DEFINITIVE VOCALIST

INNOVATIVE GUITARIST

VISIONARY WORDSMITH

'Keep the music free

Let others be what they choose to be

Don't take away anyone's individuality

The best music is not hard to understand, it's strength is in it's integrity

Like a funkified psychedelic Woody Guthrie, Dexter certainly put the mileage behind him as he spent his early years hitching and busking around the world.  It was on this journey that he developed his unique and incredible guitar style - a notable feature that has won Dexter fans and followers all over the world.  

 Along the way Dexter found the time to learn the arts of sound engineering and record production. Producing a #1 hit in the process. But it is in his song writing that he truly captures hearts. Now a multi-award winning songwriter, Dexter sells his CDs worldwide over the internet due to his much loved performances in the virtual world of ‘Second Life’. He has spent months on end in high rotation on internet stations and at the top of various charts.

AWARDS

RnB SONG OF THE YEAR ABC NEWCASTLE MUSIC AWARDS 2007

ALBUM OF THE YEAR '97 DOLPHIN AWARDS

SONG OF THE YEAR '97 NOMINATION DOLPHIN AWARDS

BEST JAZZ SONG '97 NOMINATION DOLPHIN AWARDS

BEST MALE VOCAL '97 NOMINATION DOLPHIN AWARDS

SONG OF THE YEAR '98 DOLPHIN AWARDS

BEST MALE VOCAL 2000 NOMINATION QRA AWARDS

BEST GOSPEL SONG 2000 NOMINATION QRA AWARDS

SONG OF THE YEAR 'COFFEE HOUSE' 2002 AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITERS ASSC.

3RD SONG OF THE YEAR 'POP BALLAD' 2002 AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITERS ASSC.

FINALIST SONG OF THE YEAR ' MOVING BREEZE' 2002 AUSTRALIAN SONGWRITERS ASSC.

 TITLE TRACK 'MOVING BREEZE' ON THE 2002 ABC RADIO REGIONAL ARTISTS COMPILATION CD

REPEATEDLY #1 SOUL ARTIST ON MP3.COM.AU.

 #1 SONG 'THE SACRED LOTUS' ON THE MP3.COM SOUL CHARTS

'I love that Beatles song "The long and winding road". Apart from bringing back memories, it also applies to my life and how music has shaped and continues to shape it. I was brought up thinking of career and success in terms of fame and fortune, but what has transpired is something far more valuable indeed.

I was 18 when I walked away from a major record deal in London, and I've kept my distance from the industry ever since. Two reasons being that the mainstream music industry is not known for it's expansive views on the psychology of art and human evolution, and I'm not known for being a yo-yo. Our cultures need art to stay connected to it's initial inspiration. Why lower your values to comply with mediocrity when you can raise spirits through the expression of your own unique  TRUE NATURE.' 

'Our societies have a lot of evolving to do before the true value of true art is fully recognized and respected. Ironically it is art that must surely play a major part in our cultures growth. So, keep your art free. Let it be what is right for you, not what anybody else thinks it should be. If your honest with yourself and you work hard, it will come together and resonate with all kinds of people. They will derive what they choose out of it and you will be an artist in the true sense of the word.'
   

 Instruments Played:

Godin Multiac Solid Body Nylon String

Takamine Santa Fe

Madill 1980 Nylon Acoustic

Fender Stratocaster

Yamaha Semi-Acoustic Steel String

Bass

Electronic Roland HD1/Acoustic Drums

Keyboards

Roland ME5 Guitar Synth

Boss GT-10 FX/Looper

Digitech Jamman Looper

SECOND LIFE

THE FUNKALICIOUS ONE

After 4years as one of the premiere artists performing live music to the world in this medium, he has gleaned a dedicated following in the USA, Europe and the UK along with around 100,000 plays in MySpace. Dexter has constantly broken new ground in this medium, creating cutting edge events culminating now in the ‘Avatar Morphing’ mixed reality production of ‘TIMELESS’

The song was written, produced and performed by Dexter - then mixed at 301 Studios by Grammy Award Winning legend John Hudson. The video illustrates the huge potential of mixing these mediums with the interaction of real and virtual versions of Dexter throughout. 

 The environments in this video are created by Dexter at his totally immersive venue ‘THE TURQUOISE PLANET’. The event was filmed live by Perfect World Productions Treet TV and all Avatars involved in FX, environmental shifting, musicians and his devoted dancers THE DEXCELERATORS, and audience Treet/TV Filming Crew were all choreographed and co-ordinated in real time for this event!

SOME HISTORY

THE STORY BEHIND RIKI-TIK

the name Dexter has given to his style of playing guitar

This is a melding of funk slap bass and Latin style chordal phrasing played on nylon acoustic guitar. Encompassed within the foundation of this style are influences from musicians like; Jaco Pastorious, Stanley Clark, Louis Johnston, Larry Graham ( The Grandfather of slap), Earl Klugh, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Larry Carlton, Dave Grusin, Stevie Wonder, Vila Lobos and Debussy

RIKI - TIK

Riki-Tik has an onamatapaic quality to it as the word sounds like the sound

What I call Riki-Tik started in 1976 from a need to create a groove instead of mundane strumming....not that there's anything wrong with that :) but I had been listening to a lot of early 70's funk, fusion and Latin as well as some roots blues and jazz. So having hit the road and found that I was in a position of making my living busking, I set about making it as musically satisfying as I could. Being heard can be a major problem as traffic noise and even just the noise of people walking and talking could, in certain situations be hard to deal with. In this way strumming is easier, having amplification easier still. But I was travelling light and had simply my guitar in a bag on one shoulder and a shoulder bag of clothes on the other. I travelled this way over a period of two years, picking grapes and busking in Europe. Through this time I formulated my style and it was very much a conscious decision to do so. You see I had had in depth discussions with a good and brilliant friend of mine - Richie Close, who was an amazing keyboardist who had studied at a conservatorium and passed with honours, who was at the time doing a great deal of session work in Manchester, Scotland and London. Richie used me on a number of sessions even though I did not read. He would take me through the lines before recording, and I would learn it by ear and then memorize them before the recordings. There was a time when Richie and I were talking about musical studies and particularly my path. I had enquired as to the worth of studying academically and while he had much to say in it's favour he said that in his estimation I should continue as I am. So I took his advice and to this day have not made an academic study of music, but continue to play by ear and feel. It works for me and helps maintain a certain freedom, mystery and excitement.

What I wanted to do was to take all that I had been listening to and meld it together into a solo event that had the funk of the bass and drums, the stabs of the brass and synth, the syncopation of Latin/salsa, and the overall groove of dance music. As well as this I wanted to be able to have melodies and bass lines running in counterpart to vocal melodies I would be singing, and I wanted it to have sweetness and edge, all at the drop of a Thumb!

So, I set about starting with the 'one' and then 'pushing' the one of the second bar to create a lift. That's pretty much where it all sprang from rhythmically, the execution was inspired by the bass players whom I had been listening to but was the invention of Larry Graham from Sly and the Family Stone. He was the man who invented Slap, and I simply transferred what he did to nylon acoustic guitar. Further, as well as the register I was working in being more piccolo bass, I had six strings to play with and chordal structures to answer the baselines with. Finally, I was needing a thumping sound to really get the thing pumping so wherever I could find a suitable accent, I would hit the bridge of the guitar with my palm heel, and also with my thumb on either the upper or lower rim of the soundhole. This could then be augmented by getting a hi-hat sound by trapping the strings on the upper frets of the neck, applying pressure quickly to get an offbeat treble sound.

I worked on this melange over a number of years and discovered countless nuances that I could apply as I picked up speed. To this day there are still things to discover and I relish finding these things and incorporating them. For instance, what can be called 'dive bombing' is something I use regularly as an emotion builder into the one. This I thank Jimi Hendrix for as it was from him that I learnt this. IE; instead of hitting a note directly on the one you can slid up or down or both ways or whatever really and it takes the place or a drum fill, rising string line, scratch fill, or keyboard slur or countless other things that other players in a band may do that can be 'covered' solo. See covering all possible aspects of musical expression is what I set out to do, within the basic format of getting a good song across to people, and move them. It's not that I have striven to be particularly experimental as a motivation it's more that necessity was the Mother of this invention.

I call this an invention and maybe it is maybe it isn't. What I do know is that when I play, it is mine and that counts, because there are so many ways that the world can take away ones individuality that to retain it and express it is worth more than any record deal I've ever seen. Or more than compliance to anyone whose idea is to make you change yours to satisfy their own needs. There is this too, my travels have taken me through many changes but my music has stayed constant. I see this as a clear illustration that for one who follows ones own true nature, that is what will come out in their music. So, what good will it do anyone to comply to anyone's 'norm' when you have this well of creativity to draw upon. It all adds up and it's a cliché but if your gonna sell your soul, your gonna loose more than you gain.

Riki-Tik was all I had at times in my life, so I call it mine. At the same time I'm happy to share with all the other musicians who have come up with their own version. In fact it's inspiring, as I know in ways what it took for them to bring that into being. Music is an amazing force, whether your making it or taking it.  To make music is a joy that goes far beyond the conceptions of the industry built around it. I say, it doesn't matter what level you play on, as long as your having fun. It's important to remember that as it is no doubt the first reason any music lover starts to play. We all start off emulating but eventually sink into our own style, and that's where it's at.

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