Our debut Artist Interview is with Dave Giles, Singer, Songwriter and all round musician, signed to Cheeky Chimp Records. Catch his UK tour with Ivyrise in January (see http://www.myspace.com/davegiles for details)
Listen to Dave's new work here - http://www.youtube.com/davejgiles
You performed your first gig aged 14, and you've now released your first Solo EP, titled The First Seven - how would you describe your journey to get to this stage?
An incredible adventure. Its been a great 11 years... i've learnt so much, met so many cool people, been to some amazing places and played some pretty good music. What a life!
What's the highlight of your career?
Headlining the Shepherds Bush Empire with my old band The Rileys. We did it with no management, record label or promoter, it was an incredible achievement.
You were lead guitarist with hugely popular band The Rileys - I remember seeing you guys playing Storm in 2007 and I've been following your rise to fame ever since - now that the band's separated, how are building on the success with your solo work?
I guess i'm fortunate that we had some incredible fans who have decided to follow what i'm doing despite it being very different to what we did in the Rileys. Going solo gives me a certain about of freedom. I can take on gigs and do things that weren't easy to do as the rileys but are easy for me. So i've been able to get around a lot more and play to new people. Plus the old rileys fans are dispersing round the country to go to various universities, so i can get to new places and have friendly faces in the audience, which is always nice.
Your solo work features more acoustic guitar work - is this indicative of the stripped back nature of your music? How would you best describe it?
The new sound is definately more raw... i'm not really sure how to describe it, but i suppose its more of a vintage sound. A lot more raw with less processing and studio effects. The idea is that the lyrics and melody are the most important part, where as the rileys was more about the groove and riffs.
You've done a live radio broadcast recently, how do you find this compares to gigging normally? How do you prepare for it?
Radio sessions are a lot of fun. In many respects easier than gigs because its just like playing in your living room, but the mistakes are easier to hear than at gigs, so you have to be on it. I'm a big fan of radio though. I look forward to doing a lot more.
You've got a tour coming up in January supporting indie Band Ivyrise, how do you find playing on the road?
I love it. I love any kind of gigging, so being on the road and playing to new people in new towns is always brilliant. I like the banter and fun and games of a tour as well.
What have you got in store for after the tour?
Hopefully another EP and my first headline tour with be next october, so i'll be out promoting all year. I may do a living room tour in the summer.
Any big dates we should look out for?
Just the Ivyrise tour dates at the moment, details can be found on my website: www.davejgiles.com
Where do you see your music progressing? What have you got waiting for the second release?
Hopefully it will have better songs on. I'm spending december writing, so hopefully they'll be some new youtube videos soon with the original demos of the songs... Got some interesting ideas that i'm writing about.
Keep up to date with Dave's work on www.davejgiles.com
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