Tell us about yourself and your creative background
I am a Londoner and consider this city my home, but a love of the ocean has me mostly working from Lanzarote, where I can enjoy the wild Atlantic Ocean and focus on The Secret App.
My career started in the ‘80s as a music promoter. Things shifted in the ‘90s when Virgin was sold to EMI; grunge took over, my music aspirations were homeless, I spent 2 years DJing in Asia before returning to the UK.
A chance opportunity led me into sports sponsorship, where I managed sports sponsorship rights held by FIFA. Later, I relocated to Miami to set up the stateside office for the agency I worked for; In the 20s, I transitioned to ambient and digital marketing, managing campaigns for brands like Levis, Nokia, and Disney. I now dedicate all my time to The Secret App.
Travel has always been a big part of my life. After four decades of hopping between cities on three continents, I have always been fascinated by how every city has its unique cultural identity. The true driver of this is its underground art scene. To me, the real heartbeat of any city is far away from tourism and the mainstream.
What is The Secret App?
A digital community presenting exceptional individuals – artists, creators and innovators in cities across Europe. The Secret App gives a platform for its community to showcase themselves, their work, and their secrets. These secrets are recommended places to go... the locations that mean the most to each member and the reason why.
The Secret App transcends being a mere city guide; it serves as a portal to the work of local creators, unique local insights and first-hand experiences to offer a distinct perspective of each city. The Secret App elevates local artists, enriches the cultural landscape, boosts independent businesses, and transforms how residents and visitors explore and connect with cities.
What was the inspiration behind The Secret App?
It all started during COVID-19. I lived in Spain, where the lockdown was much stricter than in the UK, where most of my team is based. During endless Zoom calls, we often reminisced about past travel adventures. Being younger and shaped by the digital revolution, my team heard me talk about travelling in the ‘80s and 90s—when it was all about discovery, free from online influence. Back then, travel meant diving into local cultures and embracing the uncertainty, with chance encounters often leading to the most unforgettable experiences—so different from the curated, digital world we have today.
Advancing to the 2020s, the travel landscape has undergone a significant transformation. The inundation of digital content and sponsored stories has fundamentally altered our perceptions and experiences of cities. The element of spontaneity in travel is now overshadowed by the pervasive influence of the online world, which is often mired in commercial interests and misinformation. The idea of The Secret App was born in response to this shift.
Collectively, we decided to create a platform that could recreate the essence of those chance encounters that once enriched our travels and present a distinctive guide to cities. A platform that would be a haven from the clutter and commercial bias. Delivered by a community of creators, it would promise an authentic exploration of cities, connecting residents and travellers to relatable individuals who provide personal recommendations and insights into their lives and creativity.
What do you hope The Secret App can achieve in the future?
When we begin any creative endeavour, hope is all we have. But as an idea progresses, hope is replaced by experience, knowledge, and the opinions and input of supporters and collaborators. What we once hoped for becomes what we know.
We now know that The Secret App can be the definitive guide to any city for any creative traveller and resident in the cities featured. It is where artists can find a new audience for their work by being part of a revolutionary, authentic, and inclusive community with their interests at its heart.
We have big plans for 2025, including giving members greater gallery space, their own profile calendar for events, and much more. At the same time, we will roll out to new cities worldwide.
The social media landscape is changing, and niche communities can work together to create awareness for themselves by reaching a relevant audience in an uncluttered space run not by corporate interests and advertisers but by creators, for creators.
Can you tell us about the best place/space you’ve uncovered through The Secret App?
The team here has work to do for all secret places artists add to The Secret App, so we see 100s daily. I couldn’t decide on the best one overall! But I can give you one that just came in recently: Housmans Bookshop, the radical bookshop in London; while I knew of it, I had no idea that in the room above it, Gerald Holtom, a British artist and designer, created one of the world's most enduring symbols of peace: the CND peace symbol. Holtom designed it in 1958 for a march from London to Aldermaston to protest nuclear weapons. Holtom chose not to copyright his creation, believing the symbol should belong to everyone advocating peace. By leaving it in the public domain, he allowed it to transcend its original context, becoming a global emblem of resistance, nonviolence, and unity across movements for civil rights, anti-war protests, and environmental activism.
How can The Secret App help amplify Cardiff’s creative story?
The creative story behind any city is defined by the endeavours of the creative and artistic community who reside there, not by ‘content creators’ and ‘influencers’ chasing numbers in a digital realm, but by creative people who create, live and breathe in their city.
The Secret App provides a platform for Cardiff’s creative community to showcase themselves and their work to a new and relevant audience for nothing more in return other than a few secrets – these are the places they love in Cardiff and the reasons why. Cardiff’s creative story, like any great story, needs a space to be heard and a cast of fascinating characters and unique locations.