Charlie Foulkes, Singer/Songwriter

biography

Erm, this sort of thing is embarassing, but you clicked so I guess you want to know... Where to start... I'm 32 and live in South London, UK. My star sign is Aquarius. We're supposed to be quite eccentric and unconventional... I'd say I'm a fairly typical Aquarius. Mentally energetic and restless.

I won't bore you with tales of how I played guitar from age 7 or wrote my first song at 14. That would be very dull. Let's just say there have been many songs and many bands. Also that I started out acoustic... "girl-with-guitar" style. If you are interested to hear Charlie Unplugged so to speak, please visit "The Blue Corner" on my musicv2.com engine.

So what drove me to sell-out and go electronic? Apart from drummers?... lol. My love affair with computer technology began when I did an MSc in Computing and Information Systems. Then I realised that I could probably learn how to use Cubase... which I did, and which was one of the things I taught during my time lecturing at University of Greenwich, i.e. Music Technology. If you would like to see some pictures of my studio, click on the link.

By now you are thinking - ??? From guitars to synths so quickly??? Well, maybe not that quickly. When I moved to London I met Gavin Bradley - Bunshop Productions. I had just bought a bass for £99 and was considering playing in a band... but not singing. Then somehow I ended up doing some songs with Gavin and we have been writing/recording "retro-electro" 1980's-style music ever since. Not such a surprise if you have ever looked at my CD/vinyl collection. Its... eclectic and probably quite... aquarian. Like many 80's kids, I owned a Casio keyboard. I absorbed Depeche Mode, Human League and so on largely by osmosis.

By the way, that bass came in handy - I did end up playing bass for a couple of bands (one of which was heavy metal). On the left is a shot of me playing at a gig in a covers band. This was my one song in the set for lead vocals - a cover of "Gigantic" by The Pixies. It has an excessively easy bass line... as anyone who plays knows, it is hella hard to sing and play bass at the same time. The bass players I most admire are Norman Watt-Roy (Ian Dury & The Blockheads), Bruce Foxton (The Jam) and the late John Entwistle (The Who).

As a songwriter, I'm interested in several things. The Bunshop stuff has really challenged me to, err, expand (thinking of Happy Eater!?) the range of subjects of I write about lyrically, from city gents, to all-you-can-eat buffets. Its kind of gritty. And very London. The solo electronic stuff is a different vibe altogether - unashamedly romantic... strings... I wanted to make some music to daydream to... songs about relationships..

What else? I have arthritis in my spine which is a bit of a bummer. Makes life more complicated for sure, and slower... Still, I have found some good meds and am doing OK. You wouldn't know to look at me, and I'm still very mobile. It is worse on rainy days (isn't everything?). The positive aspect of this is that it is quite useful as a gardener to be able to tell when its going to rain.

I like growing vegetables. My favourite places are London and Marrakech. I own a fat black cat called Cassie. I would like to see world peace... all the things you would expect from an electro-hippy. And yes, of course I compost.

Charlie, April 2005