About Me

Hey! My name is Richard, Here you can find a bit more out about me and what i’m all about!

I started playing drums when I was about 10 years old. At first, this started as nothing more than messing around on the school drum kit. However, once I got to secondary school, I started to take it a bit more seriously - I started taking drum lessons, and joined my first band. Throughout school, we would play as many gigs as we could. By my mid teens we were performing 3 + hour sets with more than 40 songs at venues around Oxfordshire and Berkshire.

In 2013 I studied contemporary music performance at Oxford college. This is where I really began to learn to play with other musicians. Being surrounded by so many different players and styles of music, really helped me expand my playing ability. It also inspired me to take my musical knowledge in a different direction by learning how to play the guitar.

In 2015, I started my degree in Audio Production at the SAE Institute in Oxford. All I wanted to do was be able to record all the songs and ideas that were popping into my head, so studying in music production was the clear next step. Not only did I gain fantastic hands-on experience with outboard equipment, I learnt how to properly engineer Audio, crafting the perfect guitar and drum tones, capturing the best performance for a musician for that one important take, and how to construct and structure a song.

In 2019 I started working in one of the UK’s largest music shops, Play Music Today, and formed my current band Arimea. Over the last 6 years this has taken me to every corner of the country and even out to Europe. During this time, my confidence has grown massively. I have also learnt that playing fast and complicated music is really not always necessary. Technical ability is one thing but learning when and how to use that ability is a much harder but more valuable lesson.

I have always had a fascination with gear and equipment - not just what makes an instrument sound "right" but also what makes it unique. It's always scratched the nerdy side of my brain.

Working in a music shop for such a long period really strengthened my knowledge on technical aspects of music: what materials affect instruments, which drumheads, sticks or even guitar strings are most appropriate. It is vital to appreciate that being a musician is unique and that not everyone will be comfortable using the same sticks or, even, the same sounds. Discovering what works for you is the most important part of your musical journey and that's exactly what I can help you with!