The New Sound

The Brisbane music scene is such that when a popular local act gets the break-up rumour mill churning, just about everybody knows about it. It happened last year when singer-guitarist Dave Di Marco announced his departure from indie-folksters Charlie Mayfair. After having spent the better part of five years with the group, among which he counts his closest friends, it's understandable the frontman felt the nerves broaching the subject with his then bandmates.

“I guess they reacted pretty expectedly. At first it wasn't easy but I think the other guys really understood where I was coming from,” Di Marco reasons. “They're my friends as well, and they're songs we wrote together that were very personal and meant something to everyone. In the end I think it was probably the best thing for everyone. Now we're good mates. And [in Brisbane] we can't really avoid each other unless you go overseas or something!

“As much as I loved my time with the band, with my songwriting and performing it's still a very, very personal thing. With a band you can sort of bounce ideas off other people, whether that's songwriting or just day-to-day stuff, so you have that constant support in the group, that pack mentality. But sometimes with that you tend to lose your voice a little bit. That can be a good thing, but in the end as much as the songs were still great, it just wasn't the sound I wanted to play anymore.”

His evolution from the pack to a lone wolf transpired at a surprising pace. It was around July last year when Di Marco announced his departure; before the year was out he'd toured his songs in national support slots and recorded his debut EP with local go-to producer Yanto Browning (The Medics, Jungle Giants, Tara Simmons).

“I've known Yanto for years, and ever since I was doing my solo stuff before the band he was saying, 'Let's record together, I really want to record you', but we just never got to that point,” Di Marco says. “When I started doing my solo stuff I thought, 'Well, I know exactly where I'm going to go'. So I ran him through my ideas and he was totally keen for it.

“The thing I love about Yanto is he knew where to give advice, and where to let the artist do their thing. All he wants is a good product in the end that we're both happy with and we both found that which is nice.”

The result was Deep From Down These Walls, a collection of tracks that underline Di Marco's reverence of artists like Damien Rice and Glen Hansard, set amongst raw, acoustic melodies with a pleasing bent for structure and dynamic shifts. Although recording cohorts Daniel Ogilvie and Graham Ritchie are both an integral part of Emma Louise live set, Di Marco soon picked up some notable local names to help in his quest to bring the songs to life onstage.

“I've got Alex Mitchell who plays in a few bands like Moses Gunn Collective and Alistair Murray who plays in Tin Can Radio, so it's kind of cool being able to jam with new people every few weeks and see everyone's interpretations of the songs as well,” he relates. “It's always cool playing in Brisbane, being your hometown you've got your friends there as well. That's what I love about support gigs though too, you're not playing to your usual crowd, you're usually playing to a whole group of new people, so it's kind of like playing to a different city sometimes.”

Dave Di Marco will be playing the following dates:

Thursday 21 March - Cafe Le Monde, Noosa QLD
Friday 22 March - The Brewery, Byron Bay NSW
Saturday 23 March - The Loft, Gold Coast QLD
Sunday 24 March - Black Bear Lodge, Brisbane QLD