“I was born in Canada to newly immigrated English parents, and my father brought with him an obsession with The Beatles. We were fairly poor, and so only had about a dozen records. I recall Stan Kenton, Tchaikovsky, some Dixieland jazz, and some albums of marches – but the vast majority was Beatles.”
“My father had them posted to him as soon as they came out; I guess they were first pressings. When my father died when I was nine, I therefore inherited: a first pressing of Let It Be (still hard, inflexible vinyl at that time) which came in a box with a thick book full of glossy photos, a poster … also Magical Mystery Tour, also with booklet … Revolver … and others. Some of my first memories are of those records; and they meant so much to me. I think you’ll hear the Beatles influence fairly clearly in my music.
The first vinyl record of my own I asked my mother to buy for me. Alice Cooper, Billion Dollar Babies. Fantastic cover; looked (and felt) like a green snake-skin wallet and inside was a giant banknote and a picture of Alice and a baby with his same gothic make-up. There were songs about necrophilia (“I Love The Dead”). My mother was traumatized. This led into the obligatory foray into the world of Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin – I still love Led Zeppelin – followed by the post-punks — Squeeze, Elvis Costello, XTC – who were themselves of course heavily influenced by the Beatles. Add to this some prog, some rock/jazz fusion, etc and at a fairly young age I had accumulated a pretty impressive vinyl collection.
Sadly, all good things have to come to an end. I had some “friends” who had got themselves onto the wrong path, and they broke into my house and stole my entire record collection, which they sold to buy PCP. I’m still gutted about it.
Inevitably I became a full-time musician before turning to science, but now I’m back at it a double A-side CD is coming out. I’ve been very lucky. First, to meet my management company headed up by, Meredith Cork at Yellow Brick Music, she’s looked after Marcella Detroit from Shakespeare’s Sister, Butch Vig who produced Nirvana, Garbage (she even designed that cool album cover with the feathers).
Second, to be able to record with my friends Canadian platinum-selling band The Odds, who are great blokes, and such great players, e.g., drummer’s played with Bryan Adams; bass player with KD Lang; they toured as Warren Zevon’s band. And Third, to be able to work with Keith Wilkinson from Squeeze – one of my big influences – and the great John Cornfield, producer / engineer / mixer for the likes of my big influences – and the great John Cornfield, producer/engineer/mixer for the likes of Muse, Razorlight, Supergrass, and Oasis.
Told you I was lucky.”
—Damian Cox
