Joe Brooks (singer)
| Joe Brooks | |
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Joe Brooks: photo by Richard Guerrero
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| Background information | |
| Born | 18 May 1987 |
| Origin | Southampton, Hampshire, England, UK |
| Genres | Pop, rock, acoustic music |
| Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter, musician |
| Instruments | Vocals, guitar, piano |
| Labels | Unsigned |
| Website | www |
Joe Brooks (born Joseph David Tancock 18 May 1987) is a British singer. Brooks started out as a Myspace musician when he was 17 and gained popularity on the site while releasing two independent EPs. By 2008 he was hyped and labelled as the "Number 1 Unsigned UK Artist" on MySpace and had amassed 11 million song plays. In 2009 he signed to Jason Flom's Lava Records and Universal Republic Records, where he released his first full-length and major label album, Constellation Me, in 2010. Following his exit from Lava/Universal in 2011, he released a fan-funded independent EP, A Reason To Swim, later that year.
Joe Brooks was born on 18 May 1987 in Southampton, England. He is the son of a trucking-business owner, and a primary-school teacher. He has an older sister and a younger brother. He grew up in Shirley, Southampton where he attended Wordsworth and St. Mark's Schools. As a child he focused on sports. He started to play tennis when he was four years old and continued to play for the next twelve years, which included participating in competitive tennis tournaments. He quit tennis at the age of 16 when he decided to make focus on a potential career of sports coaching.
Meanwhile, Brooks's interest in music also began at a young age, when he saw his mother play the piano. He asked her for piano lessons when he was 10 years old. He took formal piano lessons for a year. Then he quit due to a lack of interest in classical compositions. A few years later when he was 16, he saw musician and guitarist Derrin Nauendorf play at a local music club. This inspired him to pick up the guitar. Using his mother's old classical guitar, he began to teach himself to play in his room. He received help from various musicians whom he met while attending the Soul Survivor music festivals. Inspired by artists such as Jack Johnson, Jason Mraz, and Bryan Adams, Brooks threw himself into music and started to practice singing and composing songs.
After leaving Mountbatten Secondary School in Hampshire, his interest in the guitar and music recording lead him to focus on Music Technology classes while he attended Barton Peveril Sixth Form College. Between music classes in college and recording at home on his own digital recorder, he began to produce his own songs and covers, which became popular via Myspace.
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