How did you get to where you are now?
I studied music at GCSE, and then studied music technology at A-Level after that I went onto university, and I got my degree in creative music technology. While I was in the second year of uni I joined a band called Gallows. Originally, I was only supposed to be in the band for seven days, and before I knew it seven days turned into seven years. At this point, I was living in America with my partner, and I decided that I had got to the end of my time with that band. So I left the band and came back to England and thought “what am I going to do now? I play guitar, maybe I'll start teaching people how to play guitar?”
I ended up working for a charity called Youth Connections. I helped run a recording studio in my hometown. And while I was in the recording studio, part of it, I had a couple of conversations with people about the local college. The college invited me to go and look at the facilities at West Herts College in Watford.
I went to look at the facilities and the guy who ended up giving me a tour was actually the same guy who organised the first gig I ever played when I was 14, and he was now the head of the music department. We ended up chatting for a couple of hours and at the end of it, like left it thinking that place was awesome, they're doing great stuff.
Two weeks later, I got a phone call asking do you fancy teaching the music industry to our students? And in my head, I was just like, “I’ve got severed heads tattooed on my hands, I've never taught a lesson in my life.” But I actually ended up going in and teaching! I went from teaching one lesson a week to teaching five days a week - any subject that they throw at me, I'd take it on. I ended up staying at the college for about eight years and became a qualified teacher, whilst still doing some freelance work within the music industry.