David Mead

For the rugby league footballer of the same name, see David Mead (rugby league)

David Mead in concert

David Mead is an American singer-songwriter known for writing songs in classic pop music style and possessing a unique, high voice. Born in 1973 in Syosset, New York to David Mead Sr. and Sheryll Mead, he moved often during his childhood, mostly residing within the Southern United States. He eventually settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where he spent the early part of his career in bands such as Verdant Green and Blue Million.

Mead became a guitarist and backup vocalist with Nashville-based band Joe, Marc's Brother. The founding members of that band amicably encouraged Mead to pursue a solo career due to differing artistic visions. Reluctantly, he began to perform on his own around Nashville, eventually attracting the attention of his current manager, Kip Krones. Kip shopped a demo of Mead's songs to several record labels, including RCA Records, the label that signed him in 1998 after he performed solo with a guitar in the company's offices.

Mead moved to New York in 1997, recording what would become his 1999 debut release, The Luxury of Time. The album garnered much critical acclaim, engendering comparisons to Lennon/McCartney and Paul Simon, but sold only moderately. The crafted sound of his songs clashed with the more ephemeral commercial hits of the time. This was a source of humor in a biography found on the now-defunct RCA website for Mead, a tongue-in-cheek confidential "Marketing Strategy Bulletin" positing marketing angles such as reinventing Mead as a "Latin Heartthrob" or arranging for him to perform on Ozzfest.

Belief in Mead's potential led RCA to release a second album, 2001's Mine and Yours, produced by Adam Schlesinger of the band Fountains of Wayne. Another critical success and moderate seller, Mine and Yours allowed Mead to record a third album, produced by Stephen Hague, which was never put out, as RCA released Mead from his recording contract when RCA's corporate parent BMG merged with Sony Music Entertainment in 2004.

Mead returned to Nashville, where he met his wife, visual artist Natalie Cox Mead, and began work on another album, Indiana, with cellist and producer David Henry. This album was much more spare and intimate than his prior offerings. It was released in 2004 by Nettwerk, a Canadian record label. The next year, Mead was working on a follow up album for Nettwerk, Tangerine when the label released him from his contract in a replay of his RCA experience.

Having retained rights to the recordings he made with Stephen Hague when he was signed to RCA, Mead released a portion of these tracks on a 2005 EP, the well-received Wherever You Are (Eleven Thirty Records).

In 2006 Mead formed Tallulah Media for the purpose of releasing Tangerine, the most expansive and adventurous work in his catalog. Produced by Brad Jones, the album incorporates a wide variety of instruments and complex arrangements that support Mead's reflections on the topic of marriage.

In early 2008 Mead separated from his wife and moved from Brooklyn back to Nashville. His fifth album Almost and Always was finally released on the Cheap Lullaby label on August 25, 2009, having been released the previous year in Japan.

Discography

• The Luxury of Time (CD) - RCA Records - 1999
• Mine and Yours (CD) - RCA Records - 2001
• Indiana (CD) - Nettwerk - 2004
• Wherever You Are EP (CD) - Eleven Thirty Records - 2005
• Tangerine (CD) - Tallulah Media - 2006
• Almost and Always (CD) - 2008

External links

• Official Website
• Official MySpace Page
• USA Fan Website
• All Music David Mead Feature
• Older David Mead Feature
• David Mead collection at the Internet Archive's live music archive