There's a guy works down the chip shop...

Approaching the age of 30, Simon Dinwiddy has worked nearly half his life at Fred's Fish & Chips in Littlehampton.
SimonSimon
Simon

But this is the year he’s going to make a go of a musical career, with the release this month of his debut single Round The Bend.

“I have always loved music. I did classical piano as a child, and at the age of 13, I picked up a guitar and got into the band Nirvana and formed a band fairly quickly.

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“Through my teenage years, I always had bands going on. We started working with a producer and we did a couple of singles back in 2012. We got a little bit of airplay, but life gets in the way.

SimonSimon
Simon

“I had a child and I had a few challenges.

“But last year, I decided to try to get back into music. I didn’t have a band or anything left, but I managed to record 30 songs. I did them all as demos and then I finished off my favourite couple and I am now self-releasing them.”

The first single is Round The Bend which you can find it on YouTube: “You go through challenges in life, and once you get over those hardships in life, we tend to laugh about it.

“ It does seem so small after a period of time, and that’s what the song is about. In a way, it is a fun song. The chorus says ‘You can’t laugh until you are round the bend.’ It means many things, but it is not really thought out. It is just instinctive.

“I don’t tend to think too much when I am writing my songs!

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“Before, we managed to get on the BBC. I want to achieve more this time around than I did with the band. I just want to see how it goes. I want to release songs every few months, just doing it this time around independently. Before, we got picked up by people and it was a bit chaotic. This time around, I want to try to be more independent.

“I am going to be gigging soon. The first challenge was how to make a reasonable sound, and I managed that. And then I did the video. It was filmed a little bit in Littlehampton and a little bit in Arundel.”

The music comes after Wick-based Simon resolved his family situation. His son is five and lives in Wales.

“Five years ago, when I was in the band, an old girlfriend got pregnant. We got together and everything was hunky-dory.”

But then things fell apart.

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“But for the past two to three years, I have been in regular contact with my son.

“I have him every other weekend.

“I decided I wanted time off from music. I wanted to have the time to fall in love with my child, just to be a dad, just to enjoy everything that I had missed out on, and then it felt like time to start up with the music again.

“I have always been passionate about my music. I have always been able to come up with catchy music. I feel almost like a responsibility to produce music so that everyone can enjoy music.”

And this is the year he hopes to go further with it than he has ever done before.

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“This is the year of new challenges and getting out of my comfort zone.

“I did suffer a lot with alcohol and drugs in my youth and early 20s, but I am very much clean and sober now and looking forward to getting on with life!”

https://soundcloud.com/simondinwiddy; https://www.facebook.com/simondinwiddymusic;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuxr25L5_d8; https://www.simondinwiddy.com.

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