Search newherenowlive.com for Donnie Dureau Biography
Donnie Dureau has been playing music since he was seven years old.
His parents forced him to learn the piano in the hope that it would teach him self-discipline. Instead, it taught him contempt for frequent practice and elitist musical institutions. But in hindsight he does concede that he did benefit greatly from this slavery, even if he couldn't see it at the time. Around the age of sixteen, just after he'd taken up skateboarding, Donnie walked away, fed up with the piano. He picked up his mother's nylon string guitar, and after three months of lessons with a teacher who owned two ferocious Alsatians, a one-pack-a-day cigarette habit, a daylight drinking regime, and a steadfast claim that he "had never been sick", Donnie quickly learned from this man that most songs were made up of a handful of chords. Armed with just two, he started writing amazingly godawful songs based on his Dinosaur Jr collection.
At the end of high school, Donnie found himself in a punk band called Caustic Soda which immersed itself in the influences of the day. It was angsty, emotive, chaotic and lasted five or so years. Caustic released two LPs, "Bleak Young-kid Disknowledge" and "Music From The Motion Picture" and one vinyl 7 inch EP entitled, "Femalevolence". With the subtraction of certain members and the addition of others, Caustic Soda became Blueline Medic. This band was still angsty and emotive, but strove to embrace subtlety and tried not to rely as much on American underground music. The power chord began to fade from the band's vocabulary, and more and more diverse influences continued to converge on the band.
Blueline Medic still continues today, and has released one EP, "A Working Title In Green" and two LPs, "The Apology Wars" and "Text Bomb". But now, for good or bad, Donnie is venturing out on his own. Some of this new material draws from 1930s popular jazz and generic folk music, and a lot less from the rock influences of the 90s. Some of lyrics continue to dip in and out of the abstract, but retain a a familiar storey telling bent that deals with love, failure, work, friendship, and escape. Donnie Dureau Website:
http://www.myspace.com/donniedureau |
