I wanted to be a director, or a writer, a dictator of the imagination, but a passion that I always had since I can remember is acting – you get to be anyone, anything you want. I can be a mother, or a teacher, or even a sick auntie. And when I get into the character, I really become them. And it is not just for the time I am rehearsing, but I practice to make my mind become that personality. And that’s what I love, it gives you the chance to understand, and to even be, so many different people. I lived in Tuscany, and then moved here at the age of 17 mainly to study acting and also to escape from the fake social bubble that italian towns tend to create. You end up believing in unnecessary things, thinking the world starts and end there, it’s such a joke.

I believe in this idea that all of us have a decade roughly, where you have to do the best that you can to reach whatever you want to reach.

After that, we can go in a small house in Masachusettes and die by ourselves, as we would anyway. For me is surely this what I want to do. Maybe later becoming a guru; people can and meet me and I can help them thanks to the wisdom that the passing of time will hopefully give me. Like those skinny guys with white hair… I want to be a skinny girl with white hair who has people coming from different places who hear about me, and then I can tell them “yes come and tell me what’s wrong, I’ll heal you… and you as well.” I can be content like this, once I achieve my goals and then use my days to help others.

I have thought this way for as long as I remember, and I guess it is what your family make you think as well. I have a wonderful family, even with its own painful mess inside, but they are wonderful. And they’ve always told me, especially my mum, she has always told me ‘ go for what you want to go for, and she would always say ‘when you have money, spend the money, and when you don’t have money, you need to go and make some money. And that’s fair enough, I mean I want to enjoy life, i’m a big hedonist, but I like small things, I don’t buy expensive clothes – I mean I’m dressed for £4 in total, I don’t eat out all the time. I like my small pleasures like my coloured cigarettes,  dark pink, purple, green cigarettes – I love smoking those . Living here is so expensive, I can’t even afford to, I’m late on my rent and I am to scared to open the water bill letter because of my baths mania, I mean i work in a cinema so I don’t make a lot of money, I need to find my shifts and all of that.

And after that you’re hooked. So it’s good and bad you know, because then there’s no going back, you get addicted.

“I started music when I was 6. It’s been in my family for generations: my grandad was big into classical music, and my dad too

I think I wrote my first piece of music when i was about 16 or 17, yeah that really was a big moment for me. It’s that kick you get when you make that first break. Whether a t-shirt print designer who makes their first t-shirt, or a journalists first published article, or writing your first song, there’s this rush of achievement you feel. And after that you’re hooked. So it’s good and bad you know, because then there’s no going back, you get addicted.

My mum had been sick on and off for years, and this really put things into perspective about doing what you really want because you never know when it will be too late. I know a lot of people say it, but I strongly believe you should do what you love. And I think not enough people live this way.”

 

Talos – the music of Eoin French

POST OF THE WEEK: The story of Christopher Jones, ex-member of Euphonic

“Years ago, I was part of a band called Euphonic, you may have heard of them. After a while I began writing a book – but one where each chapter had a backing music track and a poem. So while people were reading they could listen to the music, which set a certain mood for them. I uploaded the progress onto MySpace, and then, well… my work was stolen by one of the band members. He started his own page with it and mine had been shut down. So I had lost most of what I’d worked on. And through the frustration, I actually ended up burning what I had written. I didn’t see the justice in what had happened and was left with nothing.

There were some tough years for me but eventually I realised I needed to get back on my feet. Now I’ve gone online and apparently they are looking to reopen the old MySpace, I don’t know how it was shut down in the first place. So I’ve just sent a letter, well I’ve sent it a few now, and I’ve had some good news that they will open this up again. And I know all my old stuff was on there – so there is hope, that it is all still on there, and I collect all my stories together, you know, and have some basis to focus on. Because at the moment… I sleep outside. But I’m still quite positive, I feel quite spiritual, which helps when it gets quite overwhelming

I wasn’t really angry, I was more frustrated over the years… what was it, 16 years ago. So now, I’m trying to get organised, and making more effort to get the work that I want. I know they say life isn’t fair, but when you try and still manage to keep a positive mind, and these things set you back, it can make me feel quite angry thinking about it. It could get me quite angry now, but it’s really good to actually see some people, like yourself, you know with a camera and a project, it’s nice seeing people doing something positive.

London is really diverse and really cultural. But I think that some people seem to lack a bit of spirituality. Especially coming from Newham, my next door neighbour was muslim, the neighbour of him was Sikh, and my neighbour on the other side was English. I really liked growing up in that cultured atmosphere. It does get a bit disappointing that over the time I’ve spent in the underground scenes, I’ve met a broad spectrum of people and they tend to lack some spirituality, or a confidence in themselves or where they’re from. It’s almost seen as selfish to actually look at yourself.

I was working on a documentary, on homeless people, it was based on a spin-off from one in New York – you can look up ‘Dark Days’, it will be online. And also the band Euphonic – look up and listen to the music, see if it’s something you like.

The relationship with the band is ongoing, I’m still positive about that and I’m quite confident I’ll be able to get something from it and start recording again. It was really one person in the band, and he was the first to leave. So I’ve got faith now and I can see things working out, I’ll hopefully be able to pick up where I left off.

Check out the music at:
https://euphonic1.bandcamp.com/album/euphonic