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DOUG WALKER:
“If you told me six months ago that the guy who produced Coldplay's ‘X&Y' album would've produced my album before Christmas, I would've laughed at you.”
It's a rich irony that after years to trying to get a much-deserved break, Doug Walker's first piece of major national exposure lead to a deal with Warner Bros. Records within six weeks and the completion of his debut album ‘Fear Together' just two months later.
Of course, Walker's unconventionally supersonic ascendancy didn't happen by chance. Walker had been self-promoting his musical talents for sometime, but one fateful day in August finally saw him reap the rewards that his industrious efforts and undoubted talent deserved. The plan was simplicity personified; Walker was to head down to Radio 1 early in the morning to hand out copies of his self-released single ‘The Mystery' to staff arriving for the day. In amongst the runners, cleaners and security staff who would inevitably find a copy of the single thrust into their hands, Walker hoped a few copies would find themselves in the ownership of some more influential figures. And as Chris Moyles arrived to prepare for his breakfast show, another copy of ‘The Mystery' was gone.
“I wasn't imagining he'd actually play it!” laughs Walker. “Chris came out a few times and I think he was sussing me out; before he gave me this amazing opportunity he was checking that I was worth it and would appreciate it.” Moyles played ‘The Mystery' that very morning and received such an overwhelmingly positive public reaction that he played it twice more, eventually giving Doug Walker thirty minutes coverage before a primetime audience.
The remainder of the week was the biggest whirlwind of Doug Walker's life. Almost immediately Walker was swamped with Myspace friend requests and congratulatory texts from friends old and new, not to mention having several meetings with record labels and publishers confirmed. The next day he signed a management deal, recorded a video for ‘The Mystery' and was featured in The Sun. Much of this initial excitement has been documented in a series of popular YouTube webisodes entitled The Man Who Stood Outside. Gigs in support of Craig David, The Enemy and Amy McDonald all soon followed.
Things weren't always like this for Doug Walker. Growing up in Camberley, Surrey, young Doug grew up on a musical diet of radio and ‘best of' compilations. “I never really listened to a lot of the ‘cool' bands like The Clash or The Pixies,” he recalls. “I just loved good pop songs. That's had a huge impact on the way I write.” Such influences are certainly reflected in his own songwriting. Melodious and hook-laden, Walker's accomplished songs are unpretentious yet strike at the heart of what makes a song memorable.
Enamoured particularly by Jeff Lynne's ELO and subsequently by Jeff Buckley, Walker took up the piano and embarked upon his own typically teenage musical adventures. A year spent studying sound recording at college confirmed his growing obsession with all things musical. As Walker worked towards getting a break by playing gigs in both London and his adopted home city of Manchester, he supported his music by working in a variety of jobs ranging from youth worker to dustman. One such job working for a charity, singing in a covers band took Walker off to the city of Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, then barely functioning after the horrors of the Bosnian War.
“We stayed in a building covered in bullet holes in an evacuated street full of these tall buildings, all of which had the windows blown out and were completely empty. It was like something out of a movie set.” People usually talk in an incredulous fashion when making such comparisons, but Walker speaks with a quiet dignity for what had happened prior to his arrival. “All of the gutters on either side of the road were filled with empty shells. It marked upon my memory the atrocities that went on, and still do, I guess, in places like Kosovo. We did a concert in a bombed out theatre in front of around a thousand kids. We were the first band to play there since the end of the Bosnian War.”
Walker seems to be an unquantifiable talent for finding himself in unique situations. Aside from the Radio 1 story and gigs in Mostar, he also remains one of the few unsigned singer-songwriters to have been given the chance to play accompanied by a ninety-piece orchestra at The Royal Albert Hall and he also enjoyed personally handing a demo recording to the late, great John Peel.
And with the recording of ‘Fear Together' now completed, Doug Walker is set for the defining moment of an already fascinating life. Recorded in London and New York with producer Danton Supple (Coldplay) and Michael Brauer (Jeff Buckley, KT Tunstall, The Kooks) on mixing duties, ‘Fear Together' showcases songs that Walker has lived with and others that are newly written. Aside from ‘The Mystery', Walker excels with the likes of ‘Shine', ‘Shed A Little Light' and 'Wealthy Man'– immediately captivating gems that he describes simply as being about “love, faith and just making it through.”
“I can't imagine doing anything else- the thought of it makes me sad. I have no qualifications, I didn't go to university,” he concludes with a fiery passion. “There was a real urgency and a real desperation to succeed and that drives you – the desire to do what you love and to make a living from it.”
Ben Hopkins
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