Tat
Bio
"Although I'm just 18 I've got two older bro's and an older sis' who influenced me a lot. Through them I lived Nirvana, Guns 'N' Roses, The Stranglers, The Eagles etc. They offered me a gateway to loads of great music at a young age. When I was 6 we moved to Paris where on the school bus everyday, the 'big boys' would put on tapes packed with punk anthems. This is where my education really started; GREEN DAY, The OFFSPRING, RANCID, The PISTOLS, NoFx, The CLASH and BAD RELIGION. It was THE shit. I was into playing music so like everyone I learned the piano for a couple of years. Then I discovered the electric guitar and - BAM - that was it. Within six months I had started my own band.
"When I was 14 I moved back to London. At first I got very depressed. The only thing that made me feel better was punk music and its intoxicatingly happy rhythms. RANCID became my saving grace. I soon found a few good-looking guys around Shepherds Bush who played, but although we jammed they didn't want me in their band, so I decided I would have to do my own thing. I looked everywhere for bandmates, to the point where I taught my friends how to play and even asked Paul Cook to drum in a band that I started with his daughter. He declined! So I was constantly looking for bandmates, organising jamming sessions etc etc bla bla bla -
"In desperation I decided to speak to my next door neighbour, who happens to be in the music biz. He sorted me out to make some demos, which I did with Tim - Kuil Van der Tim as we know him - who was the guitarist and singer in The Vegastones. Tim really liked my stuff and played it back to my neighbour who said 'so that's what I've been hearing through the wall for the past 3 years! It's brilliant' ! My neighbour is now my Manager and Tim is now the guitarist and back-up singer in the band ! Tim's an Aussie and he brought in his compadre Damon on Drums and their pal 'Spreader' (because he's from Cornwall!) on bass. We decided to call ourselves TAT, just to confuse the issue.
"Before I had TAT together my Manager introduced me to Producer Mark Wallis to get one of my songs down properly. Mark shares a studio with Dave Ruffy, the drummer from The RUTS who agreed to play on it. Dave brought The RUTS' old guitarist Paul Cox along and we recorded "(I Don't Want to) Love You" in April (2003). After that I had to take three months "off" to get my A levels but in September we got back into it big time and recorded another of my songs ("Thinking") but this time as TAT, with Tim, Damon and Spreader. In November we're playing our first gigs together...I can't wait !!"