Bio

Stephen Riddell was born in Christchurch and has been telling stories since he learned to talk. He started studying classical music at the age of five, mostly with focus on the piano, with a few years of guitar lessons, and continued to play music until his last year of high school. At this point the pressure and competition of classical music became too intense and he stopped playing entirely.

Having given up on music, Stephen turned towards filmmaking and sound engineering. He graduated from Victoria University in 2014 with a BA in Film (minor in Music) and created Riddell Productions, a production company that he runs with his twin – Michael Riddell. The two of them then got to work creating Portrait of a Knight (2018), a feature film musical about a painting that comes to life, as well as many music videos and documentaries that can be seen via their website.

After releasing Portrait of a Knight, Stephen happened to catch a few gigs at the Wellington Bluegrass Society and fell in love with the storytelling of folk music. By the end of the year he had bought himself a $20 harmonica and picked up a few old-time tunes. Since then he has expanded his harmonica collection, started re-learning the guitar and piano, written a number of songs and arranged many traditional ballads.

Links

• Artist Website
• Facebook Page
• Youtube Page
• Bandcamp Page
• Spotify Page