Dave Rowntree, drummer for legendary Britpop band Blur, has announced his solo debut. It will be called RADIO SONGS and will be released on January 20, 2023. Rowntree is already letting you hear the second song from it. Watch the lyric video for Devils Island streaming here:
RADIO SONGS is produced by Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Wild Beasts, Ghostpoet). Rowntree says about the background of his new song “Devils Island”:
“I grew up in the UK in the 1970s and while the decade had its good points, I also remember how toxic it could be. The country was deeply divided, and racism and misogyny were the norm. The economy was hopeless and at some point we had to get out from the IMF [Internationaler Währungsfonds] be saved. But if you listen to some people, you’d think it was a golden age to look back to. This song is a note to myself to remind me how far we’ve come in forty years.”
“Devils Island” is the second released song from Rowntree’s debut, following “London Bridge” in July 2022.
However, RADIO SONGS does not mark the first time that Rowntree made music outside of blur: the musician composed the soundtracks for the sci-fi series “The One” (Netflix), the Bros documentary “After the Screaming Stops ‘ and the BBC One technology thriller ‘The Capture’. He was also active as a local politician. In 1998 he and Blur’s bassist Alex James supported the Mars mission Beagle 2 with PR work in the UK.
Here is the track listing of Dave Rowntree’s RADIO SONGS:
- Devil’s Island
- Downtown
- London Bridge
- 1000 Miles
- HK
- Tape measure
- Machines Like Me
- Black Sheep
- Volcano
- Who’s Asking
Dave Rowntree, now 58, played in bands with Graham Coxon when he was still at school in Colchester. They formed Blur with Damon Albarn and Alex James in 1988 and have released eight albums since 1991. The most recent album THE MAGIC WHIP was released in 2015. Recently, rumors made headlines that Blur were planning big concerts for the 30th anniversary of their third album PARKLIFE, released in 1994.