ABOUT
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ME
The greatest gift and opportunity in this precious life, is to discover the truth of who I am, beyond all that I have been given, beyond all that I identify with.
I was born in Tanunda, a small country town in the Barossa Valley in South Australia. At 13 I began playing guitar and writing songs. Four years later I was introduced to chanting and devotional music while living at the Sivananda Yoga Ashram in Western Australia.
As a teenager I was influenced by the powerful social revolution songs of the 60’s and 70’s and at the same time I was inspired by the tradition of chanting and devotional music, and the power it had to bring people together in a sacred and silent way. I realized this inherent quality was not limited to any particular genre of music or belief, but is always present and possible.
In 1989 I moved to India for four years. That was a very transformational time for me. My experiences and meetings there are at the heart of my songs, the most profound of which was my meeting with Sri Harilal Poonja (Papaji). The songs on the album Surrender were born out of my time with Papaji in 1992.
Three and a half years in the making, Surrender was produced by Kamal Engles of ArtOfAudio Studio. Kamal was the producer of the 2011 Grammy Nominated album Pure Sounds by The Gyuto Monks of Tibet. Surrender was a collaboration with Kamal Engles, Oles Krolikowski, Sangeeta Lavin and a beautiful group of talented and heartfelt musicians and singers.
I was very happy to be a finalist in the 2013 Australian Independent Music Awards (MusicOz Awards) with 10 songs in 3 categories. Surrender was released on 10th June 2014.
Since 2002 I have lived in the Byron Bay region of Australia where for seven years I was a member of the band Lucknow Sankirtan. During that time we held ongoing weekly devotional music evenings, and played at festivals and events in Australia and Bali. The band finished playing together as Lucknow Sankirtan in 2010.
I intend travelling in the coming year and look forward to singing together with you.