Esgi was born to British, Dutch, Jamaican, Chinese, Romany Gypsy, Jewish and German descent. He grew up in the now infamous Camden Town, in London, UK.
He was brought up on world music. His father was one of the founding members of 'Ujama' the African and Caribbean music, drumming and dance school, the first school of its kind in Britain. His mother was a dancer. As a natural consequence of these influences he grew up with an appreciation for a wide range of music and for performance. By 6 years old, he had performed his first gig playing the cowbell. From then on he always wanted more cowbell.
His professional training began with classical guitar in primary school at the age of 11 reaching Grade 5 (ABRSM) before moving on and learning jazz for a number of years. He then found an interest in other styles such as blues, rock, metal and fusion. He started teaching himself piano at 19 and particularly enjoys playing the blues.
With the musical childhood he had, it seemed only a matter of time before he would begin to explore the idea of writing his own music. His first experience of creating music involved just a guitar and a tape deck, using it to overdub layers of guitar, vocals and rhythms with congas and beat boxing. To his frustration he discovered the pitfalls of accumulating noise from over-dubs. He eventually got hold of an Atari 1040st and a midi keyboard. Over the years, the technology advanced but the passion stayed the same. He builds his own workstations and studio, which he runs Pro Tools along with a collection of other software. Still he appreciates the incomparable feel and sound of real instruments. His goals as he writes music are to "create new, interesting, original story-driven music, with talent leading the tech, and substance leading the style." This is what others think...
Wow this is spectacular... So like moving and awesome. Favourited! Keep fuckin rockin! - MetalHeadforlife
During his teenage years he was a member of a various bands with styles ranging from funk and acid jazz through to rock and metal. One of most successful of these was a five piece hip hop band called "Shanequa". The band featured Esgi on piano, Morcheeba's Steve Gordon on bass, and Brand New Heavies' Simon Bartholomew (guitar) among others. They played various London clubs, including the Kashmir Klub and Cargo. They also played live TV gigs on a cable tv programme named 'Where It's At.' During this time, he worked and developed other recording and production styles with Shanequa and US hip hop producer Lee Stone (Pharaoh Monch, Mos Def, Busta Rhymes). The band made it to the final 10 in on the national talent show Mobo Unsigned in 2001. The band also recorded a single entitled 'Uh Oh' featuring UK rapper Mike GLC. The band ended for various reasons soon after and everyone went their own way. Esgi has continued to work on music, consulting bands, engineering for studios and doing gigs of his own.
He co-founded the rock/ pop band 'The Renegades' in 2007 with Sean Wallace with whom he also recorded and produced The Renegades' debut album 'If I Can'. In 2007 he also wrote and produced an ambient instrumental record, entitled 'Echoes In Time', a critically acclaimed orchestral soundtrack album which he has remastered and re-released for free under a Creative Commons license.
He is currently working on his debut commercial album, which will be what he calls "Story driven, dark electronic RnB." It is due to be released in early 2011. The debut single 'Anything Goes' from the album was released in May 2010 for which Esgi recorded a music video. The second single 'When We Touch' should be available from October 2010.
