Welcome to my site!
This website is the central location for my music, musings, film work and other creative items of mine. I try to post a few times a week and I have a lot planned for 2012 so expect some interest and unique things. Thanks for reading. What follows is my ‘official biography’.
Copyright 2011 www.suclark.com
Esgi was born to British, Dutch, Jamaican, Chinese, Romany Gypsy, Jewish and German descent. He grew up in the now infamous Camden Town, in London, UK. He was brought up on world music. His father was one of the founding members of ‘Ujama’ the African and Caribbean music, drumming and dance school, the first school of its kind in Britain. His mother was a professional dancer. As a natural consequence of these influences he grew up with an appreciation not only for a wide range of music but also for performance. By six years old, he had performed his first gig playing the cowbell. From then on he always wanted more cowbell.
His professional training began with classical guitar in primary school at the age of 11 reaching Grade 5 (ABRSM) before moving on and exploring jazz. He then found an interest in other styles such as blues, rock, metal and fusion. He started teaching himself piano at 19 and particularly enjoys trying to play the blues.
With the musical childhood he had, it was only a matter of time before he began to explore the idea of writing his own music. His first experience of creating music involved just a guitar and a tape deck, using it to overdub layers of guitar, vocals and rhythms with congas and beat boxing. To his frustration he discovered the pitfalls of accumulating noise from over-dubs on cheap tape. He eventually got hold of an Atari 1040st and a MIDI keyboard and so began his addiction with making music.
Over the years, the technology advanced but the passion stayed the same. He builds his own computer workstations and studio. Still, he appreciates the incomparable feel and sound of real instruments. His goal as he writes music is to “create new, interesting, original music, with talent leading the tech, and substance leading the style and If I’m not telling a story of some sort I don’t see the point of it.”
During his teenage years he was a member of a various bands with styles ranging from funk and acid jazz through to rock and metal. One of most successful of these was a five piece hip hop band called “Shanequa”. The band featured Esgi on piano, Morcheeba’s Steve Gordon on bass, and Brand New Heavies’ Simon Bartholomew (guitar) among others. They played various London clubs, including the Kashmir Klub and Cargo. They performed on cable television, live. During this time, he worked and developed other recording and production styles with Shanequa and US hip hop producer Lee Stone (Pharaoh Monch, Mos Def, Busta Rhymes). The band recorded a single entitled ‘Uh Oh’ featuring UK rapper Mike GLC. The band ended for various reasons soon after and everyone went their own way.
Esgi has continued to work on music, consulting bands, engineering for studios and doing gigs of his own.
Projects
He co-founded the rock/pop band The Renegades in 2007 with Sean Wallace with whom he also recorded and produced The Renegades’ debut album ‘If I Can‘. In 2008 he also wrote and produced an ambient instrumental album, entitled ‘Echoes In Time‘, a critically acclaimed orchestral soundtrack album which he has remastered and re-released for free under a Creative Commons license.
In January 2011, Esgi released a free, mastered compilation of guitar jams he has recorded. Titled ‘Improvisation‘, it contains seven completely improvised tracks (the bonus track, ‘Spanish Folk Song’ is a cover of (you’ll never guess), a classic Spanish folk song. The compilation is not a commercial release and cannot be used in any commercial capacity, it is just a collection of Esgi’s jams. The album is unique as each song has the performances recorded live on video, which are available to view for free on YouTube.
Developing the sound design credentials which were explored in his album ‘Echoes In Time’, Esgi contributed to a number of small film projects, he also released his own interpretation of one of his favourite franchises, Tron and Tron: Legacy, named ‘Quorras Dream‘. This also introduced him to the narrative power of video editing.
In 2011, Esgi teamed up with local Camden filmmakers and co-founded a video production company, Dreamscape Pictures.
