slumberland records

keeping it foolish since 1989

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Over the course of his 30+ year career, David Callahan has charted a distinct course. From the angular pop of The Wolfhounds to the experimental post/art rock of Moonshake and back to the sharper-than-ever recently reformed Wolfhounds, Callahan is always known for smart, unsparing lyrics, a fierce DIY ethic and an ever-inquisitive sonic adventurism.

Now for Slumberland's SLR30 Singles Series Callahan is set to release his first official solo recordings. Minimally recorded at home with an acoustic guitar, sampler, glockenspiel and a couple of friends guesting on harmonies, the double A-side cuts of "Strange Lovers" and "Waiting For The Cut-Off" reveal a subtler, though still intense, side to his songwriting. Despite the new simplicity of the arrangements, the new songs sound just as original as any of his previous work. This 7" looks a treat as well, arriving bedecked in a full-colour painting by Florida artist Sean Mahan.

Callahan has had a long musical career, first coming to public attention as the singer of The Wolfhounds, leading lights of what is now known as the C86 movement — 'indiepop' bands that featured on a cassette issued by the UK's New Musical Express 1986. The band went on to release four LPs before the decade was out and toured across Europe with the likes of My Bloody Valentine, the House of Love, the Weather Prophets and the Wedding Present before breaking up in 1990.

He immediately went on to form Moonshake in London with US ex-pat Margaret Fiedler (later of Laika), which signed to the Too Pure label, first home for P J Harvey and Stereolab, both of whom the band recorded with and toured with extensively across Europe and North America (where they were licensed by Matador, American Recordings and BMG, despite the extremeness of their music). Moonshake were early and superior adopters of the art of sampling in rock music and released four LPs containing what many believe to be some of the most innovative music of the 1990s (with Alternative Press listing debut LP "Eva Luna" as one of the 100 best albums of that decade).

The Wolfhounds returned to recording and gigging in 2010 and have since released two more LPs which have been well-received and played extensively on BBC 6 radio, and the band have also begun to tour Europe, as well as making their US debut in New York in 2014.

David has been playing solo around London — as well as in France and Norway — for about three years now, steadily honing material for a solo LP that should see release in 2019. On the basis of this terrific single we expect it to be a corker.