One late night in the middle of winter in the late 70s a handful of boy enters in at the maternity ward of a Hawkes Bay hospital. All fingers and toes accounted for, another chip off the old block is born.

Early memories were forged in Whakatane, before a return to the Bay saw him ripen among the orchards, surrounded by the hills and sea, into a slim li'l guy too nervous to get a date to the school ball.

Having been given a guitar by his parents on his 11th birthday, this odd li'l fellow spent his teenage years coupling it with another passion - homebrewing beer! Spending many a drunken night listening to the Pixies, Smashing Pumpkins or one of the crap local school bands at parties he decided this looked like a bit of fun (and maybe a way to get chicks to come to him).

Moving to Nelson in his late teens he began hanging out with the oddball eccentrics, the emotionally befuddled, the ones commonly known as musicians, and before long was on stage sheepishly whispering into the microphone, hidden behind an anchor weight of guitar, to the denizens of the local bars.

Taking a leaf from the Frank Black book - who was told to ‘scream like you hate the bitch’ – this 60 something kilos of something found you got a lot more attention, and had a lot more fun, if you let it rip. And somewhere on that stage the little boy died and became a man!

As the years and bands went by, and the injuries (yes musicians do have them!) healed, there’s a fire that still ignites in this guys belly, so he’d better keep a microphone in front of his mouth before it burns everybody.

More recently spending some time outside the bands doing solo acoustic gigs, a trip back to his roots sitting alone late at night as a teenager working up those callouses on a cheap six string. A songwriter even back then, finding that voice is another story.

With an ever growing musical repertory, a young son and starting a new job selling (ahem) houses it seemed that even sleep was taking up too much time. Then an opportunity came up that could not pass him by – a band looking for a Dave Grohl! Having loved the Foo Fighters ever since the first album this now overeager fellow decided he wanted in on this too.

And with this the four members of the Faux Fighters came together to follow in the footsteps of legends…

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