Ian Black Bio
I grew up in rural Whangarei on a small farm. At 8 my parents sent me for piano lessons which was my 1st introduction to music. After leaving primary school I went into the city to intermediate school and was introduced to the guitar. This is when I realized I loved music. On the way home from school I had to get onto several different buses. On the middle bus there was a high school kid who knew chords and used to write 3 or 4 chords on my arm every day. I would have been 10 at the time, funny the things that stick in your mind. At this point I was listening to Mums music (Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Wham etc.) and we didn’t have music radio (FM didn’t come to Whangarei until the mid 80’s).
I continued with the guitar learning chords and the 1st song I could play all the way through was Crazy little thing called love (Queen), although I had a crack at Stairway to heaven and number of times. A few years later I went to high school and was introduced to Rock…………………..
Being a bit of a ‘pop listener’ with mum’s collection I vividly remember getting my 1st Rock album off a mate, Loverboy - Lovin’ every minute of it. I was hooked. This followed with Quiet Riot, Poison, Def Lepard, Motley Crue, GNR…… the list goes on. Then a mate who was in the school band handed me the new Van Halen album 5150. This, funny enough, was when I started to sing more rather than just focus on the guitar which is funny to me, you know Eddie Van Halen and I’m focused on the vocals????. Still I must admit Van Halen put me off guitar a bit too…………..
Left school and joined the RNZAF and joined my 1st covers band. A mate of mine that I was jamming with had a new band and they needed a bass player so I was in…………………… This was my 1st real band and my introduction to singing. I started out just BV’s but the lead singer recognised I could sing the Rock stuff quite well so gave me the Nirvana, Metallica type songs in the set to sing. I loved singing but never saw myself as a singer. I was the bassist, guitarist, keyboardist who sang a lot.
As the years went I on bands came and went and without me really noticing I was singing more and more until TGIF where I was the lead singer. Jobs changed too but mostly I found myself in IT.
While covers bands were going on my brother’s originals band needed a drummer. Sweet, I’ll be into that. This was my 1st introduction to song writing. Different scene to covers, tiny venues, no money, small crowds, but lots and lots of bands to hang with. Life was good………………….
Then tragedy hit. My partner had a heart attack and suffered brain damage as a result. I quit music to look after her. These are times where you learn who you really are. Due to her brain injury she couldn’t remember me or our life together and after a painful 6 months we separated. A few people close to me could see what not playing live music was doing to my life. I was lost, trapped between 2 loves as corny as that sounds. Once I had made the choice to leave I knew I needed my own band and I had to be the singer. So I began a recording project with my brother of the songs we had written over the last few years in other bands. Fuser was born as a musical outlet for my song writing. Nothing more………………..
I was also a free-lance ‘soundie’ and 1 of the bands I was working for had a very interesting character in it. Enter Dave Morello into my life. I remember thinking I need to get this guy to drum on my songs. Funny never thought we would wind up in a band together. After Dave had Produced the 1st Fuser album we haven’t look back………………. Well maybe a few times but that’s music right?
Middle of 2016 I got an email from a friend and associate Stephen Wrench from the US. ‘You’ve been nominated for a Grammy mate’. The song 600 Cops had been entered into the 2017 Grammy’s. This was a huge moment for me in my life as I had never been recognized at this level before. Great moment in music and in Life
Mid way through 2019 the band started a new project. ‘Five Minutes To Mayhem’ was born. It was the same guys but a whole new skin to breath in. With the new name we set our sites on the US. Let the Mayhem begin…….
Today I am blessed to be still gong and can’t image life without music. To me music is the 1 thing that binds my whole life together. From School to the 1st bands to the 1st album to the 1st gig to the 1st tour and so on……………………………………………………………….
Wonder what the future will hold. We will see
Cheers Ian