Richard Dawson (musician)

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. Dawson worked at the Newcastle record stores, JG Windows and Alt.Vinyl, and took on additional bar work for ten years before starting a professional music career. He bought an inexpensive acoustic guitar 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.

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. Dawson himself cites Qawwali, a form of Sufi devotional music, Kenyan folk guitarist Henry Makobi and folk musician Mike Waterson as influences on his work.

In 2008 and 2009, Dawson released 10 albums of computerized electronic music under the pseudonym Eye Balls.{{cite web|url=https://eyeballs.bandcamp.com/ |title=Eye Balls|website=Eyeballs.bandcamp.com|access-date=16 July 2024}} 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".{{cite web|last1=Nugent|first1=Cian|title=Richard Dawson by Cian Nugent|url=http://bombmagazine.org/article/2000044/richard-dawson|website=Bomb magazine|access-date=16 December 2014|date=3 December 2014}}{{cite web|last1=McKeating|first1=Scott|title=The Ancestor's Tale: An Interview With Richard Dawson|url=http://thequietus.com/articles/11494-richard-dawson-interview|website=The Quietus|access-date=16 December 2014|date=26 February 2013}} Dawson and Davies have since also released records as the band Hen Ogledd,{{cite journal |last=Bliss |first=Abi |date=November 2014 |title=Galaxy of Scars |url= |journal=The Wire |issue=369 |page=40 |access-date=}} 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|date=December 2023}}, Moon with Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan (Jazzfinger), and played a handful of shows on guitar with Khunnt.

Dawson writes and records on a Baby Taylor guitar that he has owned since his twenties, noting: "Every song I've written since my twenties has been written on that. We're sort of bound. I'm very familiar with it and it is with me."{{cite magazine |last=Pinnock |first=Tom |date=February 2025 |title=The Magic Gardener |magazine=Uncut}} Dawson no longer tours with the guitar after a series of accidents befell the instrument: "There was a minor earthquake in the UK and I'd forgotten I'd put it on the floor, and I stood on it, but it was still playable. The second time I was drunk and I totally caved it in, but it still made a sound of sorts. I thought, 'Well, I'll just play the songs the same, the spirit will still be there even if it sounds terrible.' Then [singer-songwriter] Nev Clay stood on it and totally broke it – it was my fault. A luthier Nigel Forster put a beautiful curved top on it, and it was vastly improved. Then the neck snapped on the first day of the Peasant tour."

Since Nothing Important, Dawson has played his guitars through a Fender and an Orange amplifier in series. He also used synthesized sounds from an iOS application, ThumbJam, and played saxophone despite having only a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument.

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.{{cite web|url=http://www.folkradio.co.uk/2014/03/richard-dawson-the-glass-trunk/|title=Richard Dawson – The Glass Trunk|first=Harry|last=Wheeler|publisher=Folk Radio|date=5 March 2014|access-date=16 December 2014}} 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.

• Richard Dawson Sings Songs and Plays Guitar (2007)
• The Magic Bridge (2011)
• The Glass Trunk (2013)
• Nothing Important (2014)
• Peasant (2017)
• 2020 (2019)
• Henki (2021) (with Circle)
• The Ruby Cord (2022)
• End of the Middle (2025)

• Republic of Geordieland (2020)

• Europa (2008)
• The Roof of The World (2008)
• Sea of William Henry Smyth (2008)
• Seal-Skin Satellite (2008)
• The Invisible Castle (2009)
• The Quest (2009)
• Thief of Men (2009)
• Treasure (2009)
• Eyeballs/Gareth Hardwick split (2009)
• Eyeballs/White Dwarf Spiral split (2009)

• Dawson-Davies: Hen Ogledd with Rhodri Davies (2013)
• Bronze by Hen Ogledd (Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davies and Dawn Bothwell) (2016)
• Mogic by Hen Ogledd (Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell, Sally Pilkington, Will Guthrie) (2018)
• Free Humans by Hen Ogledd (Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington) (2020)
• No Wood Accepted (EP) by Hen Ogledd (Richard Dawson, Rhodri Davies, Dawn Bothwell and Sally Pilkington) (2021)

• Dawson May Jazzfinger Clay with Nev Clay, Ally May and Jazzfinger (2009)
• Moon — Diseasing Rock Who with Ben Jones and Sarah Sullivan (2011)

Additionally, over 80 short-form releases with Sally Pilkington as Bulbils{{Bandcamp|Bulbils|Bulbils}} since 2020.

• Motherland (2008)

• Stick In The Wheel presents From Here: English Folk Field Recordings Volume 2 (2019)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.richarddawson.net/ Official website]
• [https://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/dec/21/richard-dawson-singer-songwriter-one-to-watch 2014 interview with The Guardian]

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Category:1981 births

Category:Living people

Category:English male guitarists

Category:English male singers

Category:Avant-garde singers

Category:Musicians from Newcastle upon Tyne