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Many are aware that American inventor Thomas Edison was responsible for the electric light bulb, for development of the motion picture and telephone; but did you know that it was Edison who invented the record player?

Early audiences of Edison’s phonograph must have been enamoured at the sounds emanating from his invention. To be capable of listening to a human voice, or popular musical arrangement after turn a handle to a clock-work turntable must have seemed like a right wind-up!

And that fascination holds especially true for me.

Jump one hundred years from the 1880’s to the 1980’s and the ability to record sound and play it back (perhaps even with an over-dub) becomes a plaything of the urban bourgeoisie. Because in the 1980’s the multi-track cassette recorder was to become available, and affordable. These devises made it possible for individuals to become one-man-bands; they allowed people to emulate the raw sounds of early rock and roll, reproduce their favourite country and Weston song; or, record a piece of classical music they‘d learnt on the piano.

It is the novelty of imitating popular music that appeals to me. It can be likened to forging a Picasso, or re-painting the Mona Lisa with one’s own signature at the bottom.

And by incorporating accomplished musicians into recordings and improving one’s own musical skills, a life-long hobby of music making can be had - without infringing any copy-write laws.

I aspire to be a type of Thomas Edison: not an inventor of microphones, light bulbs and record players, but an inventor of songs.