Biography

Bruce Hamilton has been making music since he left school. At Oaklands College, in Welwyn Garden City, Bruce formed The Kinky Toasters in 2006 with four college friends. This later provided him with the experience and technical proficiency to start a serious solo band. Bruce went on to study at The Institute of Contemporary Music Performance in Kilburn, during which time he maintained some musical involvements with his former college bandmates. After the final end of The Kinky Toasters in 2008 when the Kilburn course ended, he began writing songs for himself again. Eventually he was blessed with some recording equipment, which has enabled him to make much progress with his writing and composing.

The Bruce Hamilton Experience is the outlet for the resulting music, and the associated MySpace and Facebook pages keep the fan base up to date with all of Bruce's musical adventures! From the start the idea was to document Bruce's music and to take the best of it to a live audience. It began largely as studio based project in 2008 up until late 2009 with a sprinkling of gigs and open mic night slots across Hertfordshire and London.

For the first year it was an entirely solo project with Bruce working alone to release “The Bruce Hamilton Experience EP” as a rough collection of the earliest songs written for the project. The more Bruce's skills with Cubase advanced he released “Summer Sounds” as a 4 track EP, “Back In The Shack” and “III”. All further expanded on Bruce's own musical ideas, and his devotion to Delta Blues legends. As purely a guitarist since 1999, Bruce had other instrument's he'd always wanted to play. In late 2008 Bruce acquired his two other dream instruments, an Harmonica and a Left Handed Sitar. These are now also a part of Bruce's writing and live performances.

2009 Saw the increase in the live work for Bruce. He also released “Bruce Plays The Blues”, and “Bruce Plays More Blues”. Those were albums dedicated to his love of the Blues. “The Road Back Home” was released With some guest vocals from Web master Kimberley Ford on “The Eyes of a Ranger”. “Again We Fall” and finally “On The Right Track” heralded the birth of the current line-up, working with Emma Underhay. Bruce and Emma met at college where The Kinky Toasters formed. As part of the music course they were on, they'd worked together before the forming of BHE and always complimented each others sound. When Bruce wanted some help with his music, she was the first person he turned to. “On The Right Track” featured Emma Underhay providing vocals on “Slip and Slide”. When it came time to promote the album on the local music scene Emma was only too happy to join Bruce on stage and has become a regular member of the band. With 2010 starting, Bruce is preparing songs for an entire album featuring Emma Underhay and himself. The pair are looking for a second guitarist to augment the sound, and allow Bruce to bring his other instruments (namely his harmonicas and his sitar) into play in a live context. This is with the idea of eventually building it up to a full electric line-up.

The Bruce Hamilton Experience have been unphased by commercial sounds, and will utilize any style of music as they see fit in their work. Whilst commercial success, more live dates and record sales would be nice, musical satisfaction is at the forefront of this project. Now with the addition of Emma, a vast portion of Bruce's heavier work is now no longer suitable for the line-up. So, it may be contained as a purely studio side project, or a second band may be formed alongside in future...