Original collage art from UK artist, musician and childhood abuse survivor Ashley Reaks.

Musician

14 albums are available at Bandcamp


Aged 11, I abandoned a life of cricket and academia when I first heard New York punk outsiders The Ramones. Their songs about weirdos and misfits from dysfunctional families gave me somewhere to belong and I soon formed my own band 'No Reality'. I fell in love with the DIY ethos of punk rock and it gave me a place to express my pain, hurt. rage and sense of aloneness.

My subsequent musical career has been eclectic, including stints as a session bass player on forgettable pop records in the 1990's, touring the world with It Bites frontman Francis Dunnery (first gig was supporting Radiohead in New York City), and nearly being the world's most unlikely ever pop star with my own much-hyped electro-pop outfit Younger Younger 28's, who played the Main Stage at the Glastonbury Festival in 1999, as well as having the obligatory Top 5 hit in Japan.

Since then I have made 14 albums of my own brand of genre-hopping music, including the old school punk of 'This Is Planet Grot', the prog-punk concept album 'Compassion Fatigue (1-8)', collaborations with writer and spoken word artist Joe Hakim, and 2018's 'The Earth Swan Sings Again', a venture into jazz, psychedelia, odd-time signatures and cut-up lyrics.

'an incomparable talent and a true original, a man who often borders on genius' - Louder Than War (UK).

'Reaks flaunts the kind of maddening genius usually reserved for Dutch impressionists who puncture their ears' - Penny Black Music (USA).