Hmmm, some of the earliest memories of music I have I owe to Pink Floyd. My Dad and eldest brother were (and are still) always listening to them; so, before I could say "floating pig over Battersea Power Station" I was into them too. It’s fair to say, therefore, that there’s always been a taste for the unusual in me.

At this time, I was also enlightened to the genius of Mssrs. Clapton and Knopfler. Every car journey was dominated by these three greats, interspersed with half-hour slots of Tina Turner or whatever pleased my mum at the time, and life at home was much the same. But, here also, there was another level. The same brother was beginning his path to musical excellence in his own right, and after a couple of years of teaching himself keyboards, he bought a guitar, and a new era began.

It’s important that you understand that, like some others of you I guess, almost all the music I heard at this time was from others. Actually, it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve had the means to buy albums myself on a regular basis, and this year especially has been phenomenal in that respect. I would estimate that in the last eight months or so, I’ve bought about three times as many albums as I had done in my life before the age of 14. But anyway …

With his new passion for guitars came a new wave of musical influence for me. I quickly became familiar with names such as Steve Vai and Ingwie Malmstien, as well, as even more of the old stuff such as Sonic youth and Pearl Jam that poured from his door. Probably around this time, my other older brother was listening to Placebo and Michael Jackson (strange mix, but there you go).

And I myself was listening to everything; sampling the delights of a buffet table of the finest cuisines ... and a few revolting auderves no one can quite remember the name of. Infact, looking at the CD rack at the discs from that time … ‘El Condor de Paso’, James Brown, Robert Johnson, The Levellers, The Beatles, Phil Collins, Meatloaf, Slade, Pan Pipes Collection, Mettalica … etc.

This list may look bizarre and amusing to you, but it was the beginning of a very broad musical mind allowing me to appreciate a plethora of talent rather than the two or three genres most people I know can stomach.

BUT, I still didn’t have the means or the knowledge to buy or request truly fantastic albums or discover what I really liked. I either listened to what the old guys were listening to, or chose random albums based on the fact that they either looked like something else I had and liked, or looked nothing like anything I already had … which is really what I still do I guess.

Then, suddenly and without warning, began the first of my musical infatuations. I was at my grandmas and I loved their record player, so, after quickly realising Harry Seacomb was not pleasant listening, I put on some funny, grumpy-looking old man with wild hair.

At first, nothing but crackling. Then … “is it a horn of some kind? Oh, it stopped. No, there it is, and something else, like flutes maybe. Yes, they’re repeating the same thing over and over but building each time, and getting louder – how novel” Then there was an explosion of music, followed by what sounded like a violin or something. I grabbed the sleeve; “‘Beethoven – 9^th Symphony.’ Hmmm, “Beethoven” - strange name for a song.” But I was in love with this music. I reached for another, and listened at length to Verdi, Wagner, Schubert … it sounded like the music on films, but better.

I hadn’t realised how much music had to offer. I didn’t know anything could sound as lonely as Barber’s ‘Adagio for Strings’, or as invigorating as Grieg’s ‘ Hall of the Mountain King’. For many subsequent months, all my attention was turned to classical music, and my radio never left Classic FM, lest I fancied Radio 3 may be interesting at a certain time of day. Chopin, Beethoven, Rachmaninov … all utterly fantastic.

At this time, also, I found a love also for an instrument. The piano. I’d always thought it sounded, well, nice, having heard it for years in everything from ‘Layla’ to ‘Hey, Bulldog’, but this was fantastic. I realised that this instrument alone had potential to sound as good as a full orchestra. But, I didn’t want lessons, as were offered to me, because I didn’t want to learn what they wanted to teach me, I wanted to play and hear (at the risk of sounding incredibly corny) my soul.

Anyway, this infatuation dwindled, as infatuations do, and gave way to yet another period of sampling. I loved rock, especially older rock like Lynard Skynard and Free, and I loved some slightly poppier stuff. Sting was a great musician in my eyes for some time … and around then, I also had a somewhat revisionist movement towards Pink Floyd and Dire Straits.

Queen also emerged as one of the sounds I knew from years ago, but that I only came to fully appreciate at this later date (I think by this time, I was perhaps 11). But I still had an ear for anything that stood out, and my brother’s discarded Wilki album and David Bowie’s ‘Earthling’ album made welcome additions to my collection.

By chance I was once sitting in Maths singing a song I had heard a little while before as Dad listened to Radio 2 – ‘When I Was Seventeen’. I didn’t really know who it was by, but I liked it. The girl sitting next to me told me the words when I sang: “When I was twenty-one, I mur mur murmur”, and then offered to copy me a disc. It was great, and so began another period of infatuation – with the Rat Pack. Other friends gave me copies of old Rat Pack albums (I know it doesn’t support the artists, but they’re dead now, they’ll hardly miss the money), and I was instantly happy whenever I listened to them.

Luckily, this discovery coincided with the release of Robbie Williams’ album, ‘Swing When You’re Winning’, which I always considered a valiant effort. This meant that, for the duration of this period, I benefited from Christmas showings of Robbie at the Albert Hall, and frequent airings of Rat Pack classics.

I walked down the street singing ‘Witchcraft’ in my head and feeling instantly serene. The power of this music to make me happy seemed infallible and whenever I was even the slightest bit down, I’d stick Frank and Sam in singing ‘Me and My Shadow’, and I would be smiling within seconds.

What’s more, it was music I could actually sing … ish. I have a limited range, but these melodies fell happily into it. That’s probably what my dad meant by saying Frank sings flat. Either way, I wasn’t planning on a record deal, but I loved the music even more for being able to sing along without sounding tooooooo stupid.

But something happened that made me very upset and angry, and though I put the guys on, I felt just as bad, or even worse. What I had once found calming now infuriated me as “stupid grannies’ music”. It was the heat of the anger I guess, but it was something I could never really escape from. Whenever I listened thereafter, I was only reminded of its ineffectiveness when I had needed it, and so, another infatuation was over.

Now, sire, and eft, sire, so bifel the case that as I watched the telly one day, there was an advert for Nescafé, and the music being played over was a rock version of Nina Simone’s ‘Feeling Good’. For years, I’d thought this would make a fantastic rock song, and here’s the proof. I had to find out who this band was, and as my brother asked me what I wanted for Christmas (which was just a few weeks away) I said “A MUSE album please”. He bought me all of them, and for the next 6 months or so, they were pretty much all I listened to. A fantastic rock band who sounded a little bit out of the ordinary and employed the piano in much the same way as in the recordings of Chopin and Rachmaninov I had loved so much almost a decade earlier.

A period of summer songs ensued, and the wonderful tones of Coldplay, Maroon 5 and Starsailor filled me with a kind of … well … pleasant feeling I guess ... but never left me awestruck. Sure I loved their stuff, but they were becoming so … ‘mainstream’. Normally this might not be a bad thing, but they were everywhere I turned, and there were (and are) so many bands like them that it’s hard to tell them apart at times. But things were going to change.

Now, finally in sixth form, and trusted by the music department to waste my frees manhandling their pianos (although I haven’t done music as a subject since yr9), and inspired by Matthew Bellamy’s playing, I began to learn. It’s frustrating and difficult (especially as I can’t read music) but with help from some rather patient Musers … well, one … I’ve been able to master some fairly basic songs such as ‘Sunburn’. On one such a manhandling session, as I played Muse’s live version of ‘Screenager’, tow young band members wandered in and stood quietly behind me (I didn’t know until I finished). They were impressed (for some reason) and we got talking about music and bands and so on. They asked me if I’d heard of Modest Mouse. I hadn’t, but a quick file transfer later, I was a fan, and I was soon scouring HMV for my own copy. 

Modest Mouse lacks the piano that I love in Muse, but, whereas Muse is an amalgamation of recognisable influences, Modest Mouse was entirely original (to me at least). A few weeks later, pleased that I shared his tastes, one of these guys pushed another band my way in the guise of Hope of the States. Back to HMV I went. Sure the guy sounded like he was still suffering from the night before, but that music was fantastic. It sounded almost like a whole orchestra, but with electric guitars and drums … how unusual. What would be utterly fantastic would be to somehow blend these two. “That’s a bit difficult to imagine,” a friend of mine remarked, “but it’s true!” I insisted, “The Arcade Fire is this and more … a perfect blend.”

And as I joined the board just a few days ago, you can tell that that bring me up to the here and now (and didn’t it take a bit of getting to).  Now I’d list my tastes as Placebo, Muse, Hope of the States, The Arcade Fire, Modest Mouse, Kings of Leon … etc, still loving Pink Floyd and the occasional Dire Straits moment, and still keeping an eye out for anything new and interesting, like the 5,6,7,8s or Chingon … anything … any suggestions?