everything and seeing what it did, and was using Windows OS back in the days when you had to execute it via MS/DOS.

I took the plunge and retrained in early 2021 and after graduating from a 14 week full-stack developer boot camp with Northcoders, I scored a job as part of their teaching and mentoring team. I leant heavily on my teaching experience and my positive experience on the course, and found myself promoted to software engineer and seminar lead after 3 months. I was responsible for a small seminar team, remotely delivering the full course curriculum to a group of 30+ students on a 13 week rotation for over two years and had several secondments to the Northcoders internal development department. Unfortunately, due to company restructuring, my role was made redundant in mid 2025, but I am now looking forward to the next chapter in my software development career.