User:Simonlarkin/sandbox

Simon Larkin aka Ensa
simonlarkin.net Wayfarer Records

Who is Simon Larkin
I've been called a lot of things in my time, not all of them can be mentioned here as I do not want to offend, but who or what am I? A musician, a songwriter, a producer, re-mixer??? The list goes on, I guess I am all of those things but most importantly a lover of music.

It all began at the age of 7, when my mother bought me a classical acoustic guitar and lessons for my birthday. From that good musical grounding I moved on and in my teens switched to playing bass. Why?........ That's a good question, bass suited me better and gave me freedom that I never felt playing guitar.

Local bands, a couple of tracks on a few very obscure compilation albums etc etc. But it wasn't enough to keep my hunger satisfied. So the move from my home town of Glasgow to the bright lights of London was my next decision.

It was there that I joined up with rock band Monterrey, they were exciting times with a thriving rock scene. We were amongst those on the top of the pile, with certain success and playing support gigs with the likes of Guns & Roses, Faith no More, Skid Row and Cutting Crew, to name but a few. Headline gigs at the famous Marquee club as well as Camden Palace and the Hippodrome, all intertwined with nationwide tours, added up to one hell of an experience.

There followed a period of session playing for various production companies and some large. well known recording studios, but the music scene was changing.............

I decided to have a break and moved out of London to concentrate on making music, just for the sake of it.

It was at this point that I discovered computers and digital music opening up a whole new world of sound and possibilities. Synths and midi had not played much of a role in my musical career up to this point but now I was hooked.

The next few years were spent playing around with genres, sounds etc., searching for a sound that I felt was me. I want to combine all of those rock and funk elements, that I had spent so many years honing, with electronic and digital sounds.

So to Omerta records and the successful release of Alpha Duo's 'Beautiful Dream', at the end of 2010, which included my chill out remix. This really gave me the confidence boost to kick on and push my own tracks which led me to Dave Luxton and Wayfarer Records.

November 2011 and the release of my debut album, with Wayfarer, entitled 'Ensam' under my artists name 'Ensa'.