Allan Wilson

Allan Wilson is a singer/songwriter/guitarist based in Auckland, New Zealand. A musician for as long as he can remember and a dedicated music fanatic since his teens, he played in a number of more or less totally unsuccessful bands in Auckland in his early twenties, each splitting up for all the usual reasons that drive band members to hate each other, before deciding to live the easy life and give it all up. Then, after many years spent buried in his career, his wife and kids bought him an acoustic guitar for Fathers’ Day. And then, after hours spent mindlessly strumming chords in his bedroom staring at the blank wall, something clicked and he wrote his first song. By his own account, it was a pretty bad song, but there is an addictive magic in putting it all together. He then spent a couple of years developing his song writing skills, improving his guitar technique, learning basic production skills, and finding his voice – in his throat and in his fingers. Allan’s most significant influences include The Beatles, and especially George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Don Walker, Eric Clapton, JJ Cale, Leonard Cohen, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, REM and Steely Dan, though he admits that his music doesn’t really sound much like any of these artists and bands. He is also very influenced by folk musicians such as the great Stan Rogers and by especially Irish and Scottish songs and is a great lover of the jazz greats, particularly John Coltrane.