(You’ll notice on this page I talk about myself in the first person.)
Sam has a great passion for music in various forms. He currently works as a senior school music teacher by day. During the evenings and weekends Sam composes and produces his own electronic music. Sam strives to be creative and unique in the music he writes and cites influences from a wide range of musical genres.
As a baby Sam’s first musical encounter was listening to Pachelbel’s Canon. When he was four he started having lessons on the piano-accordion. Sam took to the accordion very quickly; throughout his childhood he had accordion lessons with Elaine Beecham. Sam competed at many festivals and competitions with the accordion; he was UK champion consecutively in various categories at the United Kingdom accordion championships. Meanwhile Sam studied for graded exams in accordion playing with the Guildhall School of Music and
Victoria College of music.
When Sam was seven he learnt how to play the clarinet and sax. This opened up a whole new world of musical opportunities for Sam and he quickly took an interest in jazz and improvisation. As a child and a teenager Sam gained lot of experience in ensemble playing; participating in school jazz bands and wind ensembles on the clarinet and sax. Sam was invited to join the Colchester Accordion Showband by Elaine Beecham, and performed in the band at concerts around Essex and other part of the UK.
In 2006 Sam went to Canterbury Christ
Church University to study a Bachelor’s Degree in music. During this time he continued study the accordion under with Elaine Beecham and received a year of clarinet tuition from Professor David Campbell. Sam broadened his musical horizons further by studying orchestration, conducting and arranging under Professor Paul Edlin; along with with popular music, jazz-rock fusion and musical analysis. In his final year Sam wrote a dissertation about the musical influences on Frank Zappa and explored avant-garde music; both of which have been a major influence on Sam’s musical activities.
After completing his degree Sam stayed in Canterbury and learnt how to sequence music and produce music on a digital audio workstation with direction from his friend Conrad Brameld. Both Sam & Conrad started recording
music under the alias
LoFi. The name LoFi described the low-fidelity equipment they used to record and produce their music. As LoFi, the pair produced two LP length collections of music;
Prepared Axe and The Taste of Noise.
Sam also was involved in other live music projects during this time. Sam performed
clarinet and tenor sax with for fellow university student Joe Inkpen and his band the Mop Collective for the band’s
Rainbow Conceptuals project. Afterwards Sam joined Kent based jazz-fusion band Daylight Saving, playing sax and accordion.
Sam eventually moved back to Colchester and got a job teaching music at an independent school. He studied for his Post-Graduate Certificate in Education at University of Buckingham whilst working.
Sam aspires to continue
composing electronic music under
the alias Android Boogie. In the future Sam wishes to produce music with other vocalists and remix songs by well-known musical artists. Sam will continue to collaborate with Conrad Brameld on future
LoFi projects.