User:Madfiddler
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Well where do I start? My much missed Polish grandfather, Edward Karol Hanka (photo on the photos page) introduced me to the violin at the ripe old age six. Very sadly, he passed away when I was eight so after a local school teacher my tuition was taken over by Trinity College violin professor, Andrew Sherwood. Surfice to say, with his expertise, I competed in, and (ego on) mostly won (ego off), various local music competitions. I also took part in the Audi Junior Musician Contest - and gained a place in the U.K. regional finals (the only violinist from a comprehensive school to do so). The best thing about that was getting £50 travelling expenses to get to the finals site, the Royal Pavilion in Brighton! I also played with the Brighton Youth Orchestra for a number of years but eventually I just got too bored with playing classical music. I still like listening to it, but..... After finally taking my Grade 8, at the age of 17 (I was supposed to take it 3 years earlier, but like most teenagers, I couldn't be bothered to practise properly), and passed with 140 out of a possible 150 marks, I promptly gave up (the same day). Three years passed, with a bit of playing but nothing to speak about, until I joined T.U.T. :- Tricks Upon Travellers in 1994 after seeing an advert in the local newspaper.
A live review of TUT said of me, "One of the reasons for this is the presence of Mark Knight, TUT's fiddle player. Let's think about fiddle players. There was Fairport Convention's Dave Swarbrick. There was David Lindley, who was on every Asylum album in the 70s. There was Daryl Way, who was one of the first to go electric with Curved Air. There was that bloke out of the Charlie Daniels Band - he was good ... and there was Tobermory, or was it Omsk, on 'Remember You're A Womble' ... Well, now there's Mark Knight, and he bears favourable comparison with any of them. Watch out for Mark Knight - you will hear of him again. Even if he has to change his motley for a mini-skirt and do Vanessa Mae impressions, I predict that this boy will make it." - great quote, eh?
I have also played in Andrew Sherwoods' Lewes based 'Musicians of All Saints' Orchestra. I now do session work in the U.K. (and in Europe using the internet to swap files) when it comes my way, including playing on the Divine Comedy album, Casanova and, on the Beatitude album from Pepe Delux (the guys behind the recent Levis Twisty Jeans commercial).
In 2000 I joined the slightly more famous than T.U.T., K-Passa. It makes a big change doing pub gigs in from of a couple of hundred people if you're lucky (even if it was the best music in the world), to travel to countries such as Belgium and Slovenia to play in front of literally 15000 or so. A number of one off performances with Zappa influenced jazz band, Peripherie, and some session work with Bjorn Lynne also kept me busy. I left K-Passa in September 2001, and after a unwanted long break, I started playing with old friends of mine, the Bluehorses. In 2003, I left my full time job, to work within the freelance industry, and my first violin job has been with Massive Attack, preparing violin parts and effect processor patches for their forthcoming world tour. I hoped that this would lead to further work, but sadly it did not so I found myself unemployed once more. After contract work in the games industry for a few months, I found myself back in full time work at Visual Science in Dundee, Scotland. I'm currently looking around for a new musical project, whilst trying to find the right people to get TUT back up and running. I'm also doing on and off gigs with "Stuck in D'80s". SID80s is a retro computer games band, performing old 1980's Commodore 64 game tunes, in a rock, and unrehearsed fashion.
While music, and specifically performing, is my "life" like most people I do have a full time job as a composer and sound designer in the video games industry. Over the past 13 years, I've spent time either freelance, or at Mindscape International, Electronic Arts, and at this time, Visual Science. Such hit games as Warhammer: Dark Omen, Wing Commander Amiga, Duke Nukem PSX, Populous the Beginning, Dungeon Keeper 2, Theme Park World and more have been sonically penned by me, in one way or another. But, the violin is what I'm really about. I truely believe that the reason that I am on this planet is to play. But, as with many things in life, you don't get to be where you are due to what you can do, normally it's all to do with who you know. Only time will tell!
On another note, I also found minor fame in different musical nature, that of the Commodore Amiga Demo Crew, spending many a day writing music in the ubiquitous 'tracker' format, which found it's way into loads of demos by groups such as Anthrox and Melon deZiGn. For the record, I was know as 'T.D.K.'
Now for a little bit of the personal stuff:- Although a Brighton boy through and through, I am currently living in Manchester in England with my wife - Nesli, and my cat - Cuddles (not the name of choice - I would have chosen "Git", but there we go).
Just remember, live performance remains the area I want to make more of, so if you are interested, please get in touch.
