Spare DougalWhat's It All about?
Spare Dougal is the name I give to everything I do. I do lots of things in various fields and rather than having a load of different websites for you to trawl through and a million and one business cards to hand out, I thought one might be better.
So Spare Dougal is just an umbrella. I produce records, I engineer records, I master records I do audio consultancy for people who want to make their own records but need a hand. I also produce bespoke photography for my clients as well as designing, building and maintaining their websites and social media accounts.
Spare Dougal is also a record label. It's only a small record company but it's nicely propotioned. take a look at what we do here
About Me
I started as a bass guitarist in various bands before getting fed up and deciding to having a dabble at a solo career as a percussive baritone guitarist. Then I got a bit bored of that and I decided to start making records for other people instead. Since then that's what I've been doing, though I have been brought back into the world of the musician, becoming double bassist in The Little Unsaid.
I've been involved in making records for over 4 years now after doing time at LCM and SAE. I was co-owner of Pinna Studios until recently when I decided to focus on production work and not running a studio. So far I've been fortunate to have my work with Portico Quartet nominated for a Mercuty Music Prize in 2008 and with Oumou Sangare nominated for a Grammy earlier this year.
My current project is 'The Little Unsaid', check them out.
Why Spare Dougal?
Well it was while I was at Leeds College of Music studying with a composer friend of mine Richard Canavan. We were obviously embroilled in the subject we were learning about at the time, so much that we were discussing his new pencil case. It was a Dougal shaped one (as in Dougal from the magic roundabout) and while discussing its various attributes, I/we decided that just in case something were to happen to said pencil case, it would be beneficial to have a spare dougal.
That is it. It stuck... and here you are. I didn't promise it was going to be earth shatteringly genius. It's just a name after all. What did you think it meant?