David Bronson
New York City, New York, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2013 | SELF
Music
Press
It would seem David Bronson has soaked up all the best parts of ’70s rock and created his own vibe, which feels surprisingly new. - Magnet
Carefully etched songwriting...
..his gently wrought acoustic tapestries seem to unravel into patterns all of their own.
There are nods to the Laurel Canyon school – Graham Nash, James Taylor – as well as more recent fare, with Iron & Wine standing out as a near parallel.
..a near Elliot Smith use of twisted silence. - Clash Music
No fancy auditory bells and whistles required. - American Songwriter
Bronson's winding melodies and soul searching lyrics are precise and focused...and he's got a totally incredible voice. - babysue
This is pop genius, abrasive when it wants to be, passionate throughout.
Matthew Sweet would be someone who would dry hump his speakers or headphones while listening to this, it’s that good. - This is Book's Music
.. an NYC based singer-songwriter whose love for modern American folk rock shines brilliantly via his gritty, gruff musical creations that recall the likes of Neil Young and Iron & Wine. - Middle Boop Mag
a level of obsession that’s enough by itself to endear him to some (us included)… sounds like Cat Stevens fronting David Bowie's Spiders From Mars. - Toronto Star
This was a soaring beautiful set with two back up singers adding shading to his songs and Bronson’s two breakthrough songs, “Life Is Long” and “Underneath The Glass” were the evenings highlights; neither of these songs are on The Long Lost Story, double album in segments and both of them have melodies a step beyond what we’ve heard from Bronson before.
The sound is really unique and I’ve tried for ages to describe it, it is like 70s prog-rock placed underneath an early 1970s singer-songwriter, and at Fontana's in February, the singer songwriter won out and on Saturday night the prog rock artist weirdo won out and on both nights the audience won out. - Rock NYC Live and Recorded
Bronson is an artist who commits fully to his task, delving deep in to his own back-story to deliver raw and honest songs that range from delicate musings to full-blown stories of love, loss, life. - Gold Flake Paint
.. a looseness and experimentation of modern converts to the folk-rock sound, such as Phosphorescent, Grizzly Bear and Iron & Wine. - The Folk Roots List
Bronson has it all: the confessional narratives writ larger by dramatic highs and lows. The build-up to rock ‘n’ roll-based payoffs. The inherent sense of textures, beats, and something that can only be described as movement – Story would be perfect for a train ride from a failed relationship into a new life. - My Old Kentucky Blog
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
Photos
Bio
Released in late 2012 and early 2013 in the US and UK respectively, David Bronson's debut album Story was the first installment of a deeply cathartic 22-track autobiographical double album. Its prequel, The Long Lost was released in late 2013, completing what is in effect a sonic summation of an emotional development process travelled through by each and every one of us who has loved and lost, and survived.
With a number of years of writing, producing, and recording in NYC as an indie musician with a tight budget, Bronson let nothing get in the way of the double album project's large and expressive scope. Beginning with a young man's loss of hope and identity following the end of first love, the project came to life through the prolonged, arduous, and life-changing journey to re-find them. Originally meant as one record, it became obvious to Bronson that the album represented growth itself: "It became a metaphor and conduit for everything I was feeling in my inner life, and I put everything into it," he explains. "I indulged myself to get everything the way I wanted; the art of it became the only thing that mattered."
"The Long Lost Story is exactly that: a piece of my history, somewhat ancient history actually, but certainly a piece that informed much of my life that followed, in various important ways," explains Bronson. "This album documents the most difficult period of my life. There was a lot of darkness, which I think is reflected in the music; both in the lyrics as well as in the makeup of the songs themselves. The title refers, on the one hand, to exactly what was going on; it really is a picture of someone who's almost completely lost."
The multi-faceted project, however, reveals itself to have numerous levels of meaning, with metaphors in artistic creation. He achieves a long-sightedness beyond the breakup towards a detached retelling as well as an attempt at a self-prescribed 'remedy': "There was another, extremely positive aspect to the whole thing. It was unquestionably during this period of my life that I first found some clear sense of myself as an artist. So amidst all that discomfort I also have this extremely fond memory of being truly, undeniably alive, and moving for the first time very deeply into an area of internal meaning, which was, for me, the first real step toward healing, growing, and becoming an adult. This album, to me, represents the starting point of everything else I've ever wanted to do as an artist."
Both Story and The Long Lost have been continually praised, both in America as well as in the UK and Europe, for their honesty, substance, and depth of emotion, in such online publications as MAGNET, American Songwriter, Drowned in Sound, Under The Radar, My Old Kentucky Blog, CLASH, Gold Flake Paint, The 405 and many more.
The songs get regular comparisons to those of classic singer-songwriters like Neil Young, Cat Stevens, George Harrison, and Elliot Smith, as well as some of the looseness and experimentation of some of the modern converts to the folk-rock sound, such as Iron & Wine, Band of Horses and Grizzly Bear.
Looking to the immediate future, David is currently finishing up his third full length with veteran producer Godfrey Diamond (Lou Reed, Aerosmith) and a player lineup that includes long-time David Bowie guitarist and bandleader Carlos Alomar, famed background singer Robin Clark (David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, 20 Feet From Stardom) and longtime Bronson bandmate Robbie "Seahag" Mangano (Tom Morello, The Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger).
Of the forthcoming LP, Bronson excitedly explains, "Benefitting from Godfrey's decades of experience, this new album has been done in a very different manner than the first two. Sound-wise, its a whole different thing, a real evolution from The Long Lost Story and the first music I'll be putting out that's contemporaneous with my actual life. I've never been more excited about the music. The sound we've achieved.. well, I just cant wait for people to hear this."
David will be touring extensively throughout the Northeast, Midwest, and Southern states of the US throughout 2014 and into 2015 in support of the forthcoming album, which will be released in late fall.
Band Members
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