John started playing music at age 5 playing classical violin. After passing his grade 7 violin exam John turned his hand to the 5 string banjo. John spent his teenage years mixing styles such as bluegrass, jazz and classical to form his own unique sound. While studying A Level music at college, John met keyboard player Jez Wing. They formed a duo called ‘The Black Cat Theory’ and composed new and exciting pieces for banjo and piano. In 2000, they entered the ‘BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award’ and won first place. They later went on to play at such venues as the Cambridge Folk Festival and the ‘Modal’ showcase. They were joined by Josh Clark on percussion (who later produced their debut album ‘Guillero’), and John Parker on double bass (from the musical phenomenon ‘Nizlopi’), and were also given free recording time by the BBC at Kate Rusby’s studio, engineered by Kate’s brother Jo Rusby..  Several years later John moved to the North West where he teamed up with ACLAIM (Acoustically Live and Inclusive Music), teaching banjo and doing school workshops. ACLAIM sponsored John to enter the USA national banjo championship in 2002. He won first prize, an achievement that no other European banjo player has ever won.