guitarist, singer-songwriter

At the age of eleven (I am now 24) I decided I wanted to learn guitar. My father very kindly lent me his, a full-size six string acoustic guitar which at that time pretty much dwarfed me. Although for a while I went to group lessons to learn basic chords and fingerings, essentially I'm a self-taught musician. Most of what I learned early on came from listening to and playing along with my favourite records, trying to figure them out or just improvising with them.

This said, I think there are three main factors which have had the biggest impact on my development as a musician:

• When I was 14, I formed a band called Eska with some friends (we are still together). We were motivated by experimental rock music coming out of America and this was reflected strongly in the music we produced. So much of what I know about being a musician came from this context. Learning to co-operate with other musicians, the experience of writing and sharing music with other people, performing before an audience, the recording process, being a band on tour, and getting to know the music business with its many pitfalls and cul-de-sacs.
• The whole experience of home recording also opened things up for me. Around the age of 17, I acquired a 4-track recorder. A great deal of time was spent in my parents' house (their poor ears) experimenting on my own and with my friends. Since we were only making music for our own entertainment and we were our own audience we were really free to try anything. Home recording, and an amount of the spare time that we only really seem to have so much of while we're young, really encouraged me to develop my songwriting. It led to me develop a style outside the context of my band and ultimately led to me also playing live and recording as a solo performer under the name "The James Orr Complex".
• At some point in my late teens I became aware of using different tunings and playing fingerstyle guitar. Some of the American bands I had listened to, such as Polvo and Sonic Youth, experimented with tunings. I discovered that re-tuning the guitar almost turned it into a new instrument, new shapes and sounds appeared and I found myself approaching the guitar from other angles. Playing with my fingers encouraged me to look for new rhythms and melodies that hadn't suggested themselves before, and of course I would have to work out ways of singing along.

Though I believe these three elements are the most significant in my development as a musician, it is impossible to overlook the impact made by the music I have listened to over the years. As I have already mentioned, experimental rock music was where I started from and many, though not all of these bands were American: Polvo, Sonic Youth, Slint, Trumans Water, Gastr del Sol, Drive Like Jehu, Tortoise, Can and Faust.

Some of this music, it seems likely, led me in through the side door to jazz musicians such as: Charlie Mingus, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Polish and European jazz, Isotope 217 and the contemporary jazz scene in Chicago. My father had a broad taste in music but a healthy collection of folk music and he got me into Pentangle and Bert Jansch among others, which paved the way for an interest in Nick Drake and the American guitarist John Fahey. I had also discovered music from other parts of the world, for instance, Nigerian Afrobeat (Fela Kuti), Ghanaian hi-life, Spanish flamenco and Gypsy music from all around Europe.

The one other major musical influence in my life I have saved until last - because it is Brazilian music. My wife is originally from a small town in Rio State called Resende. We met studying at university here in Glasgow and together we embarked on a voyage of discovery into the music of her cultural roots (her family moved to America when she was about 8). We found the Tropicalia artists, in particular Tom Ze and also early material by Gal Costa and Veloso. I came across perhaps my favourite guitar player: Baden Powell. Our journey also led to music that reflected Brazil's rich and diverse cultural influences: Candomble, macumba, African devotional music and artists like Papete and Almir Sater who had their roots in various folk styles. What excites me most is that I know I have only heard a fraction of the music made by Brazilians.