Breeds - Lead Guitar

Home town: Basingstoke, Berks 

Hobbies: Music!

Breeds was born and raised in Johannesburg, South Africa. He started playing guitar at 14 having developed a passion for music and being heavily influenced by his older brother who also played guitar. The ‘bug’ quickly bit and at 15 Breeds formed his first band, concentrating on original music.

At age 17 Breeds was called up to do a year’s worth of National Service in the SA Army. As luck would have it he managed to get into the military equivalent of a bad ‘boy band’ called ‘The David Song Group’ that happened to also use an electric guitar and bass guitar live. Although the music was not quite to Breeds’ taste, it was a fantastic opportunity to travel the length and breadth of South Africa performing to wide and varied audiences.

When the year came to an end Breeds returned to his home town and picked up the band that he had started at age 15. Still concentrating on original music, the band continued to develop and grow and started playing at various popular ‘live’ venues around Johannesburg. In 1995 after doing this for a few years the band, still in early 20s, decided to relocate to the UK where they believed they would have a better chance of success! And this is where it unfortunately all fell apart as only half the band managed to get to the UK!

Breeds then picked up the pieces and started building a new life in the UK, settling in Basingstoke and actually taking a step backwards musically as he concentrated on his UK Citizenship. Breeds then had the opportunity to pursue a lifelong ambition and went to study guitar at the Academy of Contemporary Music where he achieved a HND in music.

In 2003 Breeds put together a covers band called Bicycle Thieves and also concentrated on building up his part-time teaching practice. The band stayed together until the end of 2010 when the singer unfortunately relocated to USA and the drummer decided to call it a day. It was by putting his feelers out on certain websites that enabled Breeds to team up with Heathrow Jets which he joined in May 2011 ...

Favourite Artists

• Hendrix, Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Rush, Tori Amos, Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Tool, Neil Young, Jeff Buckley, Police, Eels, U2, Peter Gabriel

Influences

• Hendrix, David Breeds, Robben Ford, Nuno Bettencourt, the Edge, Andy Summers, Steve Morse, Dann Huff, Joe Bonamassa
  

Equipment

• Fender Elite Strat
• Ibanez Artist
• Cornford Hurricane
• Lots of pedals!