Richard Michael Dawson (born 24 May 1981)[1] is an English progressive folk singer-songwriter from Newcastle upon Tyne.[2] His 2014 album Nothing Important was released by Weird World and was met with critical acclaim.[3][4][5] His 2017 album Peasant received similar acclaim, and was chosen by The Quietus as their album of the year.[6] In 2019, he released the album 2020, again to critical acclaim.[7][8]Henki, a collaborative album made with the Finnish band Circle, was released in 2021,[9] followed by another solo effort, The Ruby Cord, in 2022.
Career
Dawson grew up in Newcastle and became interested in singing as a child, attempting to emulate American singers such as Faith No More's Mike Patton.[10] He worked in record stores for 10 years before starting a professional music career. He bought an inexpensive acoustic guitar[3] but accidentally broke it. After the guitar was repaired, he found it had a unique sound and he has used it as his main instrument.[2]
Dawson's music has been described as a deconstruction of folk music, done in an English style, similar to what American Captain Beefheart did with blues music.[2][5] Dawson himself cites Qawwali,[10] a form of Sufi devotional music, Kenyan folk guitarist Henry Makobi[2] and folk musician Mike Waterson[11] as influences on his work.
In 2008 and 2009, Dawson released 10 albums of computerized electronic music under the pseudonym Eye Balls.[12] The music for this project is long-form ambient drone music, without vocals.
The albums The Glass Trunk (2013) and Nothing Important (2014) feature collaborations with harpist Rhodri Davies, who Dawson describes as "somewhat of a kindred spirit".[10][11] Dawson and Davies have since also released records as the band Hen Ogledd,[13] and Dawson has also released solo material pseudonymously under the name "Eyeballs". Dawson has also performed in the groups Hot Fog with Mike Vest (Bong)[citation needed], Moon with Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan (Jazzfinger), and played a handful of shows on guitar with Khunnt.[11]
Since Nothing Important, Dawson has played the guitar through a Fender and an Orange amplifier in series.[10] He also used synthesized sounds from an iOS application, ThumbJam, and played saxophone despite having only a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument.[10]
Lyrically, Dawson's material deals with dark subjects such as death. For The Glass Trunk, he searched the Tyne and Wear Archives catalogue for "death" and took inspiration from old news stories involving murder and bodily harm.[3][14] The track "The Vile Stuff" from Nothing Important describes a continuous narrative of events, including one where Dawson pierced his hand with a screwdriver attempting to crack a coconut shell while on a school trip.[5]
Discography
Albums
Richard Dawson Sings Songs and Plays Guitar (2007)
