Biography
Born Teresa Mary Dymond on July 1st 1974 at the Royal
Berkshire Hospital in Reading. My first memory is of being wheeled
around in a stripy
plastic pushchair from 70s. It had really hard compound wheels and
no suspension and I used to love riding along humming a continuous note
and getting fun out of the bumps in the road that made the sound waver.My formative years were in Switzerland where my parents moved me and my two older brothers to when I was just a year old. Growing up in a state of constant bewilderment learning English, German and Swiss at the same time, the camomile tea, the cuckoo clocks, the jigsaw puzzles framed on the walls and celebrating of Christmas on the wrong day.
It’s no wonder I used to retreat to the garage where my Dad kept a beaten up 1970’s Fiat 125 and a battered old Harmonium. It was so old and tattered, my parents let me draw my own version of musical notes on the keys, which consisted of every letter in the alphabet and I started to write music.
Music was my rebellion. It was mine. No one else in the family showed much aptitude or initial interest in it, so this where I’d lose myself. I’d study, and practice and annoy everyone with it. Then after four years of merciless pestering my parents relented and bought a real piano when I was eight.
I was sent to classes and began my official musical education and alongside it my performing career, wheeled out at Christmases, or when my parents had friends over, so that I could perform them a song.
The family eventually moved back to rural middle-England when I was 12, with the very late addition of a younger brother. I continued to play the piano, and started my grades. At 14 I took up the clarinet and at 17 I decided to pick up a guitar, practising late at night in bed, with some 1950s chord books from my Aunt.
Although I was in a couple of bands through school and did a weeks work experience at a recording studio in our village and forging great friendships with local musicians, I didn’t play a proper gig until I’d left home. There were plenty of piano recitals and concerts, I earned extra pocket money by playing piano for the local ballet classes and started teaching piano during my gap year.
At 18 I came to Nottingham Trent University to study on the BA(H) in Contemporary Arts although I had no real idea of what it entailed. Only that it did a more contemporary kind of music than the main University and was near the infamous Rock City.
Myself and classmate Rosie (who’s about to become my sister in law, …though this is another story), started singing together. I’d strum away at the guitar and we’d write songs together under the moniker Cradlewax.
After Uni Rosie went travelling and I stayed in Nottingham hooking up with another former classmate Katty and forming the lasting duo “The Herb Birds”. After a couple of open mic sessions in town the gig offers came in, and with some help from other local musicians we managed to build up quite a bit of work.
Eight years later and we are still singing covers in pubs and clubs and restaurants, still performing three, four, sometimes five nights a week. There’s been many amazing gigs. Many amazing people. Many great recording sessions with other bands. And some travel which has taken us to Canada, France and Switzerland.
In amongst the covers gigs and work I’ve done as a duo, I’ve done plenty of things as a solo artist. I continued to compose and write, and perform. There’s a vast backlog of songs sitting waiting for me to find the time and money to record them all.
Back in 2000 I managed to record 6 tracks. There wasn’t a great deal of care taken over them, because I was broke, and everyone involved was helping me from the goodness of their heart.
And five years later, I’ve managed to spit out another 6 tracks. Again, this has taken the goodness of many peoples hearts. But with the extra recording experience I’ve gained, the extra strength to the voice from the covers gigs, and a bit of extra money, I’ve managed to take this one a little further.