FRAZKNAPP PROFILE : 2008
Growing up through the 70s/80s in London, with a music mad father gave me an early passion for free music! Experimental music was always around and allowed me to discover alternative methods and theories on how to project various styles of music. Because my dad was a guitarist, I used to hang out with him at gigs and festivals from an early age, which soon led to an appetite for the loudest instrument on stage - the drums! So I've been playing ever since I was first able to ask Santa for my first drum kit!

I started listening to The Police and air-drumming to Copelands rhythms which soon led to an interest in all of Sting's drummers - most of them from the jazz world (Omar Hakim / Vinnie Coliuta/Manu Katche). After following these musicians I soon found such bands as Weather Report, Frank Zappa, Chick Corea and John McLaughlin (Mahavishnu),mixinging my ears with some Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix in between. I started playing properly at about 13 years old and toured around France with a jazz trio called WildBlue witch was my father's project.

Moving down to the South West of England in my early youth sparked a lot of creativity that I still actively tap into to this day. I have been inspired by lots of geniuses on my travels, many of them from the hills of Devon!

Around the age of 18 my music took me back to London where I regularly worked the live music circuit, also slaving myself to the record industry for a few years where I ironically found an interest in writing music. Deciding that the countryside seemed a more inspirational place to write, I became involved with a few local projects in Devon, gigging myself to death around the coasts - but enjoyed every minute! I've worked around Europe and the States in a wide range of projects from performance to music and have done my time with the Brittany fleet, P&O ships on the trusty old Europe crossings for a year or so, then moved up to the glamorous world of Haven holiday camps - 6 nights a week, all for the sake of getting some bucks (darn good practice though).

Been playing up and down the country ever since in a diverse tapestry of bands, ranging from Rock-Reggae-Funk-Acidjazz-Jazz Fusion - original and covers. I am currently studying a Music Degree and am working on Various projects in Germany and America currently experimenting with a Collaborative Creative Production idea, to be able to network artists to artists. I've met some top musos through my life so far, who taught me to open my ears on how I approach my playing on the drums. "Improvisational Internal Combustion" Thay said, Means: "To play what the hell you like, when you like, however you like, until you cant play any more". Seems to suit me down to the ground.

Fraz Knapp