Born in Accra and raised in Teshie until the age of eight, TJ grew up in a family where music was woven into everyday life. His mother and grandmother loved gospel, while his father listened to Ghanaian highlife, including artists such as Ebo Taylor and Daddy Lumba.
When his mother’s diplomatic work brought the family from Ghana to London, music remained a connection to home. After TJ asked for a guitar, she bought him one. He played while his mother and grandmother sang gospel songs.
Finding his own voice.
For years, TJ was primarily a church musician. He played guitar, sang backing vocals, led bands and choirs, and eventually worked as a music director. Open mic nights around Hertfordshire later gave him space to sing, play and express himself as an artist in his own right.
A sound worth following.
At sixteen, hearing Ben Harper’s Live from Mars sent TJ searching for the source of an unfamiliar sound. He discovered the Weissenborn, a hollow-neck acoustic lap-slide guitar.
The instrument could be warm and intimate, but also distorted and forceful. It could carry melody with a vocal quality, create rhythm and groove, and function percussively.
That curiosity eventually led him to Beethoven: a six-month process of studying and arranging the second movement of the Pathétique Sonata for solo Weissenborn, subsequently performed at Wilton’s Music Hall.
His voice, conventional guitar and Weissenborn offer different ways of expressing a musical identity that continues to develop through The Emissary.