DOOZER McDOOZE is a solo artist and frontman for Deferred Sucess.

He also performs solo. Doozer is currently working on a project called Songs 4 U...2 where people bid on Ebay for the chance of him writing a song, which is personal to them. This is a continuation of a project he started last year. Find out more at www.deferredsucess.com or www.facebook.com/doozermcdooze What’s your earliest musical memory? Not sure what my earliest is, but the one that made me go “I wanna do that” is when I had glandular fever. I was stuck at home watching Glastonbury on telly. I saw Blur jump up and down, getting the crowd going, and I thought, “I wanna do that”.

Where did you perform live for the first time? What was the occasion? It was at Chippenham Folk Festival. There was a youth music workshop, where we all got to perform a song in what seemed like the biggest marquee in the world. I sang a song by the Levellers called Another Man’s Cause. At that point I could play the guitar, but sang the song pretty much out of tune. I remember shaking so much.

First album you bought? I was given loads of tapes (remember them?) of Levellers, Carter USM, Sultans of Ping, Nirvana, which I listened to to death. But the first one I paid money for was Different Class by Pulp. It’s still an amazing album. I often do a cover of Common People. I had listened to the songs loads, but it wasn’t until I heard William Shatner do his version of it that I listened to the words and went “oh, that’s my life”.

Well, except being offered sex by a rich girl.

Last album you bought? An album by a bloke called Gaz Brookfield. He’s a singer/songwriter from around the Bristol area. It’s called Tell it to the Beer. He writes really good songs that seem to all be about me. (They are not really).

Favourite album of all time?

The one that really changed things for me was Levelling the Land by the Levellers. I was brought up being dragged around folk festivals by my parents, something I’m very grateful for now, but wasn’t really at the time. It was the first time I’d heard folk music played with a load of punk attitude.

This is before the internet and my dad was sent a tape of their album through the Britannia Music Club, because he ticked one of the boxes.

I went on to see them loads of times, and a few years ago I got to go on tour with them.

It wasn’t how I hoped I’d be touring with them. I was a roadie/driver for one of the support bands, called Pama International, but I ended up making friends with the other support band, Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs.

This led to me writing a song for them, playing it on the day I wrote it, on the biggest stage I’d played at that time, at the Kentish Town Forum, supporting my fave band in the world. I messed it up massively, but the whole crowd started chanting “Doozer, Doozer, Doozer”.

Who’s your biggest inspiration? My inspiration comes from the people I meet, the bands I see, and life and all that.

How do you find new music?

Bumbling around fields. The festival scene is so much more than Glasto, V and Reading. It’s kind of like Narnia. You walk through into this different world and get to see the most amazing music in the world. Some bands you should listen to are Twomanting, Ferocious Dog and Leather Rat, to name a few.

Favourite lyric from your band?

“Let’s give up everything and go live in a van”. After singing about it for a few years, I have now gone and done it.

Favourite lyric from someone else? One of my fave lyrics is from Common People by Pulp and that’s why I cover it. “You will never understand, how it feels to live with no meaning or control, and with nowhere left to go. You are amazed that they exist, but they burn so bright, it make you wonder why?”

First song you played? What was it about?

I learnt to play piano from the age of five. I moved on to guitar as I could play it in my bedroom and wouldn’t be shouted at by my my brothers and sisters. One of the first songs I learned to play on guitar was Another Man’s Cause by the Levellers. It’s an anti-war song.

Best gig you’ve been to and why? One of my faves was Abdoujaparov, Les Carter from Carter USM’s band. At the Carter USM after-show a couple of years ago, Les was so drunk he couldn’t remember the words and had to get the crowd to sing them. It was at about three in the morning. I went on a blagged ticket and busked in the smoking area. The bouncer came over and I thought I was going to get told off, but he said he really enjoyed it.

My fave gigs to see are when acts play for the first time. I think I get off on the nervous energy.

Best gig you’ve played and why? The best gig we did as Deferred Sucess must have been at Farmer Phil’s festival. Its a festival in Shropshire, run by a Farmer called Phil, who parachutes in on the Sunday. I had gone and opened up the main stage on my own the year before, then asked if I could bring my band with me the following year.

We managed to blag second to headline slot, just before Ferocious Dog, and played to about 3,000 people, who all sang along and did everything I asked them to. We were so nervous before going on, we drank a crate of cider.