IT was a case of just sticking a pin on a map somewhere between Oxford and Carlisle that determined where musician Steve Brown and his wife Laura would settle down.
They had met during their first year at college, his home being in Oxford while jeweller and silversmith student Laura came from Carlisle.
Although Steve now works full time in his music career and Laura is with the NHS helping people with learning difficulties, their joint aim is to hold art and music workshops within communities - and Longridge and the wider area of the north west seemed to be the answer.
"We wanted to find somewhere at an equal distance from our family homes and the pin fell on Lancashire and Longridge - and it's proved fantastic!" said Steve.
The couple have settled, with their lively brown labrador Seb (Sebastian when naughty), in Chapel Hill and Steve adds "We're in a busy community in Longridge, there are good l inks to other communities and for gigs in clubs and similar venues, and we hope to start our joint workshops soon."
Taking music to adults and children in all sorts of different circumstances is also an important part of Steve's vocation, which is why he's hoping to build up his student list locally with guitar taster sessions organised for Longridge Field Day, and through a samba drumming workshop at the CE primary school, both in June.
With a qualification in British sign language and in deaf awareness, he also helps with workshops for Music and the Deaf, a registered charity on the Wirral and, with Creative Partnerships in Lancashire, he works with schools to teach curriculum subjects using different art forms.
He also devised and managed a music project with students from the prestigious Mary Hare School for profound and severely deaf young adults, and has worked with the BCMG on a music and drfama project for children with hearing disabilities.
Steve currently teaches guitar, keyboard and singing for Blackburn with Darwen Music Service and for the Music Spot in Lancaster.
He says "I have a vast amount of community workshop experience, teaching samba percussion in particular at a variety of settings including a centre for children with psychiatric issues, at children's homes, a school for the profoundly deaf, at primary, junior and secondary schools, community centres with adult learners, hostels for offenders, corporate settings, festivals and county youth orchestras."
Leading up to his and Laura's move to Lancashire, however, has been Steve's extensive work experience in the music world after gaining his BMusic (hons) degree in composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire.
At just 27, he has an impressively varied CV highlighting his considerable skills in several music genres including classical, percussion, composition and Indie/Rock, and he has his own band, Titus Stacks, with two gigs already booked for the summer in Morecambe and Lancaster.
But, as a youngster, his passion for music had to vie with an equal interest in becoming a professional swimmer - "so you can see which one was the winner!" he laughed.
"Family influence wasn't major - my dad was a choirboy in Oxford, my sister played the piano - but music has been the biggest thing for me probably since the age of 10 or 11."
The samba influence was introduced during Steve's first weeks at college when he started learning with tutor Mark Lockett.
"He was a fantastic samba percussionist and after he left, and when I was in my fourth year, I took over his group, Samba Central, and have run it ever since until my final gig with them in Birmingham last week-end." he says a trifle ruefully.
The regular journeys to that city were taking a time-toll on the Brown's plans for their work locally, but Steve's aims for the future seem as lively and determined as they have been in the past.
"One is to travel less!" he exclaimed."I also want to increase my involvement in community music in the area, to continue developing Titus Stacks' exposure and fanbase, perhaps getting a record or distribution deal, and possibly to move more into composing film music."
His best friend - and best man at the couple's wedding - is deaf film-maker Charles Swinburne, and they have already collaborated on a film for a hearing audience entitled 'Four Deaf Yorkshiremen' which is on YouTube.
"I would really like to do more work along film music lines," said Steve, who was project leader for 'Sound it Out's' project working with primary school children to produce music incorporating improvisation, and for the same group's cross-generation project aimed at introducing film music in a practical way to children and families.
Steve says his major influence for film music has been Thomas Newman, with others being - for solo work Martin Simpson, Billy Bragg, Bobby McFerrin, Radiohead, Bjork and Jeff Buckley; for his group Titus Stocks - Muse, Queen and Nick Cave, and for Samba Central - studying samba rhythms in Rio de Janeiro with Robertino Silva and Humberto de Souza at Maracatu Brasil.
And he can sign off with his own qualifications which, with his deaf awareness and sign language certificates already mentioned, are classical guitar, classical singing, classical piano and music theory.

* To view the short film Four Deaf Yorkshiremen on YouTube, please click HERE