My name is Andy Craven, I am 26 years old and live in England. I first got to know James after he emailed me to thank me for a review I had written for 'Crimes Of Virtuosity', this eventually led to me starting an authorised James Byrd UK website, and ultimately becoming the official site webmaster. The fact that my 'Authorised' website become the more up to date website (by persistently bugging and being a pain in the ass) I guess made it logical for James to ask me to take over the official site. The fact that I am the webmaster of this site basically means that I try to put into reality things that James would like on his site. I often suggest ideas for new content to James and he either gives it the green light or not, basically I try to think what I want to see from an artists website. Too many official band website are nothing more than marketing tools owned by the record companies to promote the new album and nothing else - whereas the aim of this site is try to give you a very informative view into Byrd the artist. All the graphics you see on the website are done by James and to be honest they are what make the site in my opinion. I try to do them justice with the information you require. If you feel anything is missing please email me with your ideas and if practical I will try to make it happen.
So how did I get into James' music? Well it happened around 1995 I was reading through an issue of 'Guitar For The Practising Musician' magazine when I stumbled upon a Shrapnel records ad, in this ad was a small feature on 'Son Of Man', this got my interest as it sounded like it would be like some of my other favourite guitarists, I then found a review in the same magazine which made it sound vey special indeed. So I went to my local record store to order it (on import), pre-internet times and pre-internet prices so two weeks later it arrived at my local store in the UK. I remember putting it on and quite simply being blown away. Here was a player that had everything I wanted to hear in guitarwork - tone, soul, chops, and above all individuality. Over the next few months I managed to get hold of the back catalogue and since then I have been hooked. I am blown away that not only am I Byrd's webguy but also consider James and Kelly to be two of my closest friends.
In May/June 2002 I was lucky enough to spend time with James and Kelly. The trip tied in with the end of the mixing of 'Anthem' so I spent quite a bit of time in the studio which was great. Also getting to meet Michael and Brian was the icing on the cake.
Click the images to enlarge!!
