The French Connection

I left London on July 12th 2007 and arrived in Cape Town the following day, bleary eyed and in fear. I did not know what to expect I just knew that I wanted to change what I perceived my life to be at that moment. I was in pain, and at this point in my life, even though I was not aware of it, I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. I spent a total of 10 months within the confines of the rehabilitation system in South Africa, I paid for every step myself, and went through a great deal to get to the other side. I remember in Secondry care, I was sent back to Primary care for containment on two occasions for violent behaviour, and both times I wanted to walk away, and on both occasions I stayed and faced myself.

When I left the system I travelled up to Joburg and stayed with Wes' family (great mate of mine) and played some gigs with the likes of Josie Field and Karen Zoid, and it was at this stage that I wanted to publish my material online. I left South Africa on the 20th of June, returned to London, played a couple of gigs, and then flew to Spain, to touch base with Jacob and Eloise. I lived in Alhourin el Grande at Kevin and Kath's place, renting the middle house for the summer, with the end house being occupied by Julie and Marco. It is here that marco started recording home videos for me, and this is where the Starstruck video was completed.

My friendship grew with Marco as he is a incredibly creative man, and he started to put my music together in the form of a website and I started playing some gigs with the help of my then sponsor Will and a company called Plush. I left Spain on the 11th of Nov, went back to London, and travelled with a ski company to The French Alps to work in a hotel for the season, and to play some gigs each week.

Just by chance the induction for the seasonaires was moved from the hotel, Le Terminus, in Le Fayet to another in Megeve. I was not overly interested in the induction process and spent most of my time saying hi to the locals. I was introduced to a guy called Alex who ran a bar called Kitchen, and he introduced me to the cool venue in the area called Le Cinq Rue.

Le Cinq Rue is a private club with live entertainment going on every day of the week, however you have to have the right face to get through the door. The first time I asked to gain entry I was told no. The second time round I was told to come back latter, and third time I got in. When I got in I spoke to the owner called Christoffe and asked if I could play, he said no, and he introduced me to a guy called Franck Taieb.

I liked Franck the moment I met him, there was something natural and beautiful about him, and I could feel something from him that resonated truth. Then I listened to his band play a whole range of covers and the reaction from the people inside the club and knew that I wanted to work with him and his team.

Franck told me to call him. So i called him. I must have called him for a week without any response then eventually he called me back. We met. I gave him the album I had been working on Millionaire's Playground and he said he would listen to it. I asked him if I could play and he said why not. So one Sunday night I hitched late at night from Le Fayet to Megeve and back again to play two songs with his band. I just had to know if there was any magic and if I could feel something. Franck told me he had listened to the tracks with his girl friend and lead vocalist Marteen and he could hear hits on the album. He asked me to make some more copies for the guitarist Ludo and bass player Rasheed.

The season went on Franck and I met on a few occasions and started to build a relationship, then the season ended and I went home to London and Franck and Marteen went back to the south coast of France to start work in St Tropez. I knew I had to make another move to get the music rolling with Franck so I packed my VW Golf with all my gear and drove to St Tropez. I had mixed fortunes and left for Spain before the start of August. I was never in the area to work and make money I had only gone to build relationships with Franck and Marteen.

These guys are professional musicians. They both work very hard and do not take fools lightly and it took time to gain their confidence. One day Franck invited me over to have lunch with him and Marteen, and I brought my guitar with. I have a song called From Time to Time and I was convinced that it was perfect for Marteen as she has an incredible voice. I played it to them and they asked for more.

Something changed in me at this point. I decided that I had given as much as I could give and told Marteen and Franck that I was leaving to go and see my children in Spain. 6 weeks latter I recieved a phone call from Franck saying that he wanted to fly me back to France to start working with Marteen.

We have now completed our first session, and not everything went to plan, as it never does. Franck is a French Jew and Marteen is from Tunisia. Francks parents live in the main house, whilst Franck and Marteen had converted the lower area themselves, and it was immaculate. I lived with them for 11 days and I slept in the studio, eating food prepared by Marteen or eating with Francks parents, Janine and Maurice, and it was awesome. Beautiful people, thats all I want to say.

Franck now has 12 tracks in his studio to work on and I have walked away from it all, obsolving myself from all control of the project. I have dreams and aspirations of what I believe will come of the project, of course I do, and these dreams no longer control wether I am happy or not, these dreams are just that, dreams.

In the studio something happened that I can only describe as magic, it was an incredible emotional journey that has only begun. Franck will now do what Franck does best, create a project, produce a rock n roll sound for an international market, and he will also induce the creative beauty from Marteen. I on the other hand will sit back and watch it all unfold as if I have done my job, accepting that the universe will provide for me. It must do, as it always has done.

When I look back and read the story of my life, this one statement resonates for me. It is just a story, and non of it matters, what will be will be, and always will because it always has been before. I do not own those songs, they are not mine, they never were. I did not create them, how could I? I do not even exist. And with this truth for me right now, all the pressure evaporates and I can now just be David.

I would like to finish that if You would like to recieve teezer tracks from the studio then you will need to sign up, and download the Sunset Session track of Starstruck. It's a simple process. just give us your email.