I was born in Pnom-Penh in Cambodia from a mother of Indian origins (Pondichery) and a father from the French Caribbean (Guadeloupe).

I graduated from Goldsmiths University of London with a BMus in 2001 and with MMus in 2002.

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One day just before Easter I was in a study room in my boarding school on the outskirts of Paris in France, very bored with nothing in particular to do. There was a guitar lying on a desk somehow forgotten by someone. I don’t really know why I picked it up but I did and it was as if I was struck by a lightning.

I knew from the age of nine what I didn’t want in life. I had plenty of time to think about it in boarding schools. Aged 14, it took me a week to learn most of the common guitar chords and to teach them to others. I still remember this as one of the most joyful event of my life. I didn’t realise it at the time but with hindsight, I had planted the first seed of my artistic path.

Just three years later in Bangkok as I was about to graduate from school, I met Terry Thaddeus and Noel Holmes respectively guitarist and drummer of The Hunters - a fantastic rock group from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. After watching them play, rehearse, jam and go about their life as professional musicians I decided that that was the life I wanted for me. Even though I could see how hard and unpredictable this kind of life was. But beyond any considerations, I could see it as a way for me to freely channel and explore my creativity.

Back in Paris I set to study guitar seriously, on my own, and form the first of my many bands with Philippe Chauveau and Hubert Zeganadin. At the same time, when I was not exploring my guitar sounds, up to 10 hours a day, I started to  create abstract drawings first with black Chinese ink and then with colour pen. I was in effect learning how to draw lines and how to mix colours.

Both in music and painting I set to be self-taught from the start as it suited me best. I had spent so many years in boarding schools with only myself as company that it seemed like a natural process. During that time Carmen Titus, my aunt, an amazing woman who juggled lots of different tasks simultaneously had a great influence on me. She was a very dedicated and disciplined painter. We had some great discussions about nearly everything that touched on the art world.

My first professional band was Cabo Verde. I joined Emmanuel Lima, Sallah Anne and Luis Da Silva for a residency in Agadir in Morocco. Coming from a background in hard blues heavily influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and all the great British Blues guitar music, I was plunged in the universe of Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, Soul, R&B and Reggae. It was a rapid and efficient way to learn. Back in Paris and after a full year of touring in Europe and a few recordings in collaboration with Gerard and Jean-Claude Mendes, Rene Bertrand, Arnaud Rogers. I joined and recorded with Hatz, a French Rock band led by Jean-Pierre Hasson and Marie Lecru (aka Marie Lenoir) and was signed to Epic Records with whom, I experienced music and theatre and I had my very first contact with cinema and the stage world through Marie Lecru.

Then I formed Kaizy with Jezabel Kipp and did a lot of tours in Europe, USA and Canada, and many studio recordings in Paris, London, New York, Brussels ( with Philippe Delire ) and Austin Texas. With Kaizy I had the opportunity to meet, play and jam with some great musicians: in Paris with Steve Shehan, in New York with Steve Jordan, JT Lewis, Mino Cinelu, in Austin with Jimmy Vaughan.

At the same time I started to paint with oil and it’s then that I knew I had found my medium. It has all the flexibility I wanted and all the intensity in the colours. For me painting and playing music always stand side by side. I need both to create. They always feed each other.

After Kaizy, I decided to settle in London in the early 90s. After doing the round of clubs I thought it was time for me to have a new challenge. After a couple of years in a foundation course in Kensington and Chelsea College and a performing course at the CityLit, I did a Music Degree in Goldsmith College followed by a Masters in Composition Studio Path.

There I discovered that learning to read music of great composers and learning to compose with sounds in electro-acoustic, was just an extension to what I was doing in bands for years. I discovered that there was so many ways to improvise and create music.

At the same time I started to put in practice the ideas I had about films. I did some collaborations with some dancers and choreographers from the Laban Center just outside Goldsmiths College. I did my first short film about contemporary dance and composed the music for it and a couple of films of live concerts.

My production of paintings grew and I started to exhibit. After 6 years of studies I realised that it was time for me to pass on all I had learned and I started to teach.

I have now created Artpeggios Music and Art School with Guillaume Bonpun