I was born in East London on 29 January 1956. Both of my parents were Irish. I had a secure and happy childhood in spite of constant illness. I went to a Catholic primary school (where I learnt the art of day dreaming) and a county high grammar school (where I became disruptive). I built up a resentment and disrespect for teachers, I saw them as anorak wearing sociopaths.

I have been interested in music from ever since I can remember. I used to drum along with early sixties pop and Irish music with 2 knitting needles on the arm rests of the front room chairs. I then had an old upright piano all to myself when was eight. I used to remove the front panel and mess around with the sound even though I had never heard of John Cage. I bought my first guitar when I was 16, but I began to learn the instrument when I bought a Les Paul Standard in 1978. In the eighties I had several analogue mono synthesizers and sequencers

I started multi track recording when I was 14. My mother had bought me a mono 4 track reel to reel tape recorder. When I covered the erase head with a match stick I could build up multi layer recordings of home made instruments. The disadvantage was I could not hear the previous layers so that results were unpredictable! I started serious multi track recording in the late seventies.