Hello and Happy New Year! How’s the New Year’s resolutions going?

I’m starting 2026 the way I mean to go on, with lots of fun gigs and NEW MUSIC!

As well as various wedding gigs, both as a solo guitarist and with my function band, I also have a few shows and releases with my original music project, Solcade.

I’ve been involved in a few original projects over the last decade, but mainly as an arranger and band leader. My songwriting contributions have been minimal. As a result, I’d been storing up a small collection of ideas that didn’t really suit any of the acts I was working with. These sketches mixed funk and jazz with the afro and latin-fused rhythms I’d developed a deep love for through past work with older ‘world’ music acts, and mixed with a heavy dose of psychedelia and garage rock.

After we began to emerge from the pandemic and start performing live again, I decided to put together a group of musicians with a shared interest in less common styles of music (at least within the UK), including afrobeat. Initial jamming and writing sessions yielded some interesting results, and almost saw the project reshape into something closer to free jazz. However, the lineup didn’t remain stable and I had to rethink what I was trying to achieve.

By 2023, I had assembled a slightly altered lineup that shared the same vision: to write interesting and genre-blending music; and to credit all compositions to all members equally (in this case, as a five-way split). This can sometimes cause issues such as resentment of one member is not perceived to be adequately pulling their weight in terms of writing. However, I was fortunate enough to be working with enthusiastic creatives who stepped up to the challenge, and we soon had enough songs to get onstage and perform live.

Best of all, this collective approach applies to more than just the songwriting process. I may have kicked this whole thing off, but we now work as a team, with no singular leader, making this a true band; a collaborative experience. You can find regular updates on the band on our Instagram page.

Our first single, ONE MORE DOMINO, is out now, available everywhere. This song focuses on the feelings that come with the build-up to revolutions throughout history. Listen to the new track here and let me know what you think.

Stay tuned for news about future releases…