Wellington-based writer and musician David Edwards, who successfully fused wordy lyrical epics with atonal guitar modernism, died today at age 25.
Edwards, who had released five albums, died from an overdose of shorthand practice at his flat in Newtown.
Born in Wellington in 1978, Edwards was raised in the Taranaki town of New Plymouth. He wrote from an early age and his first work included a cartoon series ‘Space Fleet’ which he wrote and illustrated at age six.
While attending New Plymouth Boys’ High School Edwards became influenced by the music of Bob Dylan, which he later described as “finally something I could relate to”. Undeterred by his complete lack of musical talent he started writing songs on an out-of-tune acoustic guitar.
He released his first album, ‘Scratched Surface’ on CDR at age 19, eventually selling over 20 copies. Writing in Real Groove magazine, Chris Knox said “this lo-fi singer/songwriter oddball has a unique take on the genre – he’s pissed off, a tad fucked up (as usual) but not full of lugubrious self-pity (as unusual) and is quite happy to get raucous & obnoxious in just the right kinda way”.
His second album, ‘The Marion Flow’ was recorded on a budget of $550 and eventually released in 2001 after he moved to Wellington. It featured input from well known musicians including Paul Winstanley and Chris O’Connor.
Edwards noted “some of the critics were confused by The Marion Flow’s mixture of acoustic pop, spoken word, noisy post-punk and free improvisation – to me it was perfectly obvious how all these things were part of a continuum”.
The song ‘Dope Smoking Wizard’ became his biggest commercial success, earning $50 of royalties from APRA. However he was increasingly influenced by free improvisation and avant-garde music, and became involved with the scene revolving around the Newtown venue the Space.
Edwards turned away from pop songwriting with his third album, 2002’s ‘Mantis Shaped and Worrying’, which gathered widespread critical incomprehension. New Zealand Musican magazine described it as “a series of random squeaks, squawks and squeals accompanied by a dreary monotone voice reciting obscure diatribes”.
The critical backlash was thought to have been responsible for Edwards’ reclusive behaviour in early 2003 when he disappeared from the public eye, but he later revealed that he had been working on building sites to pay off his student loan. He wrote two short stories, “Overgrowth” and “Whin the Autumn Wain Sex Begain to Fall” at this time which are widely considered unreadable.
In mid 2003 Edwards formed a band The Winter with cellist San Shimla and drummer Simon Sweetman. They played a number of gigs and released the instrumental album ‘Parataxes’ before appearing as the house band in the Wellington International Jazz Festival show ‘Speakeasy’ at Bats Theatre.
The Winter also appeared as the backing group on Edwards’ final album ‘Loose Autumn Moans’. Liz Barry, host of Radio New Zealand’s Homegrown show, declined to play any of the tracks, saying “I just can't get into this sort of experimental stuff - it's just too strange & discordant for my show”.
Edwards’ achievements in 2004 included writing a 9000-word book chapter on Wellington improvised music; performing in and helping organise the Bomb the Space, Word, and Meatwaters festivals; applying to Creative NZ for funding to release a CD and tour the North Island; submitting a script to Radio NZ’s ‘Open Story Season’; getting his music distributed by Eclipse Records in America; and squeezing in a graduate diploma in journalism at Massey University on the side. Edwards always maintained that could not have done everything else if he had spent more time on shorthand.
At the time of his death Edwards was working on an “electric symphony” for the 2005 Wellington Fringe Festival with his new group the Ascension Band, a twelve-piece ensemble conducted by keyboard player Nigel Patterson.
He is survived by his parents and by his website http://fiffdimension.tripod.com
ends
you gave me fright; not another bloody dead contemporary aye?
Posted by: resistantsoy at October 13, 2004 03:09 PM