hired gun

Description

This is a preview of the songs off Dan Parsons' forthcoming album. The space between Brisbane born, now Melbourne based Dan Parsons' self titled second album and his debut is a continent, both literally and figuratively. Produced by John Castle (Washington, Bamboos), 2010's  'Firestarter'  was to take him across the world, showcasing at LA's Musexpo, Brighton UK's Great Escape, Liverpool's In the City festival and a host of sideshows besides. After an initial string of dates launching his debut, he reworked the album's songs acoustically and set out with friend and fellow artist Steve Grady on the epic and at times trying, 50 First Dates Tour. Essuing your favourite hipster haunts and, in the grand tradition of 'On the Road', they sought out the lesser known halls and public bars of Australia's more mysterious and far flung towns, in a trip that could have taken them across Europe and back more than once.   More travel followed with a relocation to Melbourne and the trials of leaving behind the support of Brisbane for a city where, at his most stretched, Parsons' found him self going days at a time without food. His circumstances became less dire when he took on stints in South East Asia and the US as a hired gun for Kate Miller-Heidke, sometimes as a drummer, sometimes on guitar. It was during this time in America and especially California that Parsons had the opportunity to play more solo shows and steep himself in the ghosts of the West Coast's golden age. He found himself in bars and landscapes that had shaped the artists which in turn, had shaped him. It was his old reel to reel he would eventually return to when deciding how to approach his second album. Buying a bare bones assortment of equipment to compliment his tape machine, he set about the task of teaching himself to record and, 600 headphone-hours later (much of it spent in isolation at a friend's rehearsal space/olive grove by Lake Connewarre), he emerged triumphant with an album which could not possibly bare anything less than the mark of an artist who knows who they are and what they want to say, without irony and at peace with self-doubt. The album, on which Parsons also plays the vast majority of instruments, was mixed by The Boat People's Robin Waters, who has also featured in Parsons' US/UK touring band. The songs revolve around Dan's voice and his guitar, from the canyon canter of Shoalhaven Night, the Dan Kellyesque psych-pop of Lay it all Down and share-house jamming of 'Oh Baby, When You Say it Like That" to the two mic intimacy of Bad Circulation or the numb ostinato of Close Your Eyes Let it End, written for a childhood friend who took his own life while Dan was away.