Exploring the boundaries of human emotion, Rory J Dawson’s music will tug on the heart strings you never knew you had.
Not conforming against the “tendency to limit the scope of human feeling to a spectrum with happiness down one end, sadness down the other,” Dawson music simply makes you feel.
If you’re experiencing the blues, Rory J Dawson’s melancholic musical potion is just for you.
Playing with happiness, sadness and everything in between, Dawson believes there’s an inherent seduction towards sombre music for musicians.
“I think that artists write and create as a way to process moments in their life, and that there is more of a necessity to process harder times than easier times. But I also think a guilty secret that a lot of songwriters might not admit to is that it is easier to write sad sounding songs than happy ones.”
“There is an implication perpetrated by artists, audiences, and critics that if you write sad songs about serious subject matter, you are more worthy of consideration and respect. Which I think is ridiculous. Quality euphoric pop is really hard to write.”
While working on a four-part EP anticipated to drop early 2017, Dawson has published two sections. The EP is a musical translation of a story about a young couple trying to “break from their mundane, staid routine by travelling to the Sunshine Coast for a weekend.”
Still firmly within the early days of career, Dawson reflects on his current repertoire, and the stories behind each track.
“While Away is the first song, shaking off their life in the city. In Place is about a moment of grace and bliss at the beach. Today is later that night after a fight when a typical problem of theirs rears it’s head, and the final song The Name of the Band is the morning after, with the narrator waking early to grab coffee for their partner, resolving to try harder, and to remind themselves why they are in this.”
While the end is near for 2016, Dawson has a fantastic gig set up at the Milk Factory in South Brisbane. There will be a bunch of sneaky-peak tunes and some new, exciting material which delves into the struggle to find harmony among the “happy and optimistic” parts of his personal life and, as he says, the “pessimistic” outlook on “global events beyond my control.”
While he’s keen to jam with his sister Erin on 29 December, Dawson is also looking forward to what 2017 holds for him:
“The EP will come out sometime soon next year, and I will be playing gigs around the place in support of that, like on Feb 2nd with Eush. I also really hope to lay the ground work to record an album before the end of the year.”
Head to the Facebook event for all the details on the upcoming gig you’ll need.
