David William had a different path into Music than most musicians. There was no musical background in his family. He didn't form a band while at school or even pick up an instrument during his school days.
David's passion for Music didn't spring into life until he was 17 years old, after he'd left school and began work in his first job. Around about this time he became drawn to the guitar - probably seeing it on tv a lot more since it was the Britpop era of the mid-90s. He received a budget electric guitar that Christmas.
At the same time as this a "mystery virus" struck him. At least that's what the doctors called it. It was like some sort of weird flu that first struck him days before that Christmas he received the guitar. He'd spend a week or two in bed unable to do anything. Even reading a newspaper or watching tv was too much. This "mystery virus" went on for about a year. David would feel fine at work and then every few months he'd be struck down again by this and spend a week in bed. Gradually a week became two weeks and the gap between being struck down shortened. He was sent for all sorts of tests and scans and his work even sent him to a private hospital to be checked. They could never find anything and kept referring to it as a "virus" which would eventually go. By August 1997 David felt he had no choice but to quit the job.
In parallel with this, he was becoming more and more fascinated with Music. As soon as he'd taught himself a few chords he began writing songs. He would use two tape recorders as a primitive way of overdubbing and would give these tapes to his dad. Encouraged by the positive feedback, a year or two later he got a 4-track tape recorder, and began creating more elaborate demos. The process of writing songs and then arranging and producing them was totally captivating - like entering a private universe.
The 4-track demo tapes were encouraged by friends and family over the years and by the end of 2002 David began to contemplate making Music for a living. A new phase started and the following year was quite bizarre. With a website up and some of his songs out there on the internet they ended up taking him to some strange places. Early in 2003 a demo version of his song "Come & Go" received airplay on Manx Radio, Isle of Man. The DJ couldn't continue to play it as he was receiving phone calls from listeners asking where they could buy it but it wasn't available for sale anywhere. The same song attracted attention from a Dutch radio promoter a few months later who heard it played on one of his stations and was in the process of setting up an artist management business. He got in touch with David and they met up in Glasgow but in the end nothing came of it. A few months after this, David received an email from a pop artist in Bosnia & Herzegovina. He was working on a new album and looking for songs and somehow came across David's. He was interested in using three songs on his album. Again it fell through as mysteriously as it had come along but it was strange watching this artist represent Bosnia & Herzegovina at the Eurovision Song Contest the following year.
The disappointment in these opportunities was more financial than anything else. David was starting to feel pressure that if only he could get a song recorded or taken on by someone it might bring in finances that would allow him to go away and develop as an artist in his own right. He hadn't really explored playing live other than a few pub gigs for a number of reasons - mainly that he didn't see himself as a solo artist but hadn't yet met anyone with the same musical aesthetic and he hadn't practised enough, seeing himself more as a songwriter than an accomplished musician.
In 2004 he decided to make an album independently. Frustrated by the limitations his own recording set-up placed on his songs, he wanted to hear them in a band context with drums, bass, piano, etc... The ideas were all there and there were plenty of songs. So early in 2004 he contacted a local producer in Edinburgh and sent him a CD with a bunch of his songs and notes on how they should sound. Work began on the album in April that year, with "Come & Go" being the first recording. David and the producer never actually met. They each worked on their own and sent CD's back and forth until the project was complete.
The album was released independently early in 2006 and received largely a positive response online. It even got a warm review in the Daily Record, the biggest national paper in Scotland. At this point the biggest dilemna David faced was the direction he should go with this Music. It was becoming increasingly obvious that going down the traditional industry route, trying to get signed as an artist or songwriter was not for him but he couldn't see another way. Still the songs were piling up and he had a new batch ready for a second album and by the end of 2006 had a little more advanced studio set-up, now recording with computers which enabled him to do more himself. With this set-up he created demos for a planned second album but was feeling lost.
Songs would still occasionally come but for the next few years David lost interest in making Music until summer 2009, just after he moved into a new apartment in Edinburgh. For the next year this creative swell would build culminating in him leaving behind everything to go to continental Europe in October 2010. In March 2011 SoulJahm was born - a new vehicle for this musical journey...
