Dylan

 Dylan

Growing up in the small village of Bures in Suffolk, Natasha Woods wasn’t looking at local luminaries for inspiration. To this day, her idols can be found on the other side of the world. “I just wanted to be Angus Young from AC/DC,” she grins. “Mum was really into musicals and things like that, so if I was in her car driving to school, that’s what we’d listen to.

 But if I was ever in dad’s car it was like pure rock n roll, like Aerosmith, Guns N’ Roses, stuff like that. I was just made into a young, rock, air-guitar, serious wannabe.”

Growing up with Irlens Syndrome, a neurological condition that affected her sight, music was the one thing that Woods felt comfortable with, although reading it was impossible. 

“I was just really unacademic and everyone thought I was a bit dumb,” she says. “I did one piano lesson at six or seven, went home and I was like, mum I’m never doing that again. 

I worked out what sounded good and then because it took longer to learn other people’s songs by ear, I just started writing my own.”

When her brother started to learn guitar, Woods followed his lead. 

“I used to sit at the top of the stairs listening to him play and then when he’d finished practicing I used to go and play everything that he’d been playing,” she laughs.

It wasn’t until she was fourteen that she was diagnosed and prescribed a range of sight exercises, and some rather fetching blue medical glasses. 

“Just picture this,” she cringes, “Really, really rosy cheeks (I have uncontrollable blushing), a side ponytail with seriously thick hair, train tracks with the rubber bands on and blue glasses. I mean, it was a look!”