Hi, I'm ortoPilot. A musician from Manchester, UK.
I've had an instrument in my hands for as long as I can remember.
I picked up a keyboard at 3, saxophone at 7, and guitar at 18 — always playing along to songs I loved across so many different genres.
In 2004 I started putting my own recordings online, and something clicked. People were actually connecting with the music I was making. That meant the world to me then, and it still does.
I found YouTube in 2006 and slowly grew an audience from there. One thing led to another, and by 2010 I was able to go fully independent as a musician. Since then I've created hundreds of videos, produced and released hundreds of songs, played shows I'll never forget and seen places I never thought I'd reach with a guitar in my hands.
In 2018 I discovered looping and it completely changed how I make music. Around the same time I started streaming on Twitch, and it quickly became my home.
Real people, real time, no filters. Pure connection.
I'm still there, still making music, and still obsessed with it.
If you repeat something enough times, it becomes 2nd nature. Muscle memory takes over so you don't have to think about it, like riding a bike or typing on your keyboard, or playing guitar. The more I played, the more I felt like I was on 'autopilot'. I was looking for a name for my first musical project and that fitted nicely.
I wasn't keen on the look of the word, so I changed it to a more phonetic looking 'ortoPilot'.
A long time! I've had a passion for music since I was 3 years old. I started with a Casio PT-10 and couldn't put it down. I took Saxophone lessons when I was 8 which taught me how to read music. Guitar came later on, because it scared me for a long time. I bought my first guitar when I was 17 and started taking it serious in my early 20s.
I always thought I'd be a behind-the-scenes musician kinda guy, but since I started uploading to YouTube, the last 15 years have been a different story. I've loved every minute :)
I performed live for years but I didn't start looping until I started streaming in 2018. Ableton opened up a new world of live music creation to me.
No, but I have good relative pitch. I think it's from playing a lot of music as a kid. It's a skill that can be learned over time.
Watch my tutorials on YouTube and you'll be making tunes in no time!!!
Elixir are my favourite strings by far.
I normally use Elixir Acoustic Polyweb Medium .013 - .056