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- Active: '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
- Genres: Avant-Garde
- Instrument: Guitar, Bass
Biography
For 25 years, bassist/guitarist David Brown remained mostly confined to a supporting role in a myriad of Australian underground punk rock/art rock bands, including Signals and Dumb & the Ugly. His work on microtonal bass and as a noise-based sound artist found more recognition in the late '90s with Bucketrider, Lazy, and his ongoing association with K.K. Null. His first solo album (under the name Candlesnuffer) came out in 2001.Brown was born in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, where he remained based. He hit his teenage years in the heydays of psychedelic rock and prog rock, and began to play professionally as the punk tidal wave reached the coasts of Australia. Yet, one of his first engagements was a tenure in AC/DC (he was kicked out after three weeks). He formed the group Signals with David Wadelton, Chris Knowles, and Philip Thomson, friends he made while getting his diploma in fine arts. This avant-punk outfit recorded a few compilation tracks and a cassette, Gimmee Some Lovin' (1982).
After Signals broke up in 1983, Brown sidestepped from the music scene for most of what remained of the '80s. He played in a few bands, but the lack of open-mindedness in the decade meant few live engagements and no recording possibilities. Instead, he focused on his painting, exhibiting regularly at the Pinacotheca Gallery in Melbourne. One of his last endeavors was the trio Dumb & the Ugly, started in 1987 but soon left dormant. The unit was reactivated and Brown resumed his musical activities in 1990, upon the inception of Dr. Jim's Records, which rang the bell for a new Aussie indie network to emerge. Dumb & the Ugly performed with Einstürzende Neubauten and Fred Frith, and recorded a full-length CD (Atmospheres of Metal) before disbanding in 1993, at which point the avant-jazz-punk ensemble Bucketrider came to life. With the group's drummer Sean Baxter, Brown formed Lazy in 1995. By then, Australia had grown into a more viable environment for avant-garde musicians (the first edition of the What Is Music? festival would be held in 1996). In 1997, he enrolled at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, going back to school to earn an M.A. in media arts research, completing his transformation from rock bassist to guitar dexperimentalist. Meanwhile, he has collaborated with local musicians Jon Rose, Oren Ambarchi, and Jim Denley; and performed with Mr. Bungle, David Shea, and "noisician" K.K. Null. With the latter he recorded Terminal Hz. Picked up by the U.S. label Ground Fault, it became his first international release. ~ François Couture, All Music Guide
