I recently graduated from UCL in philosophy, and work at a music journalism archive. I play the piano and the saxophone, mainly jazz and funk.

I love listening to live music, whether in a concert hall or in the basement of a pub. In fact, I like it almost as much as I like playing live music—at a jam, on the streets, or, from time to time, in whatever venue will take me.

I also take a lot of pictures, both digital and analogue, with whatever comes to hand—my phone, Nikon F3 or Polaroid SX-70, usually.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Meet people, learn stuff, experience life

Interests

Cooking: I was lucky enough to grow up in a house where good food is served every day. My dad is a great cook and I've picked up an appreciation of good food because of it. Because of that, I have been learning to cook myself so that I can afford to carry on eating well.

Art: One of my favourite things about living in London is being around the corner from the Tate (Modern and Britain), National Gallery, V&A, Newport Street Gallery; the list goes on and on. Whenever I go places I try to see as much new (or old) art as I can.
I'm big into photography having grown up surrounded by cameras, mostly of the analogue variety. Current favourite photographers include Daido Moriyama, Rinko Kawauchi and Masahisa Fukase.
Of course, I also love painting and sculpture and whatever else. Recently I've enjoyed exhibitions of John Hoyland and Ai Wei Wei's work, and I'd quite happily live in the Turner wing of the Tate Britain.

Music: Like I said, I play a lot of jazz and funk, with big bands as well as smaller line-ups. I also produce electronic music using Logic. For the last few years I've been exploring the future bass scene and trying to figure out where it fits in with groups like Daft Punk and the development of electronic music in general. In summer, I usually busk with my saxophone.

• modern art
• photography
• music festivals
• music
• live music
• jazz
• absurdism

Music, Movies, and Books

Books

Haruki Murakami — any of it, but especially A Wild Sheep Chase, Dance Dance Dance and The Wind-up Bird Chronicle.

Raymond Chandler — all of his stuff.

Music

All sorts of stuff. Jazz, funk, classical (particularly romantic composers like Tchaikovsky or Sibelius, and minimalists like Reich and Cage), electronic music of most descriptions, rock (both old and new)...

Movies

Anything with a half-decent plot!
As long as it's trying to say something and is shot well I'll probably enjoy it. My favourite film I've seen this year is Lady Bird. Will happily watch anything by Paul Thomas Andersen, Tarantino ...

Teach, Learn, Share

Languages, cooking, music? Anything I have to offer :)

What I Can Share with Hosts

Cooking, language teaching, fun, conversation

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, United Kingdom, Wales

Countries I’ve Lived In

England