I was born in Cardiff, I’ve lived in London, various bits of the US and Canada, Mallorca, Paris and Dubai, but I’ve been based back in Cardiff since 2006.

I wrote my first full song when I was 11, influenced by Zeppelin, The Stones and Neil Young, then after a couple of years fully immersed in Punk Rock, I heard Three Imaginary Boys by the Cure and was immediately captivated by Robert Smith’s writing, playing and singing (fair to say I was trying to write like Robert Smith right up until the moment “Love Cats” was released, which for various immature reasons I hated, so a few of my dreams died that day).

Anyway, now I’m pushing 60, but even back then I wanted to work with a string quartet, I just love the sound. It didn’t seem feasible when I was in bands as a young man, so I put it out of my mind, but I’ve been seriously thinking about how to get it done for at least the last 10 years.