The Secret to a Rock Star Saxophone Mindset with Snake Davis

So picture yourself playing in a stadium full of screaming fans, performing alongside some legendary artist. What’s going on inside your mind as you prepare for a massive gig like that?

Introducing Snake Davis

You need a rock star saxophone mindset – but how do you get there? Today you’re in luck because I want to share with you a fantastic conversation I had with an amazing sax player called Snake Davis.

He’s one of the UK’s legendary pop saxophone players. You’ll know he’s playing from huge hits like A Million Love Songs by Take That and the song Jubel by Klingande. And over the last few years, he’s been performing with this immense Japanese star called Eikichi Yazawa, who performs to literally tens and tens of thousands of people every single night.

So in this conversation, we really dig into what’s going inside Snake’s mind as he prepares to go on stage for these really high-pressure gigs. There’s so much great information in here. I know you’re absolutely going to love it.

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Okay, let’s dig into this amazing conversation with Snake Davis. 

Nigel: Snake, I imagine you’ve done so many big gigs over the years. But I’m curious to know whether the Eikichi Yazawa gig is a different experience. What’s it like? 

Snake: It’s definitely a different experience. It’s crazy. And I have done other big shows with Eurythmics, I suppose would be the biggest one. But his show – it’s just like no other.

And I’ve played with him on and off for 20, 25 years now.  But it’s hard to get across to Western folks, how big he is. Because pretty much unheard of outside Japan. But he’s a mega star. We play to up to 70- 80,000 people some nights.

He’s played Japan’s most famous venue, the Budokan in Tokyo, 160 times. We’d hit five times in a row before Christmas and his face has been on a set of postage stamps. He does the beer ads. He’s a movie star. It’s a massive thing.

There are 14 artics on the road and 60 crew travelling in a big old coach and another 100 local crew. There are runways going out into the audience.

It’s a massive thing. And so it’s different from other things, partly because of the scale of it, and partly because it’s so Japanese.  It’s staff, it’s a hierarchy. And it’s planned to the nth degree. We Westerners are hired in because we play with sort of heart and passion instinctively. But we have to conform to some degree and know exactly the spot that we’re to hit for that solo.

Nigel: Yeah. So, it sounds like it’s different in that it’s the scale and it’s different in that it’s the massive organization And it’s also different in that it’s the Japanese-ness of it. So is that like the level of detail and specificity about everything? 

Snake: It’s very much that. Things are planned to the nth degree of exactly where I’m to stand.

One thing which makes it very different, He likes to use me really sparingly. So I’m like the secret weapon. Out of 24 songs in the set, I’ll play on six or seven. First of all, I found that just did my head in. And, after the first two, I turned him down a couple of years running. I’m in the wings and I’m pent up with frustration. I want to be out there playing. But I learned to deal with that.

Nigel: So maybe that’s something we can dig into actually. I’m curious. That’s an interesting sort of inner game of that scale of performing, which I don’t know anything about.

Big name artists

Nigel: I’m really curious to find out more about that. You’re a legend in this world of the musicians I know around here. But people may not know about you. You mentioned the Eurythmics that you’ve done before. Can you just give us a quick rundown of the other big acts you’ve played with? Because a lot of people have heard you. That’s the thing. I think most people don’t realize they’ve heard you, but they may not know who you are. 

Snake: Yeah, that’s the session musician’s lot, isn’t it? So, Lisa Stansfield is the first big artist I worked with. World Tours, my first Top of the Pops and everything and all that.

Much more recently Klingande and Faul. A lot of people are doing that house sax and DJ thing now. And many of them come to me and say, ‘Oh, thank you, you gave me a whole career with that Jubel tune’. And then there was M People. That was like a 25-year day job almost – M People and then Heather Small. 

Take That – I did that first album.  A Million Love Songs is one of my well-known solos, I guess.

More recently, I did Olly Murs‘ last album. Ee did Shania Twain’s last single.

And then there’s either live or on tour. There’s Tina Turner, Paul McCartney, Kylie Minogue, Boy George, Queen, Eric Clapton, Ray Charles, Burt Bacharach, Van Morrison, Paul Carrack, Mick Hucknall, Swing Out Sister. The list goes on.

Some of them I spent years with. But then for some of them it was just one tune in the studio. Oh, James Brown – I’ve forgot him, but that was just one piece on live TV. Smokey Robinson was the same. So, some of them it’s like three minutes and some of them it’s like 25 years. 

The life of a session musician

Nigel: Wow. That’s so crazy. I bet at the start of some of these projects you didn’t know how long that was going to be. Is that the way it works? 

Snake: Yeah, exactly. That is so true, Nigel. And you know, we have a joke, me and some of the horn players. We finished the session. And even if it’s an artist we’ve never heard of, and we never think we’ll see, we’ll say, ‘thanks a lot, great to meet you, see you on the tour’.

And with M People the first time I met them in the studio was doing Moving On Up and I had no idea that was going to lead to 25 years of work. Of course I mentioned all the big artists because you asked me. But for every big one, there’s 50 small ones and little sessions that absolutely lead nowhere. And there’s sessions which are just not big time. They’re like the production line of working on people’s karaoke tracks or whatever. The life of a career of a session man is quite mysterious, I think.

Nigel: Yeah, because I think a lot of people don’t appreciate what’s going on in the background. They just see the big thing plastered everywhere. But there’s all the other stuff that’s happening in the background.

Recording Jubel

Nigel: Also, we were talking about that Jubel track. I’d love to break down the process of how you recorded that. I know we’re getting off-topic today, but we’ve definitely got to have that conversation. Because that amongst our Sax School members it’s a really popular track. And I’d be curious to have a conversation with you about that. How does that recording project actually work, and then you’re thinking behind that? So that’s definitely something we’ve got to dig into.

And for anybody who’s listening too, Snake has done a fantastic masterclass for us already inside Sax School about creating emotion in your playing. And you’ve just got that man. You are the template that we need to be looking at for that sort of thing.

Yeah. So if you’re a member and you’ve not checked it out, go watch that Masterclass. And if you’re not a member, grab the 14-day trial, because even just that masterclass will make it worthwhile.

A saxophone mindset for big gigs

Nigel: So for anybody who hasn’t sort of done performing on that scale where you’re on a really big stage,  Can you sort of give us a quick rundown of what it’s like mentally? Because you alluded to it before, where sometimes you’re only playing for six of the 24 tracks for the night?  How do you prepare your saxophone mindset for a gig like that?

Snake: They’re big shows and it’s a big subject. And it’s definitely like a very different dynamic from going to do a jazz gig, or going to do a theatre with my own band. And it kind of sounds like stating the obvious, but it’s the sheer size. Not only in the audience, but as I said the production.  and, you know, just to kind of emphasize again and let your listeners know the scale of it.

Snake: You know, on. At Tokyo Dome for one track, he brought on a hundred sax players, just for one tune. Sometimes he’ll roar onto stage on a Harley Davidson. On one occasion he did a couple of circuits of the stadium in a vintage American car before he came onto the stage.

On the biggest shows, sometimes there’ll be a full orchestra, or sometimes a choir. Guest musicians, definitely dancers. And my feeling is as a player, that you have to rise to that occasion. Literally, you have to kind of make yourself bigger.

There’s an element of acting involved. You’re like half musician, half actor. You have to make your body movements bigger. You have to remember that subtle, quiet, little delicate things may not be appropriate. They may get lost in a massive stadium.

And the same with the energy. I always say to even the school choir up the road that I take on a Thursday morning, I say, ‘right, when you put it out, but face forward, your energy goes out, you’ve got to reach the slightly deaf granny in the corner there.‘ Well, you magnify that by a thousand times, you get 80, 000 people, and you want to reach every single one of them with every note you play. Different saxophone mindset, you just make it bigger. It’s like you rise like Superman. You pop the buttons on your [your shirt] like Clark Kent. 

Becoming a performer

Nigel: You mentioned that it’s more like, as much being an actor or a performer as being a musician. So when you’re playing a larger scale or a gig like that to lots and lots of people, there’s so many other moving parts going on. And you already mentioned how they tell you where to stand, and everything’s very organized.

So I’m presuming there are some lines that you’re playing and there are also some solo sections. So do you approach your solos in the same way? Whereby they are more defined and you have a better, clearer structure to what you’re going to do? Or is it really that you’re just improvising as you’re going and every night’s different? 

Snake: That’s a great question. On the Japanese thing specifically, for many of the pieces I’m required to play the solo, exactly, note for note, whether it was mine or somebody else’s.

In the situation where I’ve got more freedom, where it was one of my own gigs or a theatre with Swing Out Sister or Lisa Stansfield I would just say, ‘right, happy days’. This is what I love. I shut my eyes and go for it. But even then on a big gig like that with a precious artist like that, I will at least have like a real solid starting line in my mind memorized. And perhaps I’ll have a real shape of how I want to take it. I want it to peak on bar nine, you know, and then kind of come out. And then maybe I’ll have my last phrase fixed as well. So, that’s because I don’t want to take quite as many risks as I would take on the smaller gigs. Down the Pizza Express or something.

Nigel: That’s interesting. And it makes sense too, because there’s a lot more at stake. And also I suppose, particularly on the Eikichi Yazawa gigs, people are expecting a certain thing. They’re expecting to hear that solo. It’s a bit like if you went and saw a band playing Careless Whisper. They expect you to play the Careless Whisper line. You know what I mean? So that’s your role as a player, I suppose. 

So there’s obviously lots of preparation that has to go in for that. You’ve got your skills together, but you also know what you need to do and what’s expected of you. 

Preparing your saxophone mindset

Nigel: So what about if we take a step back then and talk about what’s actually going on inside your mind? Because I think that mental preparation, and the inner game of what’s happening as a musician is a really interesting thing for us to learn about. You’ve been doing it a long time, so I don’t know if you still think about this stuff. But can you give us a bit of an insight into what’s going on mentally for you?

Snake: Well, and this is a huge subject. Not only for oneself but the likes of us who are sort of paying it back to other musicians now through your Sax School, through my academy. It crops up all the time, Nigel. I’m sure it’s the same for you. And I’ve always thought about it anyway.

I do get nervous, I do get anxious. But luckily I’ve never suffered from those real sickening, horrible nerves where you want to throw up and you run into the toilet and you’re saying, I can’t go on, I can’t go on. I never get that bad, but I work with people that do. And it’s very common. So, an absolutely massive topic.

It’s a slightly different kind of nerves you get on these really big shows. It’s different from those nerves that you get when you’re going to perform for the primary school kids or when you’re going to perform in a jazz club. 

Managing nerves

Nigel: Well, so I guess the first point there is really interesting is that everyone gets nervous to some degree. There’s some level of anxiety that nearly everybody experiences, right? 

So do you have a process that you use? Because everyone has it. But maybe they feel it in different ways or the body reacts to it in different ways. Or maybe they’ve got different coping mechanisms for it.

So if we take the baseline that everyone’s got it. You’re exactly right, this topic comes up all the time with our students in Sax School. I think it’s particularly because we have got thousands of adults who are starting their journey of learning the saxophone, later on in life.

And it’s kind of a weird thing I think when you’re an adult. Maybe you’ve already been successful in your career, doing whatever you’ve done, be it a doctor or a dentist or a mechanic or whatever. And then you do this new thing. And you’ve got that confidence in what you’ve done before. But then you’re actually way out of your comfort zone when you try and do this new thing, which is standing up and playing in front of people.

And it’s quite overwhelming because you’re thinking I don’t normally have this sort of feeling. How do I deal with it? So, I think, one of the important things to understand is the sort of mental process that goes on in how you deal with this anxiety.

Maybe it’s different for you. Like I said, you’ve been doing it for a long time. But do you have things that you go through in terms of the sort of structure of your day as you prepare for a big show like that? 

Snake: Yeah, definitely. And the physical and mental side of what we do, I’m sure you’ll agree Nigel is intrinsically linked.

Gig preparation

Snake: So from the morning of a show day, whether it’s a big show or a small show, I am focusing on that show. Ideally, I don’t have too much to sidetrack me. But life is not ideal, so I may be travelling. I may be sort of trapped in a hotel room. If it’s the UK, I may have a long drive, all these things. But from the morning, I’m focusing on that show. And to me, preparation is massive. However much you think you need to practice to make sure you are match fit, and ready – do a bit more.

Because when the spotlight hits you, whether it’s real or figuratively, things can kind of get scrambled and go out the window. And all those things you practice you can get lost. You can suddenly realize you don’t know if that’s verse one or verse two. And you don’t know if your solo’s coming up or if you’ve got another 24 bars.

We’ve all been there and I still get it 40-odd years or whatever. I still get those moments of panic, especially when the guy’s singing in Japanese. So you’re not quite sure if the middle eight is coming up or not. So be even more prepared, do that extra bit.Sometimes you can’t, but if you can, then do that.

And then physically, and I use this when I work as a musical director. I’ll do this with very nervous artists, which is good because it calms me down too. I’ll go into the dressing room and say, okay, we’re just going to breathe, and slow that breathing down. We’re going to take it lower, take it deeper in through the nose. I’m going to roll the shoulders, I’m going to stretch up. 

And even doing it in front of you now, I’m feeling calmer. You know, it’s like magic, isn’t it? We curl down. If it’s with kids, I say, we’re going to swing like baby gorillas. All those things can really help.

I have a thing called the zen brush. It’s my secret tool. And it’s nothing radical. It’s just like an advanced version of that. My zen brush sweeps me from the crown of my head all the way down. It’s looking for trapped energy and things that are hunched that you can let go of.

Everywhere, you know, from your eyebrows to your forehead to your jaw, which is a magnet for tension, as you know. And you, especially with our lot, your arms and your hands. But even your legs and your feet – let it go. 

Nigel: So you’re actually visualizing down through your body and relaxing yourself.

Snake: It’s my secret tool. Well, it’s not a secret because I share it with all the students. But it’s great for, you know, if you’re wound up driving. It’s the same thing. It’s a beautiful thing, you know. And a bit of breathing. So there’s all that.

The inner game of saxophone mindset

And then you used the phrase the inner game of what we do. And it’s massive, you know. I hear it so many times: I can’t believe how nervous I am. I’ve presented to hundreds of people at conferences, you know, I’ve done operations. But it’s a different thing as performers. It’s a different thing.

So that monkey on the shoulders going Hey, mate, you’re not really good enough for this. You shouldn’t really be here. They’re probably thinking about replacing you’. You know that monkey.

So I counteract that. I say ‘what’s the worst that can happen? nobody’s going to die, nobody’s going to get hurt. In three hours time, you’ll be having a quick beer, and everything will have been all right. There is a reason why you’re here, they must think you’re all right.’ So I got the other voice going.

And those butterflies and that nervousness? I think it’s possible you can say, you can either take that in a negative way so it really makes you feel sick and think, ‘Oh God, I wish I hadn’t taken this gig‘. Or you can go, ‘Yeah, it is exciting. How lucky am I to be in Tokyo? You know, I’m going to make the best of this’. Breathe again and smile.

I’m sure you say this to students. When you get out on the gig, everybody’s in it together. Smile to people, or just with your eyes, if you’ve got the saxophone in your gob! Like ‘yeah, we’re going to do this.’

We’re going to do this. Nobody wants you to slip. People want to make the performance great.

And the audience too – you might occasionally once in a blue moon get somebody who’s dying for you to screw up. But usually, everybody wants to get their 20 quid’s worth, and have a lovely night. They want to see you do your best.

It’s those mental things that you can turn around. And if there’s nobody to smile at, I’ll just have a little smile to myself. You know, it sounds ridiculous, but I’ll go, ‘you are a lucky dog, you know. You’re in Yokohama, man. How many of your mates have been to Yokohama and had their flight paid for’?

Snake: Or I’m down the 606 Club and I’m thinking, this is what I always dreamt of, being in the business. Playing at a beautiful club with people listening to me. Or,  for our students – ‘I’ve got this opportunity to play for the other students. No I’m not going run to the toilet and be sick. I’m just going to do my best. Let it go’. 

Nigel: Yeah, I love it. I think it’s quite fascinating to hear you talk about that. You are thinking through all these processes as you prepare for doing these massive gigs when you’ve been doing it like your whole adult life. And it’s a great reminder for people who are just at the start of their journey, maybe thinking about doing that first gig. Because hey! Maybe you can remember that feeling way back when you did your first open mic thing or your first jam session. I mean it’s terrifying right?

So, that the same processes can apply for the first gig, even when you’ve been doing it forever. And and now that’s just part of your mental routine, I suppose. Preparing for show. I love that Snake. That’s absolutely fantastic. 

Technical Preparation for Big Shows

Nigel: And so what about then from a technical point of view with regards to your playing? because I imagine that’s a real challenge as well. You mentioned before you might be travelling to the gig. But also you mentioned you might be waiting around for three-quarters of the gig to actually go on and do your bit. So do you have a process that you do in your playing to prepare when you’re doing larger shows like this?

Snake: Great question. And when we’re on the road, we’re almost always touring when we’re doing these big gigs. And the situation is so often far from ideal as far as having time and space to practice.  On a good day, if we’re already in the city where we’re playing, then I’ll head for the venue late morning. Well in advance of the other musicians, if that’s practical.

And I do my usual thing. I get two or three hours in on sax and shakuhachi. I practice my normal long tones and scales and studies. And then I review the material I’m going to play on that evening, well in advance. So I can then go for a walk or a jog and have something to eat.

Practice strategies

That’s an ideal day. But of course, many days when we’re travelling are not ideal. So then the strategies come in. You know, I am desperate to have had some kind of a warm-up that day. I’m sure you’re the same. All of us, hate going on cold. That’s a nasty thing. So, long days on tour buses or flights and airports. Sometimes you can’t go to the venue early because it’s 30 kilometres down the road.

So ingenuity is required. And even if that means some mouthpiece only practice in the corner of the airport car park or the motorway services, I’ve done it in the hotel. Sometimes I’ll climb into the wardrobe, taking duvets and pillows with me and do some real super quiet practice, which is, it’s good for us anyway.

I’m always telling people to hit the extremes. I’m sure you are. And I’ve practised under bridges. I’ve practised in broom cupboards, motorway car parks, toilets, storerooms. It’s always a bit of a joke. ‘Where’s Snake?’  “Oh, he’s in a broom cupboard somewhere, I can hear him’.

And then on the show, there’s that potential frustration of not being used that much. I’m in the wings and I’m just improvising quietly along to whatever that they’re doing on the stage. so much. I have a friend of a friend who does the Doobie Brothers, and I know he’s exactly the same. He’s more of a jazz player than me, so he’s great. Playing crazy bebop to Long Train Running or whatever backstage. 

Nigel: I did a few sessions with Andy Snitzer. He was talking about being on tour with Paul Simon. I think he’s been doing Billy Joel and all these sorts of people. And it’s funny, he said exactly the same thing that you said about only doing a few numbers in the show. And he also said the same thing about being underneath the stage blowing over. Because no one can hear out at the front because it’s like a million decibels out there. But doing the same thing.

Essential practice routine

Nigel: So yeah, that’s fascinating. And so if you are in a really tight situation and you haven’t got that very much time to prepare, what are the absolute minimum go-to things that you would do before you went out on stage? 

Snake: So absolute minimum for me is calm, focused, long tones with some dynamics. Long tones in octaves. And maybe control, stamina, endurance type drills that are warming the muscles up. The same as I’m sure we both encourage all our students to start every practice session with. Long tones and those kinds of things are warming the muscles up. And working on our control and tone and building up the stamina. And I’m not really bothered if I don’t get as far as any finger-waggling things.

But in addition to that, if I’ve got tricky things that are in the memory that I’ve got to play that evening, I’ll try and have played those super slow, speed them up a bit, get them up to match speed. So that would be my minimum. And you could do that hopefully in 20 minutes if you had to. So that would be hopefully my minimum. I never get less than that.

Nigel: I mean, that’s in a difficult situation. It’s really encouraging though, for anyone listening who is, just at that early stage of starting to do shows like this. We’re all still doing warmups, we’re all still working on the same things. It’s a lifelong thing, it’s part of the journey.

Building a Successful Music Career

Nigel: There’s one last thing I wanted to just get some thoughts from you on. I love the whole talk about the saxophone mindset, about how you’re preparing yourself a whole day as you’re going to do the show. Also the practical aspect of preparing your skills, being on top form for going and doing that show too. But I’m curious, I mean, you’ve had such a fabulously successful career. 

Do you think that whole mindset and preparation attitude also extends to the way that you approach building a career? Making contacts and the whole aspect? Because there’s a whole other side of being a working musician, which is the business side of it, right? The connections and how you present yourself and all that sort of thing. So do you think that same mindset flows from the performing aspect to the actual business side of things? 

Snake: Yeah. Great question. And it’s such a huge part of what we do as musicians. And really, I make no divisions or differentials between those of us who are just doing it for fun, you know, we have no ambition or necessity to earn money from it, and those of us who are professional or semi-professional. It’s all the same. We’re all on our saxes wanting to get better, wanting to get more gigs, wanting to meet more musicians. So this really, I think, applies to everybody. I always want to get people out of their bedrooms and in front of an audience.

And so I’ll ask the question to players who are earlier on in their careers and to my former self. Where do you want to be? What’s your dream situation? Your dream playing situation? And whether it’s a professional thing or not. And then, okay, make a plan. What do I need to do to get there?

For me, my ambition was pretty simple from early on when I met that saxophone. I wanted to get really good on this instrument and be in a band and play live. That was my ultimate dream and my ambition. And others might aspire to be studio musicians or to do those big gigs that we’ve been talking about.

My son, his dream is doing the sax and DJ thing, not necessarily for money. So I had no aspiration to any of that, and I kind of just fell into it. It was a happy accident, and then found out that I enjoyed it. And it was sometimes lucrative.

But whatever it is, have a plan, work your way towards it. Be patient, because it takes a lot longer than you think so many times. And I think it’s good to be ambitious and to have these ideas, and these goals.

I’m sure once again, Nigel, we’re the same. And you’ll hear students say, ‘Yeah, but you know, I could never do that. I could never do what Nigel does, or what Snake does’. Don’t ever say that. You don’t impose limitations. Just get rid of that monkey again that’s saying, I’ll never be good enough. No, dismiss that. Do what you can.

Building your network

How do you get gigs like that? Well, practice. My best advice is the way I understand, and the way it happened for me, is to practice hard with great guidance from somebody like yourself or myself. Get yourself out playing as soon as you can. When you feel you’re ready, you’ll know when you’re ready.

And on the gig, make sure that you’re helpful, you’re positive, you’re on time, you’re hardworking, you support your fellow musicians. You get the first round of drinks in. And then more on the business side, it’s your online presence. In the old days, it had a good CV and some pictures. Now it’s have a strong online presence.

And you know, most of us Westerners, we’re British people, Australian people. We’re naturally shy. We’re not show-offs. But you’ve got to show off a bit. You’ve got to show your strengths in your online presence. If you’re not capable of sorting that out, get a friend or pay for somebody to do it.

And then within reason, just take every playing opportunity that comes along, whether there’s money involved or not. Because that’s the most natural way for a career to grow – is for you to do a good job. You get recommended, you make friends with another musician or two. And it rolls on, and suddenly the phone rings,… It’s like the natural, organic way, and that’s how it happened for me.

And I’m not saying that cold calling and pushing and approaching people out of the blue is a bad thing to do, not necessarily. I once wrote to Paul Weller from The Jam saying,  ‘I’d love to be in your band’. And that was a handwritten letter. I got a handwritten letter back saying, ‘I don’t need a sax player, but thanks for the letter‘.

I never have called artist managers or anything like that, but some people would do it. I’m not saying that’s a that’s not a bad thing to do. And maybe if that works, then great. I knew somebody who was an up and coming artist songwriter and they wrote to George Martin who produced the Beatles. They said, ‘Oh, man, I’d love to work with you’. And he said, ‘fine, come on down’. I think that’s the exception. Most of us are used to getting no replies or rejections.

Take opportunities

Nigel: that thing you said though, about taking every opportunity to go play. And also being a nice person, that’s actually easy to get along with. And without a doubt, you’ve got to have your skills together. But it’s about making connections out of music. Business is a connections business.

Yeah. We all know, we need to know people. And if you don’t know people yet, the way you start that process is by taking those opportunities and going and playing. It’s always amazed me throughout my life, how people connect you to people, connect you to people. And you know, if I think about every big thing that I’ve done, it always tracks back through some random long string of connections. So, every connection is important and it’s back to getting started.

Snake: Same for me. Every one of those big gigs, I could trace it back to a session or a gig or a friend of a friend and that’s how it happened.

Getting the Eikichi Yazawa gig

Nigel: Go on then. Tell us how the Eikichi Yazawa gig came about 25 years ago. 

Snake: Okay. Well, that’s a good example. And I was phoned, not by him, but by one of his people. And I had no idea how this came about until after I’d done the gig, or on the gig. But I had done just a demo session when a producer or a singer-songwriter has written a song and just want to do a demo version of it, a trial version.

So for a hundred quid, or as a favour, I popped down to this guy’s house in West London. I played on a couple of tracks for a singer that he was writing for. And I said goodbye, that’s the only time I ever met him. But he’d called me because somebody else had recommended me to him.

And then he, unbeknown to me, had been writing with Yazawa. He’d come over to London to write with this guy. And then he said, ‘I want to get a hot guy from maybe from the UK on sax‘ and he said ‘Oh, we’ll get the old Snake.‘ But I never found that out until months afterwards.  It was pretty random, but it’s a good example of what we were talking about.

Nigel: But if you trace that back though, from there, the reason that you went and played for that guy for a hundred quid, was that he knew you because you’d built up a relationship that led to that point. So, yeah, I love that. Such great advice. 

Learn more about Snake Davis

Nigel: It’s been such a great conversation today. And there’s so many takeaways in there that I think will help anyone listening. Wherever you’re at, whether you’re just getting started, or whether you’re way further on in your sort of journey with a saxophone, there’s stuff that you could take away from today. So, I really appreciate you taking the time to share that with us today.

And we were talking before we started recording about how I love that you actually don’t live so far away from me, right? You’re up in York somewhere, aren’t you? 

Snake: I was up that way. Now I’m over in Northeast Lincolnshire, but it’s not that far from you.

Snake: So we’re not far away from each other. And so our students do cross paths and I’m always hearing great stories about what you’re doing. People going to your gigs. And so if you are in the UK definitely go and check out Snake if you can see him live.

Nigel: And also there’s Snakademy where you’re helping students. A bunch of our students also do things with you or go along to your saxophone retreats. And they’re always telling me how awesome it is. 

Snake: Down in southern Spain. They’re a joy.

Nigel: think I’d like to come. Sounds fun.

So if you wanna find out more about Snake, then go check him out at Snake Davis Rocks. 

Snake: Yeah, that’s the best place. There are links to all the things you mentioned there. The Snakademy and the Horn Camps.

Final Thoughts

Nigel: Awesome. Thanks so much for taking the time to talk to us today.

Hey, I really hope you enjoyed this conversation. So many great takeaways in there.

If you want to grab that 14 day free trial for Sax School you can do that here.

Thanks so much for listening. We’ll catch you on the next episode.