www.dawnlandes.com
Listen to dawn's music and you hear something quite rare. Whether it's in her
wordplay, her kaleidoscopic live shows, her soundtrack work for motion pictures,
or the studio-wizardry she's picked-up as a recording engineer, it's clear that
she's an artist with a unique vision.
The press has likened Dawn to "the grand old dames of country" and in the same
breath "The Black Keys and The White Stripes" (Uncut). She's also garnered
comparisons to Cat Power and Pavement, an interesting mix that made even NPR's
David Dye wonder.
Raised in the fertile musical fields of Branson, Missouri and Louisville,
Kentucky, Dawn came to New York City in 1999 and did a cannonball into the music
scene. While holding down several jobs to pay the rent, she abandoned university
(NYU) and began to intern at some of the best studios in the city. "I had very
little experience", she says. "I was just really, really curious. Dangerously
curious in the studio... I picked heros like Tchad Blake and Brian Wilson and
took a flying leap."
What started as a job getting coffee for engineers has blossomed into a truly
enviable resume; among others she has worked with Phillip Glass, Ryan Adams,
Hem, Joseph Arthur, The Earlies and Josh Ritter in the studio. Working late into
the night, and often sleeping at the same studios she was interning in, Dawn
began producing and recording her own songs after hours. "I wanted to get the
sounds in my head onto tape exactly as I heard them. And that's not an easy
thing, there are a lot of sounds in there!"
After meeting the band Hem in the studio, Dawn joined them on the road as an 8th
band member (vocals and glockenspeil) and opening act. Her performing career
started to gain speed. Her first full-length, "dawn's music" was released in
France in 2005, followed by extensive touring in Europe and two other European
releases; "234" a 7-song EP released in the UK and finally "Fireproof", released
worldwide in 2007. Since then her music has become the stuff of whispers and
internet buzz, and her touring schedule has put her on the road with artists
such as Feist, Jose Gonzales, Midlake, Suzanne Vega, Martha Wainright, The Swell
Season......(the list goes on) At times solo, at times with a revolving cast of
musical guests, her shows have the guileless and vibrant quality of a work of
art in constant creation.
Recently, Dawn penned the end-credit song for the movie "Savage Grace" starring
Julianne Moore and plucked the WST Bluegrass band from a BBQ in Austin, TX to
help her record her version of the Peter, Bjorn and John classic, "Young Folks."
Rumor has it, James Blunt liked it so much he covered dawns cover of the song!
In 2007 Landes became the co-partner, designer and full-time dry-waller of
Saltlands Studio in Brooklyn. "What if we get bored?" Dawn sings in the
Fireproof gem, "Kids in a Play." In the coming months, and in-between hefty
periods of touring, the one-woman-whirlwind that is dawn Landes will be in the
studio that she built to record and produce new songs for her third full- length
record. It doesn't seem there's any chance that she'll be bored any time soon.