Do you ever put on an album and listening to it takes you back in time?

Do you ever picture flares, discos or a stack of vinyls by your bed?

Because this is this time and sound that inspired my debut album.

It’s the real reason I fell in love with music at all.

I remember the moment I fell in love with rock’n’roll. I picked out a random CD from my Dads collection and listened to it play through a pair of old black speakers. Although the song was a ballad something happened inside me that changed my life forever. 

The song was Billy Joel’s ‘Just The Way You Are,’ and it was the reason I started teaching myself how to play piano. Over the next two years I would sit alone at an upright piano during school lunchtimes and teach myself the chords to ‘She’s Got A Way’ or ‘Movie Out.’ Eventually I would find other artists like Elton John, Carole King and thus continued my never ending quest to understand this music that had lit my soul on fire.

Looking back I can see how these songs were not only teaching me how to plan the piano, but how to write music. Listening to every note, playing the same song for hours on end, was like my university. And when it came time to record my own, I knew exactly what to do. I knew exactly how I wanted it to sound.

I wanted them to have that real 1970s magic.

So let’s listen to my favourite 1970s inspired songs from my debut album!