Biography

“I’m lucky enough that my professional career has taken me all over Europe and the UK, and occasionally even further afield! I hope to help those aspiring musicians and artist starting out or struggling, like I once was, by giving them access to what I’ve learned through experience and from other top level musicians I’ve learned from and met along the way. Also through the collective wealth knowledge of Music Psychology field that I was introduced to whilst studying at the RNCM.”

Nick’s early career began touring around the UK and Europe with Percussionist Cormac Byrne and Violinist Anna Esslemont in the folk trio ‘Uiscedwr’ (BBC Young Folk Award 2002) whom he met whilst still studying at Leeds. The trio was his first taste of Celtic music and the repertoire was interesting and challenging as it fused with Latin, African, and Klezmer rhythms and melodies. The trio incorporated traditional folk line up of Violin, Bodhran with Nick on Acoustic Guitar, but also a more challenging line-up of Violin, Cajon set and Electic Bass. the lack of a harmony created a large space for his role as an accompanying bassist to fill, leading to his interest in expanding the traditional role of an Electric Bassist in Folk/World music.

Shortly after joining Uiscedwr, Nick was also involved with of the writing and arranging for the ‘Uiscedwr Big Band’ project (2008) which produced a live album, Nick’s first professional recording release. The project involved other renowned musicians from the Folk world Accordionist Karen Tweed, Guitarist Dylan Bible and Trumpeter Neil Yates.

Another project, ‘Bad Anna’ followed shortly after and utilised the talents of Manchester based Guitarist Stuart McCallum to create a wholly new sound that blended contemporary Folk music with Jazz harmony and rhythms from Latin/African music. The band made its debut at Shrewsbury Folk Festival in 2011 to a sold out audience.

After these bands concluded their time together Nick’s career became more diverse, traveling and working in 5-star hotels and cruise ships around Europe intermixed with private teaching and professional theater productions around the UK when home.

Nick completed a performance Masters degree at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2017 and still performs regularly around the North-West and abroad. His diverse career has led him to develop as a bassist in many different situations and styles; from small Jazz trios to Big Bands, Latin Bands, Contemporary Pop and Folk ensembles.

He is also writing and arranging for on his own original ensemble that infuses jazz with rhythms and melodies inspired by folkloric music from around the world.

His extensive and versatile experience in the music industry and has instilled in Nick a constant drive to develop himself both musically and personally, and to help other musicians achieve their goals and ambitions.