Graham Dean Satterthwaite

I was born in Manchester, UK in 1961. To cut a long story short, For the past 25 years I seem to have worked my way around half the world including Europe, Africa, middle east and Asia, playing and recording music of one form or another including a little jazz, blues, lots of ethnic stuff from the various continents, new age, classical and of course pop {whatever that is}

I've been blessed in that my work has been really varied, be it playing keyboards in various bands, composing for African choirs, studio and live sound for whatever walks in the door or creatively producing artists from Arabia to Cape Town to Amsterdam

In the eighties I was mostly in the UK and Europe and was lucky enough to work with some great names including The Christians, orchestral maneuvers in the dark, china crisis, BBC TV and A&M records. I also did quite a bit of live sound work which included Apollo theatres, level 42, salt n pepper and Piccadilly radio.

In the first half of the ninety's I spent a lot of time in southern Africa including, south Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Bophuthatswana and Swaziland. {My daughter lives in south Africa}.Once again I was blessed to work with some high profile names including, Mango groove, Brenda fassie{GOD rest her soul}, Caiphus Semenya , stimelai, Colenso, Peabo Bryson, Shine, rock n roll madhouse, Altitude, Capital radio, Principal records and lots of African choirs.

I also managed to work with quite a few studios including Wellington road digital Johannesburg, incorporated studios Johannesburg "bop recording studios" which at that time was one of the most sophisticated studios on the planet{right in the middle of the African bush}.The estimated cost was over 100million us dollars. I had a lot of fun there...every conceivable toy you could imagine in a custom built three studio complex that was the size of an aircraft hanger...it was absolutely crazy.....I would be doing something menial like say making a cup of coffee in one of the four luxurious kitchens and I would stumble across something like a 10,000 dollar microphone just lying next to the sugar bowl which was probably accidentally left there by one of the engineers on his way to the other side of the building to mic up one of the three Fazioli grand pianos...sounds wild...it was outrageous . Between 1993 and 1997 I was extremely lucky to be the full time keyboard player with "Shine" one of South Africa's most talented jazz/soul bands. Though I am definitely not a jazz player, I learned a lot from those guys and we merged well playing lots of soul/funk and ethnic African material.

In the second half of the ninety's I was mostly around the Middle East and India either playing keyboards or doing sound, both live and in the studio.

India was a blast. I initially went there playing keyboards with a jazz/fusion band called "jazz aliens" with Miles Perry. After a two week tour, they left ,I stayed and I ended up working there for almost a year playing piano bars and clubs and hosting road show tours for Pepsi cola {what a trip}..

2000 to 2008 I have been mostly in Dubai with a few projects in south Africa and the UK and mainly based at "Barry Kirsch Productions" Barry has been like my acting manager to me these past five years pushing me to write and work on my own material as much as possible while still paying the rent...My work in Dubai has mostly been composition and sound design for the TV and radio industry's with a few album projects along the way and even a few gigs..

Life is a journey {my first solo album} is more a collection of grooves and moods rather than definitive tracks....for 25 years I've mostly been working on other peoples projects but at the same time continually writing my own material...I hope to be able to work more and more on my own stuff and as long as it keeps paying the rent I'll keep doing it..

I am also trying to nurture my daughter {Palesa} into music. She is thirteen now and growing up in South Africa. She is a mixed race kid...Me being a brit and her mom from Lesotho and she definitely has music in her blood. {Sounds like a candidate for a star} maybe I'll be lucky enough to produce her

Music is a gift and a whole way of life.

Keyboards-Composition-Engineering

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Graham Dean Satterthwaite