Artist in the Spotlight – Dave Giles
Some of our favourite musicians have started out as little-known, unsigned bands. Some of them still are! With this in mind, here is a place for us to promote the artists you just have to check out. Give them a listen and then give them some love.
Check back next week for Tennessee & 48th Album Review and Podcast with Dave Giles
DIY to the core and supported by a growing, fervent community of fans, London singer-songwriter Dave Giles has toured Europe, Australia, Ireland and the UK and released a series of EPS along with his debut album Love, Life, Loss and Tea in 2012.
Tennessee & 48th, Available for pre-order now and released Friday 2nd November
Dave returns with new single Taken Too Soon, the first taste of his upcoming second album Tennessee & 48th. The song is a tender, mid-tempo rocker showcasing his rugged folk-rock songwriting and the earthy musicianship of the Nashville musicians he assembled for the new LP.
After the launch of the new LP Dave alongside band The 79′ Sound, who feature on the album and have flown over from Nashville especially for the shows, embarks on a four night tour stopping at Brixton (6th Nov), Nottingham (7th Nov), Manchester (8th Nov) with the final show ending at The Monarch in Camden (9th Nov).
“How many people have a dream?” he asks. “Something they’ve always wanted to do, their whole lives? How many of those people ended up doing that thing? And how many of those come away from that experience with it not just meeting their expectations, but going way beyond? I spent more money than I’d ever spent in my life, risked everything and I was working with people who didn’t know anything about me – and all of them contributed hugely to my songs and my album in a special, unique alchemy.”
Inspired by genre heavyweights like Jason Isbell and Zac Brown and the Nashville episode of Foo Fighters’ Sonic Highways documentary, in January 2018, the 33-year-old jetted off to Nashville to start work on his most ambitious project to date. Having raised an impressive £25000 with his loyal fanbase, Giles and his producer Dean Dichoso put together a band of incredible musicians in the perfect studio, located on the corner of Tennessee and 48th Street (Welcome To 1979).
The 10 songs were recorded live to 2-inch tape and explore relationships, community, hedonism and sacrifice through Americana storytelling and folky introspection. For a long-time Country and Americana fan like Giles, the experience of making the album and forming a new band of musical brothers (including guitarist Kevin Haaland of Skillet and bassist from Candlebox) was a lifelong, career-high bucket list moment.
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“Taken Too Soon is about a girl who came to my gigs many, many times over the years called Kayleigh,” explains Giles. “Over time, we became pretty good friends. At the end of 2014, I was pretty drained from years of self promotion and touring and contemplating giving it all up. At the start of 2015 I got a phone call telling me that Kayleigh had dropped down dead at work, aged 21. I was asked by her family to sing at the funeral and I did – it was the toughest gig ever. After that, I wondered why the hell I’d even contemplated giving this up. I love doing what I do and despite a small audience, I’ve built up a wonderful community of people who come to my shows and they’re all a huge part of my life. It’s a very different career to what I thought it would be when I was 18 and dreamed of being a rock star, but it’s so rewarding. I wrote this song about Kayleigh to honour her memory and that bond.”