"I had been reading the magazine for years at school and finally started sending them reviews of concerts I had attanded in the vain hope of them publishing some. I went through a year of frustration before one review finally appeared in print. At that point I knew what I wanted to do with my life."

While based in London and attending North London University, where he was studying a degree in English, Jeff became a regular contributor to Blues & Soul and when their Assistant Editor left, the magazine offered Jeff the presitgious full time job. He was just 19 years old.

"I knew I wanted to be involved in the R&B music business and this was a golden opportunity but I promised my parents I'd continue my degree on a part time basis, which I did."

In the 12 years since then, traveling initially between London and the US (before relocating to New York in 1993) Jeff has interviewed a who's who of musical celebrities including Prince, TLC, Mariah Carey, Toni Braxton, Sade to name but a few.

"Moving to New York allowed me to spread my wings as writer" says Jeff who has just completed his debut novel 'MFSB' (which he is currently shopping to agents) "and write for a lot of other magazines and now web sites". Although widely respected as a music journalist (he writes for the US trade bible Billboard, amongst numourous others, under the nom-de-plum 'Jeff Lorez' - "a long story!"), Jeff states that his future writing ambitions lie beyond just music.

"It's funny but for quite a few years as a music journalist I always considered myself a guy who knew a lot about music and just happened to be able to string a sentence together but I never thought I was a particularly good writer. I guess, though, after years of writing so intensely every day I was bound to improve. Now I consider myself a writer first, who just happens to know a lot about music!"

Indeed, of late Jeff has written for many lifestyle magazines including Honey, Code and Arena about non-music related subjects and he hopes to continue to diversify his writing.

"As you get older, your interests are bound to grow. too. Music will always be my first love and I'll always keep my hand in that journalistically but it's not a challenge to write about the same thing all the time."

For the entirity of his journalistic career Jeff has also been writing and producing his own songs and now, through working with an incredible 16-year-old R&B vocalist, Tara Harrison, who is about to be signed to a major record label, seems on the verge of having his compositions heard on a widespread basis.

Jeff admits, though, that for an Indian, being so heavily entrenched in R&B seems something of an oddity and confesses it hasn't always been an easy road.