Jimmy Livingstone

I was raised in Midlands suburbia. I was a good kid. My years as a righteous citizen peaked at fourteen and a half. Then things changed. I became an accident waiting to happen.

Music had always been there as a child. From listening to American crooners in my Dad's car to discovering punk and new wave, it all suggested life was elsewhere so as soon as I could, that's where I went.

I embraced life in London with exuberance and an open mind. It chewed me up a little so eventually I went to America. I was twenty then. I moved around a lot, got in a few scrapes, survived an attempted murder and fell in love with someone I lost and never found again when I got hospitalised.

Back here I became a man with many hats. I worked in smelting foundries, on building sites, I shook cocktails, sold beef but my head was still full of music so I joined Pig, an industrial band. The likes of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails would show up to gigs and sample the records. There were other bands too. I didn't really belong in any of them but I learnt a lot.

Meanwhile I had to eat. At one point I nearly got very rich but didn't – I pressed 'eject' and went into free-fall instead. I had a symbolic moment of rebirth - a high-speed car-crash that should have killed me. I walked away unhurt and euphoric like I wanted to get a bigger, better car and crash it some more. I also began to hear my songs. So finally I dedicated myself to finding my voice as a songwriter and protecting that as one pure thing that would not be compromised by all the other stuff I had to do to survive.

I've now made my first album. Recording began in London with my band and ended in Los Angeles. I worked there with the guy who produces Lucinda Williams' records, with the likes of Doug Pettibone and Butch Norton from her band, Doggen from Spiritualised and Frank Zappa's old brass section. It was a real trip. I became homeless in LA and finished recording in the Mojave Desert on my own. Out there you're nothing but who you are and that's a good place to be for making music.

The record’s done, mixed, mastered and ready to ship. Come hell or high water, it will be out early in the new year. Meanwhile I'm singing and swinging in London, writing the next record, getting on the radio - just getting out there and doing it.