DOB: 11/12/84
Instruments: Bass Guitar and Piano
Musical Influences: Chilli Peppers, Jamiroquai, Silly Wizard, Blowzabella, Jethro Tull.

I first picked up a bass when I was 16 in my last year of secondary school. Like many teenagers, I was into rock music and anything else that wasn’t a manufactured band of singers miming a song (written by someone else) to computerised backing music. I was friends with a guitarist called Dave who I met working at my local pub. He was also into rock music and he would play his guitar when I was at his, usually some Jimi Hendrix tune he’d learnt that week. I decided I wanted to become a guitarist and he tried to show me how to play. After realising that it was harder than it looked with all them strange hand positions trying to cover six strings at one time, I became bored of the idea. Dave suggested that I borrow his brother’s bass instead. The bass sounded a lot better. There were fewer strings, fewer unusual hand positions, fewer everything.

I took the bass home to attempt to learn. After a few weeks of plucking one string using one finger to some rock tune on the radio, I decided I was ready to become a rock bass guitarist. It seemed a lot easier than the guitar until I discovered the Chilli Peppers. I suddenly saw a bass player plucking many more strings with many more fingers at the same time very fast. I realised it would take a lot longer than a few weeks to become good. We formed a rock band, again like many teenagers and began to practice classic rock tunes from bands like ACDC and Guns and Roses. Eventually we managed to get a gig as Brian Maiden playing rock covers.

That summer, I went along to the local village folk festival. Dave told me to bring my bass along to the session. I knew that Dave and his brother played in a folk band but I had never actually heard them before or ever been to a folk festival and didn’t have a clue how to play folk music. I took my bass anyway knowing that I probably wouldn’t play it.

During the session that afternoon, Dave’s dad, Steve (must have been drunk) asked me if I would play in their dance band that evening, the Knapfoot Five. I agreed (must have been drunk) to go along despite my lack of knowledge. I spent the whole night listening to Dave (definitely drunk) shouting “play in D” or “play in G”. I replied with “where’s G?”. You must remember that I never took lessons and taught myself therefore I had no actual musical knowledge. I soon got the hang of it though, when I found where G and D were.

This is where I really became good friends with Dave’s brother James who sometimes played his fiddle so fast I thought his fingers were going to fall off. Dave and James were asked to go and play at Dartmoor folk festival a few weeks later. Two weeks before the festival, they decided that I should try and play too. We now had two weeks in order to come up with a good set of our own tunes. We managed to put together some tunes and had a great time at the festival.

As Mawkin, we began to play a few small folk clubs together and I also took up more of a permanent residence in the Knapfoot five ceilidh band. For a year we played together at weddings, private events etc and coming round to festival time again, in true Mawkin fashion we decided to add another member three weeks before a festival. In steps Alex…

Alex was given a tape with most of our tunes that he had to learn to play as fast as James. At first I felt sorry for him. He was bombarded with tunes that Jamie played (usually double the speed) and was expected to know them for Dartmoor. But soon I stopped feeling sorry for him because he not only learnt the tunes perfectly within two weeks but could keep up with Jamie’s rocket fuelled fingers aswell just in time for Dartmoor. Genius!

The four of us then went on to do some other festivals over the summer and Alex also started to play with us in the Knapfoot five. Things were looking good. We were beginning to sound like a real band and not a collection of musicians. More festivals than the year before, bigger stages, regular folk club appearances and more ceilidhs too. This trend would continue for the next few years, each year out doing the number of festivals and gigs played the previous year.

Now after 4 years of playing with Mawkin I can say that I definitely know where G and D is now and feel that I’m beginning to find my own sound and style. Along side my bass playing, I have recently decided to learn the piano for the ceilidh band so once again its back to square one.

–
Danny