Friday, May 27, 2011

Citizen: Dylan Gilbert


Dylan Gilbert is not afraid of change. His newest project, a rock opera that's he's funding through fans donating to KickStarter, marks one of his biggest creative changes since the start of his musical career. This will be his 6th solo release, and the first since being joined by Zach Jordan and John Harrell who form Dylan Gilbert and the Over Easy Breakfast Machine.







Dylan, now 23, began writing songs in middle school. "I wasn't really into music at all," he tells us, "Sometime in middle school I realized you could write stories with songs." He records in a home studio in the basement of his house - the only place he's ever lived. His parents had previously used the studio for the three different bands in which they were involved. "They were always really supportive of having me down here," he tells us as we sit in his studio, surrounded by equipment and instruments, many of which his father acquired through the second hand store he owns.
His most recent release, 2010's Pangaea, is an album that he describes as a "complex children's album". Pangaea tells stories through vivid imagery and big harmonies. "Pangaea was what I always wanted to do. I wanted to make that slicked up indie pop album." Upon the release he found himself looking for a new direction, having already achieved what he'd been setting out to do.. "I'd been doing that for five years." Enter Zach and John, two musicians who have helped Dylan figure out his next step. "I'm still writing the songs, 90% of the songs are already finished that I bring to the guys. They help arrange them, they throw their ideas in. Playing with them makes me write differently…the attitude they bring to the songs, the little things they think about."
This isn't the first shift for Dylan. During high school he fronted his first band - a punk rock group called Something Jed. "I had that band through most of high school and we just played parties and little record stores…there was a place called Liquid Records in Huntersville, we played there religiously." Something Jed served as a taste for Dylan of what the life of a musician was like. After graduation from high school and an increasing lack of interest and availability from his bandmates he found himself in transition. "When high school ended the band ended, my high school sweetheart moved away to a big fancy university, you know, everything was just…cut. A whole new chapter." With everything changing so abruptly he decided to record a solo album. "I wanted to be in a band but I didn't know anybody to be in a band with so I said screw it, I'm not going to wait for someone." Playing shows full time was a dream come true for Dylan; after all, he'd skipped his own senior prom to play at a coffee shop. He spent the rest of 2005 recording and taking college classes and then spent the next two years doing nothing but playing shows. "All I did was play gigs," he says, "That year and a half is just like…all I did was travel around and play awful coffee shops for ten people all over the Carolinas and record at home."









During this period his first two albums, Oh No Oh Now I Know and The Artist & The Scientist were released. When he began to write songs for 2008's The Quiet Life he found himself with no lack of material. "During 2007 all I did was write songs. I wrote over one hundred songs for The Quiet Life." The album was very well received and Dylan continued to tour alone nonstop.

In 2009 he found himself entering yet another new chapter of life. After summer of 2009 he took a break from touring for nearly a year. "I was done traveling around playing acoustic guitar at coffee houses for no money by myself. I was single for the first time since high school…wanting to go out, meet new friends…things just changed, and my mindset really changed.. For a long time I was like I'm going to make the perfect pop album and do everything myself. That was empowering for a time but then it became crippling." Meeting Zach and John breathed new life into his old material and he started writing again. Recently the band released their first single, I Was Young, from their new, currently incomplete and untitled, concept album.
Even during the recording of Pangaea, Dylan was ready for something new. "This is the first batch of songs that I've written in a new mind set. I released Pangaea but I was already kind of away from that by the time it came out. And that was the first time I'd ever done that." Though he was proud of the songs he had created, he was ready for something different and listening to his new single (which you can do above!) displays flawlessly that his new material is a big step in a fresh direction.
Fans have the opportunity to fund the new album on KickStarer until July 4th. There are a variety of incentives to pledge - ranging from exclusive MP3s to private concerts. For a chance to win a signed copy of Pangaea tag Citizens of CLT in a Facebook post - and for a chance to win signed copies of Dylan's entire discography forward a copy of your receipt from your KickStarter pledge to citizensofCLT@gmail.com!

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