Wayne Clark

Singer / Songwriter and Recording Artiste
Born Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Wayne played in a number of bands over the years while honing his songwriting skills, and today his songs are a reflection of those experiences. He’s had little or no interest in playing cover songs for most of his life and had always preferred to be in bands that played 100% original material. He also enjoyed the company of other songwriters in the bands as well, believing it gave the audience a wider array of sounds and song styles.

By the age of twenty-one Wayne had started up his own band playing all original material, and the band gained a healthy following over the 10 years or so they were together. But as time progressed, his style of writing was taking on a different form and he left the band to explore his new direction.

Later on, unforeseen circumstances saw Wayne playing as a bass guitarist in country rock bands, and his experience was widened yet again. Playing 5 string bass to country music is now one of his most enjoyable experiences.

Wayne has had some success with his songwriting and has received awards from the USA’s Unisong Competitions since 1997. He was also a finalist in the 1998 National Country Songwriting Competition at Tamworth in Australia. Since then, he’s been living a quiet secluded life spending most of his spare time writing new material and working with troubled horses which is his other passion.

2006 eventually saw Wayne securing his first publishing deal with UK based company Cringe Music Publishing for some of his instrumental theme tracks. They are now featured on Cringe Music’s 3^rd and 4^th Universal Themes CDs, and have been distributed to the Multimedia industry for their consideration

Now, Wayne is recording the first album of a CD set he’s calling ‘The Labyrinth Collection’. The collection will be a varied compilation of some of his old and new original songs covering most of his styles. He is accepting offers for a record deal on the first album, and hopefully the whole collection, and is currently in negotiations with ‘Red Admiral Records’in the UK with an anticipated release date of late 2007.

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Autobiography

Music has played a major role in my life for as far back as I can remember. Even as a youngster before I could play an instrument, music would draw my attention and engulf me with its spell. Since then, I realized how powerful and colorful it could be and how a song could have an effect on the listener. It was this realization that had me interested in exploring the possibility of becoming a songwriter myself.

I’ve also been an adventurous individual, and I’ve certainly found enough adventure to keep me entertained over the years. But as the years strolled by, my focus leaned harder towards the music and Songwriting, and now my main adventure is in the music itself.

When I was about 8 years old, I came across an old ukulele and my ears taught me how to play chords and tunes. Not knowing the tuning of a ukulele, I tuned it to suit myself. Before too long, I was creating my own tunes and melodies and I teamed up with a school buddy not long after who had a toy keyboard. This was my first experience with a live multi instrument sound, and I was hooked.

Our family home was also always blessed with a piano, and I often used to tickle the ivories while I was alone looking for melodies and chords. Soon after, my parents found a tutor and I began my first piano lessons.

During that time I found an old violin, which was in surprisingly good condition. It’s amazing what you could find at the local rubbish dump in those days. I used to pretend it was a guitar, and would play along to Beatles songs on the radio. But my piano teacher, who also taught violin, saw a chance for it to be used for its real purpose and had it restored. Needless to say, I also started violin lessons as well. Thanks Dad. He footed the restoration bill.

During those early lessons, I'd often cop a wrap on the knuckles for not turning the page as I played, and my tutor would continually tell me to "read the music". But she made the mistake of playing new tunes for me first, and my ears and memory would take over from then on. I never did have much interest in those little black dots and scribbles in amongst all those lines.

But then I found "The Acoustic Guitar" and it didn't take me long to teach myself how to play a few chords. From then on, the fuse was lit and the piano and violin quickly became just a memory. I wrote many short tunes and songs on that guitar, and I penned my first memorable song titled "It Ain't Easy" at about 14 years of age. I still might record that song one day just for memory sake.

Soon after, I discovered the versatile sounds of "The Electric Guitar", and I just went into overload. Songs were coming at me thick and fast, and many were lost in the rush hour. I joined my first 3-piece band as guitarist, and we played our first gig consisting of all instrumentals with a few originals thrown in at a school dance. We were so good that someone flicked off the stage power during our third song. Fortunately for the crowd there were other bands playing that night. Thinking back on it now, the genre of music was, well……….indefinable really, but we thought we sounded great. I guess we all have to start somewhere.

My love of songwriting continued as I joined a 4-piece band as the guitarist again at age fifteen. This time we didn’t get kicked off stage. We mainly did cover versions playing at the odd school dance and a back yard gig or two, and it was all a good learning and fun. We lasted about 6 months.

At age of eighteen, I joined four guys who were also bitten by the “band bug”. We called ourselves “Zipp Rippedy”, this was the first band I was in that played 100% original material. The other guitarist, Barry Skipsey, also wrote for the band, and he's since moved on to bigger and better things with his love of songwriting and photography. We played together for about three years or so and we all had a great time. I look back fondly on those Zipp Rippedy days.

Zipp Rippedy Boys in the Band

At age twenty-one I started my own 4-piece band called ‘Liquid Ice’ We were your basic rock band with a few ballads thrown in for good measure, and we spent the first twelve months writing and rehersing new material before we went on chasing gigs. The band stayed together for around ten years overall, and during that time we often played a 2 to 4 hour gig of 100% original material with favorable feedback from the crowd. We didn’t realize the size of our following until we announced our break up at our last gig. But by that time, my writing was taking on a softer feel and I needed to spend time to explore its full potential.

Liquid Ice

A few years passed and I was asked to fill in one night by a friend as bass guitarist for his country rock band called ‘Rough Cut’. After that gig, I was immediately picked up as a bass guitarist by another country band called ‘Cool Change’, who’s now known as ‘The Black Hill Ramblers’. And so, from then on, it seemed I was recognized as a bass player as well. I ended up playing with them for a few years before being picked up to play bass for ‘Marcie Jones”’ who's from the ‘Marcie Jones & The Cookies’ era. I spent about a year touring around with Marcie before pulling out to go back to my main passion of Songwriting once again.

Wondering whether my material would be deemed good enough for the music industry to consider, I started entering a few songwriting competitions over a period of time to gauge the response from those in the field. I ended up winning a handful of achievement awards from the USA as well as being a finalist at Tamworth's National Country Songwriting Contest back in my own home country of Australia.  The judge's comments were also quite inspiring and the experience showed me I'm heading in the right direction.  (See Homepage for 2007 UK Songwriting Contest Results).

In 2004, a good friend in the UK joined me up with The Guild of International Songwriters and Composers.  It's through contacts from the Guild that I've had a few of my instrumental theme trakcs picked up by Cringe Music Publishing for release to the Multimedia Industry on their Universal Themes series of CD's.  This was my first involvement with any part of the music industry, and for that I am most grateful after many years of trying.

Through Chris Ashman (CEO of Cringe Music Publishing) I was introduced to Scottish Lyricist Margaret Ritchie who has turned out to be both a great friend as well as a collaborator.  Margaret and I are having a great time writing together long distance and you will hear some of our collaborations on following albums.  I think you will find they are well worth waiting for.  Thanks Chris.

By listening to Margaret’s points of view, I eventually decided to record my own material as a recording artist rather than continue trying to find other artists to cover my songs. Cringe Music Publishing shared a similar view and is offering to back me on my first CD of a collection I’m calling The Labyrinth Collection. This collection will be a compilation of all my favourite songs and I’m hoping they’ll be shared with a wide range of listeners.

I am currently accepting offers on the first CD and hopefully the whole collection, and I am currently negotiating with the UK based Red Admiral Records with a view to release the first CD in 2010. This is an exciting time for me and it’s really uplifting to finally have people around me who believe in my passion as well.

This is the beginning of my lifetime dream of getting my songs out there, shared and heard, and there will be no looking back once it all gets going. It’s been a fantastic journey so far and I am looking forward to continuing my journey until there is absolutely no road left in front of me. But even then, I’ll probably end up making my own if that ever happens.

My life’s road has always been full of different sounds and songs and I’m sure that everyone will find at least one song amongst them all that will touch their heart or soul in one way or another. So don’t categorize my style after listening to one or two songs off one CD. Colors make up the whole universe, but you will never find all those colors in one place.

Along with horses, music is my biggest passion in life, and both have given me a huge amount of satisfaction. While working with either, I feel whole. But to be recognized for either one, makes it just so much better and so much more worthwhile.

And a huge thanks to my daughter Kelly and my son Daniel for putting up with my musical obsession over the years. I know there are times when you think my speakers are louder than your voices, but no amount of sound can drown out the warmth of your hearts. I love you both dearly!

Enjoy.

Wayne