| BIOGRAPHY |
BEGINNINGS
I was born in Edgbaston, Birmingham in the heart England - also home to Ozzy Osborne, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin and Duran Duran.
I grew up in Smethwick, on the outskirts of Birmingham where as a child growing up in the 60’s I was pulled like a powerful magnet to the new sounds that I was occasionally hearing on TV and radio created by electronic music. Even though I was a young child, these sounds seemed so futuristic, vibrant and colourful. For Christmas 1971 I was bought my first ever album of electronic music - Perry & Kingsley's "Kaleidoscopic Vibrations" album. Other Moog type albums followed such as Marty Gold's "Moog Plays the Beatles", Walter Carlos’s “Switched On Bach”, Tonto’s “Zero Tine” etc. As the early 70's progressed, as well as acts using the synthesiser in a popular way such as Chicory Tip, Hot Butter etc. I was also beginning to hear the instrument used in a more experimental vein by acts such as Hawkwind, Gong and Tangerine Dream.
A most powerful and deep impact was made upon me when I heard Tangerine Dream for the very first time in 1972 in a live broadcast from Germany on Jimmy Saville's BBC radio show. This was well before Radio One's John Peel began giving them airplay. This was akin to a mystical experience for me because it was as if something in the music was calling out to me from across great distances of time. I had the strong sense that the nature of the music was forging a bridge between worlds. My awareness of this magical aspect of music motivated me to begin my own excursions into the realms of sound. At this same time, as if being guided, I “accidentally” made myself a rudimentary synthesiser which was capable of making a whole range of electronic sounds just like I had been hearing!
As a fifteen year old back in 1972 I had a very rudimentary knowledge of electronics - e.g. connect a small light bulb to a battery and it lights up - and had the deviant habit of taking to pieces old radios etc. One day I took apart a small tape recorder and removed all wires from its circuit board except for the battery connection. The family record player had the benefit of having a separate amplifier and speaker and I had the inspired thought to see what would happen if I attached the amplifier input to various parts on the circuit board of the dismantled tape recorder. To my amazement out from the loudspeaker came a varied array of fantastic electronic sounds! Not just oscillating whistles but many strange rhythmic sounds, bubbles and white noise. Soon after I purchased an oscillator and found that it could be modulated by the circuit board. Thus was fated the birth of a rudimentary synthesiser which for years to come provided me with an unusual palette of sounds. An electronic organ, reverb and echo unit were subsequently purchased along with a reel to reel tape recorder and I began recording my own music.
A track from those days called MOON DRONE, which was recorded in 1978, can be found on the Auricle Records CD-R titled Dronsz: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/ultimathule/tachyon/variousartists.html
I was planning on pursuing a career in art having gained a place at Wolverhampton College of Art but as the 70’s progressed music got the stronger hold over me! I therefore enrolled in several music courses and passed several grades in the theory of music but in the main I taught myself how to sight read, compose and to play the guitar and keyboards. I was also being drawn to a wide genre of music from medieval, baroque, classical, folk, eastern, film, progressive rock, etc and all were to leave a mark on my musical output over the following years.
The 1980’s
During the early 80's, a 4 track Teac multitrack recorder and a Yamaha CS30L synthesiser were bought and I proceeded to record a lot of material. I sent a demo to various record companies but to no avail - sadly my early 70’s Tangerine Dream sound was out of fashion with the record executives at that point in time!
However, by then I had become aware through a mail order and record shop outlet called Lotus Records that an embryonic underground music scene of English musicians were carrying on the musical traditions set forth by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, etc. Lotus were also beginning to stock cassette only albums by what was then just a handful of UK musicians pursuing this style of music such as Mark Shreeve and Ian Boddy.
I therefore made the decision to start my own self financed label called Eye Tapes so as to provide an outlet for my music. My first self produced album "From Distant Shores" was released in 1983 and thankfully Andy Garibaldi, the owner of Lotus Records, took a stock of my cassettes and so the first tentative steps of my music being let loose upon the world were taken. I subsequently became a part of the underground UK synth music scene and had ten cassette albums released during the 1980’s and early 1990’s. I also played live at several synth music festivals in the UK and shared the bill with Wavestar, Ian Boddy, Mark Jenkins, Neuronium etc.
The 1990’s
In 1993, Malcolm Parker who was a long time fan of my music, wrote to ask if I was interested in being signed to a new branch of the US and Canadian Griffin Record Label who his brother just happened to be the President of. Malcolm was starting the label up and was looking for a roster of progressive rock artists. Into my later cassette albums I had brought elements of progressive rock and Malcolm wanted my music to feature these much more and with lots of guitar! I therefore signed to what was to become Cyclops Records and in 1994 they released my debut CD titled MATRIX.
Three further CD’s followed: RIDING THE STORM in 1996, CONVERGENCE in 1999 and OPENER OF THE WAYS in 2002.
The 2000’s
Ra
I am also a member of the progressive rock group Ra. Back in 2004 I was asked by my long time friend and fellow Cyclops recording artist, the guitarist and bassist Rob Andrews, to play keyboards and synths on a new project Rob was working on with the guitarist and keyboard player David Groves. David had previously worked with Rob on Rob's 2002 Cyclops album THE HOST. Rob decided to expand the project to become a group based album with Rob, David & myself all contributing to the arranging and writing of the tracks. With Rob on bass, David on lead guitar and myself on keys the group became complete with the addition on drums of Dai Rees. The resultant album WAKE has now been recorded and will be released by Cyclops in June 2007.
DREAMFAST
As a young child back in the 60’s, as well as electronic music holding a great fascination for me, I was also a huge admirer of the film composer John Barry. Not only his Bond scores but the wide range of his music from The Knack, The Ipcress File, Walkabout, The Lion in Winter, etc. Having explored electronic music in the 80’s and prog rock in the 90’s, I decided the time was right to pursue a long held ambition to develop my musical composition and style by tapping into the spirit of John Barry’s 1960’s jazz flavoured musical scores with the emphasis on melody, drama, adventure and mystery etc.
Throughout the 90’s I had assembled a lot of material along those lines and my ambitions became realised in 2005 when the President of Dreamfast Cinema, the artist and film director Bruce Wood, came forward with the desire to sign artists to his company. Bruce, having liked what I was doing, proposed I record an album as if for an imaginary movie and offered me a contract which I enthusiastically signed in December 2005.
By this time I was fortunate to have made friends with the writer, singer, musician and producer Rain who had released the world wide critically acclaimed album CERULEAN BLUE. With the budget provided by Dreamfast and Rain’s contacts in the musical world, it was possible to bring in some highly acclaimed musicians to play on the album such as Gareth Davies the principal flautist of the London Symphony Orchestra and Iain Ballamy the internationally famous sax player and former founding member of Bill Bruford’s Earthworks. As well as producing and mastering the album, Rain also contributed his musical expertise by playing bass and guitar. Come March 2006 and the resultant album THE WORLD OVER was finished.
What happens next? We shall have to see!
Steve Hillman November 2006.
Please note this biography is an edited version and will be further expanded in due course to include photos etc.