William Douglas

William's style has been influenced by many but he sees some of the great songwriters of the sixties as being the most important. John Lennon and Bob Dylan are particular favourites. "Listening to songs is educational for me as a song writer so I try to listen to the best. It's not that I want to sound just like them but all writers draw on their roots so I want to mine to go back further than last years charts".

Many people have been inspired to play music by a particular song or artist that they heard but William's story is a little different. "I saw the film 'Waynes World', and it came to the bit where there's four of them in car and they start headbanging to Queen's 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. I'd never heard the song before and I thought 'I want to play guitar like that'. I'm still working on it!"

William's current guitar is an electric acoustic which he bought in California. "My uncle picked it out for me at the shop. He tried a lot of them but said that this was the fastest!".

Also while he was in the States, he joined Taxi, the independent A&R company. "It's my ambition to get my songs published and either perform them myself or write for someone else. Taxi will critique my songs and match them to what the American music business is looking on a monthly basis."

William has studied song structure and crafts his own carefully. "I've become quite critical of other people songs, as well as my own. It's rare to find well written lyrics".

New Year's resolutions for 2003 included 'Get more gigs'. "Gigs are essential both for building a local reputation and improving stage craft. I've played open mike nights in Edinburgh, Haslemere and more recently a club gig near Pulborough. Another goal is to produce and sell CD's at gigs."