Get the album, Oddly Enough by Desmond Grundy at CD Baby.
-- recent news --
I just completed and released a 14 song album of my own work now available on iTunes, CDBaby and independent record stores everywhere.
Put on stand-by for NXNE 2007 and receiving an Honorable Mention from London-based artist development group, We Are Listening, for my submission of Not Me NYT in The 2007 Singer/Songwriter Awards, 2007 was a good year. My song was among thousands from all over the world to be heard and evaluated by an esteemed panel including producers KK (Bjork, Dido, James, Nelly Furtado), Steve Williams, (Sting, Seal), Charlie Mole (Kylie, Kravitz), and Scott Gunter (Bonnie Raitt, Celine Dion).
-- old news --
I landed in Canada on a BOAC jetliner from Scotland as a little kid. The first time I heard a Beatles song my mother was tossing carefully wrapped butter and sugar sandwiches to me out our apartment window for lunch. A blissful, singular moment. At the same time my friends were happily beating the British accent out of me.
I am a multi-disciplinary autodidact. The only thing I brought to my marriage besides my charm and good looks was a gym bag full of wire. I have always been more interested in making connections between things than between people but that didn’t stop me from from success as an artist with early theatre productions and performances, under-age membership in a touring dance band (a harrowing experience), and as a film-maker and DVD producer, successful entrepreneur and music creator. I have been playing live at open mic shows throughout the Toronto area since 2004 and submitting my music for A&R reviews such as these:
"You have a punkish/60s/psychedelic edge to your sound.... your music has a cool gritty vibe that works well with the lyrics that you write. Your vocal delivery is original and has a real raw kind of feel that fits your songs well....Nice electric guitar textures.... you’ve got a gift for writing very poetic, associative lyrics....Unique verse lyrics that are evocative and poetic. I can hear the Kinks influence in your verse melody! This has a great, convincing retro sound....you have a great aesthetic about your music."
At a live performance, I am completely blind. That’s how it feels. I just open my mouth and go. No one’s ever said I sounded bad and I once had a woman cut off a lock of my hair as a souvenir while she was sitting behind me. Another time I stood on the side of the highway and sang protest songs while developers cut down old-growth forest beside me and cars and trucks honked their support as they drove by (I made it to the local TV news on that one). But as in the sugar sandwich affair, some folks tried to run me off he road. I’m into the contrast. It informs everything I write and how I play and sing.
I tap into my instincts, read my intuitions and put them to work in the Now. Integrating learning and doing for the peak creative experience. When responsibility to what’s expected disappears I’m there. I’ve been trying not to tell anyone, but it was inevitable.
Coming to life in Toronto, post-20th century, these songs are hand-crafted from stories, dreams, poems, twisted syntax, hopeless optimism, and nameless joy. Some people hear voices. I catch flying sandwiches of deeper meaning.
