biographical info
Sometimes singer/songwriter can
be a dirty term in this industry. But if you are just one man the
options seem limited when stepping into the dangerous territory of a
one-man-band. Walter Dandy, Vancouver based singer/songwriter, is
walking that line, save for the drum strapped onto his back. This one
man operation is not limited, rather limitless, especially when living
in the age of Craigslist and having an excellent sense of adventure.
It was only a short time ago that Dandy was graduating with a degree
in audio engineering and had his sights set on manning the control
board when opportunity came knocking. He was recruited as the lead
guitarist in a touring band and spent the next two years doing hard
time as a hired gun while learning all the ins and outs of the music
business. Dabbling in writing, recording, tour managing or babysitting,
it was a sharp learning curve for the resilient musician. The ups
included performing and seeing most of Canada, the US and Europe while
making excellent connections, while the downs included hanging back to
play someone else’s material. It was only a matter of time before that
became unfulfilling.
Dandy began writing and composing his own material, a curious
combination of downhearted themes presented in an upbeat manner and it
wasn’t long before he had an albums worth of demoed material. His
ambitions took him further than just his present knowledge of guitar,
bass and piano. Soon he was scouring Craigslist to find what could be
added to give his barebones songs just the right touch. And so it
started in his home studio with a harmonica then a banjo then a pedal
steel. The name of the game wasn’t to master any one instrument, but
rather experiment in the most rudimentary of ways to layer and create a
full sound. The collection grew, the piece de resistance being a
gorgeous 1867 pump organ. There is no order of operations, no map to
follow, just Walter Dandy left to his own devices and a studio full of
instruments. This spring Walter Dandy will be recording his self-titled
debut album due out in late 2009.