About Me

So, what were my influences??

On leaving school, I always wanted to learn French. My friends used to joke - ‘black man speaking French?’, so in the 1990s I went to Bilston College to learn.

On my way to the canteen after lessons, I would hear drums behind closed doors in the hall and think ‘that sounds nice’. A couple of weeks later I decided to find out what was happening. Also hearing the drumming made me start to question how much I knew of my cultural heritage. Not enough, I realised, and getting involved in drumming seemed a good way to start finding out!

I enquired and started Caribbean drumming with the folk loric artist Andrea Green. This was a fantastic time learning wonderful Carribean rhythms and gaining more of an understanding of my rich Carribean culture.

I joined the troupe Sekwense music. It was here I learnt about African culture and Ghanaian rhythms and percusion and began performing live. I remained with this group for around 10 years, before eventually deciding to move on and go it alone and create Kallilo Drumming.