Recent recording, performing, and composing collaborators: Emily Packard, Jon Russell, Ryan Brown, Regina Schaffer, Nicole Reisnour, Jeff Anderle, Lauren Ellege, Zach Watkins, Kevin Mendoza, Josh Campbell, Jacob Kramer, Dave McNally, Paul Scriver, Caroline Penwarden, Eli Wise, Emily Packard, Ryan Drickey, The Presidio Ensemble, Jeremy Hughes, Ivor Holloway, Sarah Stiles, Meave Cox, etc
Influences
Morton Feldman, Fred Frith, Annie Gosfield, Charles Ives, Laurie Anderson, Anthony Braxton, Iannis Xenakis, Ruth Crawford, Ornette Coleman, Bach, John Coltrane, Shaker Spirituals, Leonard Cohen, Turab, Bob Dylan, Christy Moore, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Dmitri Shostakovich, Thinking Plague, Tristan Murail, The Cardiacs, Bela Bartok, Frank Zappa, John Cage, Taraf de Haidouks, George Crumb, John Fahey, Tim Hodgkinson, Harry Partch, Anne LeBaron, Roger Reynolds, Jeff Buckley, Maggi Payne, Ali Farka Toure, Gyorgy Ligeti, Bill Frisell, Morton Subotnik, Brian Eno, Lee Hyla, Olivier Messaien, Bulgarian Women's Choir, Eric Dolphy, Andrew Hill, Robert Wyatt, Edgard Varese, McCoy Tyner, Anton Webern, Hildegard von Bingen, Oriental Music Ensemble, Thomas DeLio, Zeena Parkins, Otto Luening, Nels Cline, Ikue Mori, Leo Kottke, Brian Robison, Soplerfo, Morrissey, Mary Kalashian, Toru Takemitsu, Fred Harris, Lennie Tristano, 9 Horses, Henryk Gorecky, Dave Douglas, Alvin Curran, Cindy Cox, Mike Watt, Dusan Bogdonovich, Salvatore Macchia, The Band, Luciano Berio, The Comeuppance, Dave Van Ronk, Martin McGinn, etc.
Damon Waitkus is a composer and songwriter. Much of his recent work has been for recorded media, combining field recordings collected from various natural, domestic, and urban environments with passages for traditional instruments. His recorded piece “Aphasia” earned him the Sounding Out California Award and has recently been released on NEXMAP's compilation CD. His recorded set “Anxiety” has been featured on several independant radio and internet radio shows, including sfSound and Chicago station WNUR’s “Rock Show,” on which it charted 1 in early 2007. Damon’s works have been performed by pianist Regina Schaffer, The Quartet San Francisco, The Presidio Ensemble, The Providence Mandolin Orchesra, MIT Wind Ensemble, the bass clarinet duo Sqwonk, and various other talented free-floating musicians and speaker systems. He also wrote and recorded the music for Erin Fitzgerald's documentary "Carny Girl" in the spring and summer or 2008.
This morning I was dreaming that I was in the audience for a new reality show-- basically like American Idol, except the performers have to compose their own pop songs. All of a sudden, right at the end, there was a new mystery contestant from out of the blue. It was Damon Waitkus! and he wrote and performed a song that blew everyone else out of the water.
And there were a lot of holographic images projected onto the stage-- photos taken from every possible point of view of cymbals clashing. It was very dramatic. But I think the most dramatic thing was that you were a dead ringer for Orlando Bloom.
The photos you took are good! I'll have to post one in my photo album. Or maybe start my own MySpace music profile and use one as my main photo... it's a very convincing-looking recording studio I'm singing in. *wink*
Hey Damon, Good to see you on myspace. Give me an update on what you are doing these days.
I want to spend more time with your exerpts on this page. I listened to to aphasia....it seems like there are is a combination of many different landscapes... city and nature. Many of the sounds are bent and crescendoed. I would like to hear your thoughts behind the piece.
Hey man, thanks for the kind words...that is funny that they did it in a bank! I'm doing well, just moved to Austin to be with Elisa. We will be in the Bay Area late July/ early Aug. for the Cabrillo festival, hope to see you then!
Thanks for the MP3s... wow... you really mixed that song so well. I'm in Arizona with a friend and I played it for her. She had a hard time believing it was really two voices the whole time! Are you happy with it? I hope so!
Hey, I'm listening to the music you gave me and it's calming my post-party "so now I'm 26" blues. Thanks "Damo"!
. . . and let's do more stuff together, be it playing composed music, playing improvised music, or just talking. Interactions may or may not involve wineglasses.
