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kind of worked with other people as well. But for me, it was early starting with guitar and then
putting it together with vocals.

BiTS: You’ve got a new album coming out shortly,
which I’ll get back to a little later. Tell me how
Steve Birkett
working with Steve (Steve Birkett, Lead and Slide
Guitar, Backing Vocals, Co-Songwriter and Co-
Producer) has been for you. How did you meet him in
the first place, for example?

RD: It was probably about ten or 11 years ago now,
somebody introduced us. I kind of took a bit of a
hiatus – about a year or two off from bands because
you do get quite worn of it sometimes. It’s very hard.
It’s not an easy existence at all and I’d had problems
with bands and stuff. So I was introduced to him just
initially starting off with some cover songs again and I
was finding my way back into music and I went round
his house, and he was playing me some of the stuff

he’d written, and I was playing him some of the stuff
I’d written, and I was just like we need to start playing
this. I thought maybe I’d kind of done with that side of
my life, but as soon as I met Steve, I realised that no,
I’m not done with it [chuckles] and the whole thing
was ignited again, to be honest.

BiTS: But what about the blues? Do you consider
yourself to be a blues singer or something else? How do you think of yourself as a singer?

RD: Other people obviously have said that I’m a blues singer. I’m a vocal coach as well and I’m
constantly fascinated by voices and different vocal characteristics. I love the blues and I’ve
always had kind of a bluesy voice because growing up with swinging jazz and then navigating
towards the blues, which is like an obvious direction. I would say it’s a mixture of things, soul,
blues, rock, basically. Sometimes a bit of jazz as well. I think it’s got different elements, but
probably number one is blues. There’s always going to be something else as well. There’s
always got to be different influences because there’s no way you could have gone through your
life, you’ll have always picked up something on the radio or something like that. There’s no
way that you could have not had any more influences.

BiTS: But you had a spell at one stage in your life at University, Staffordshire, I believe, doing
fine art and art history. Is that what you did?

RD: That’s what I did, yes. I was a painter and an artist since I could hold a pencil. I don’t get to
do that much of it now, which is a shame, but I am hoping to get back to that at some point as
well and take it on again. All the while that I was doing that, I was in different bands as well.
There wasn’t really the music course available at that time that suited, so it was always a case

of I’m going to continue with my painting and so that’s what I did but was in probably about
three or four bands at the same time as well [laughs].

BiTS: Do you consider yourself to be an artist, I mean, in the sense that you paint and produce
things or anything like that?