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I was born in East London, England the youngest of four children into a musical and artistic family. I was born at home next to the piano so it was kind of like a cab driver being born in a car or a director in a cinema… My big brother George taught me how to play 12 bar blues on the piano and I taught myself the rest. I would listen to records and work out how they did it note by note. I grew up musically with Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix and through them I discovered jazz and funk and Herbie Hancock. I started going to watch bands at local pubs and hanging around with them after. They told me about electric pianos and with the help of my father and a summer job I bought my first electric piano, a Hohner Pianet. Sadly I didn’t have an amp and had to play it through my parents clock radio !
I didn’t really enjoy school very much but the thought of getting a job was even worse so I went to art school and at about the same time started to get serious about being in bands. My first professional performance was with crazy English pop legend Arthur Brown who rose to fame singing a song called ‘Fire’ and setting light to his head on stage, luckily when I played with him he had sobred up a quite a bit. After this first taste of the stage I decided that this was the life for me. I was also sadly forced to choose between art and music by my tutors; I chose music.
During the early years we would do anything musical that earned us money. It just seemed incredible that anybody would pay us to play, we did quite a bit of cabaret and backing band work in working mens’ clubs up and down England and a couple of residencies in Europe. We would do the gig at night and spend all day rehearsing our own music for pub gigs when we had nights off but we really weren’t going anywhere. The band gradually fell apart and we went our separate ways until a chance meeting with Boris Williams who’d been the drummer in those early bands. He had made the "big time" and was playing with the Thompson Twins, he told me they were looking for a new keyboard player and a few months later I was on tour with them. I worked with them from 83-85 when both Boris and I left , he went on to The Cure and I joined the Psychedelic Furs. Looking back it was a pretty amazing time the fact that we were both in major bands but sadly not playing together.
In the spring of 87 Boris called me on tour in Denmark with the Furs and asked me if I would be into playing with The Cure for a tour of the states. The chance of playing with Boris again was too good to pass up so I said yes even though I didn’t really know anything about the band. I was a member of The Cure form 1987 until 1990 when things got pretty bad within the group and I left rejoining in 1995 for a further 10 years. I co wrote and performed on 4 albums, Disintegration, Wild Mood Swings, Bloodflowers and The Cure.
For the last couple of years I was a member I was increasingly unhappy, I felt I’d lost sight of where I started and the reasons why I got into music in the first place. It seems the bigger the band the more removed you are from the actual music. I began to agree less and less with the direction the band was going in and the decisions being made. After our last major tour however I started talking to a few young indie bands and about making music and goals and expectations and I realised I hadn’t lost my love of music I just needed to start making it for myself. I found out I was no longer in The Cure through the internet but if I hadn’t been pushed I would have jumped….
During the last few months as a member of The Cure I started work on a solo record inspired, composed and recorded entirely on a Moog synthesizer. Definitely not a concept album more of a concept for an album concept, it was a re-visiting of my early days of composing using limited. Consciously un-compromised or commercial, it's a mainly instrumental ( Erin Lang sings 3 songs ) journey through my musical influences and where I am now. Finally, music that I am satisifed with and that satisfies me. "The Truth In Me" are the 10 songs that say what I have been trying to say for a long time.
During the process of trying to release this album I was lucky enough to find the one person who believed in it and was prepared to take a chance. Luckily that same person, Kevin Wortis, had just started a record label, Great Society Records with his partners at Worlds Fair in New York. After so many years of being in this business to be involved at the very beginning with a new company who are as excited about this music as I am is a real pleasure.
It has been a long story and I am not sure what the next chapter of the story will be but I know it will involve music. It’s been a part of my whole life and although I have other interests I’m never as happy as when I’m making music.

EMAIL ME > ROGER@ROGERODONNELL.COM
MAIL ME > PO BOX 19, EX18 7WZ, UK
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