I got into classical music because it was a world of sound that I’d never heard before. All these interesting harmonies and the sort of stuff you hear in the backgrounds of films…I have always been a film buff so maybe that’s why. I started playing when I was around 7, just making random noises on the guitar. My dad could see I had an interest and taught me the basics before I moved on to having lessons. I was playing rock and pop songs that I was into (and still am!) for a couple of years until one day I walked in and the teacher was playing some classical Spanish guitar music. That was it, from then on I just wanted to learn to play that way. I went through my Classical grades, auditioned for Chetham's School of Music in Manchester when I was 10 and went there from age 11 to 18.
My Dad’s friend is a photographer and he was hired to do a lot of the Chethams School photography. He asked whether I’d like to work on filming some videos for pieces I was playing at the time. I agreed and we ended up filming a Piazzolla piece in an old mill in Bolton of all places! I never expected anyone to want to watch it, so when it quickly surpassed 10,000 views I thought “Oh my gosh, this is insane!”. That same video has recently reached 1 million views which is even more surreal! My parents moved out to France so we were lucky enough to film some beautiful videos there. It’s always been more for our own satisfaction and has become a big project that we do as and when we can.
I’ve had a few people approach me to play concerts after seeing some of the videos. I was thrilled to be invited to play a sold out concert at Swaledale Festival; it really amazed me how many members of the audience I spoke to afterwards had seen one or two of my videos.