About Derelict Daydream
Avenged Sevenfold meets Killing Joke.
"Dulcet tones and lush guitar work" - Powerplay, "A talented chap... Good music" Leeds Music Scene, "I like it..." Austin Collins - AC Promotions
Based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK, Derelict Daydream is the brainchild of multi-soloist Graham Spence. Graham was only 4 years old when he played his first chords on a guitar and things have come a long way since then. To date he has produced 4 albums and been radio played in many states of the US including New York, California and Colorado, and in other countries such as France and Austria. He was hired by the BBC to play guitar parts for series 2 of 'In The Flesh' and also played a part in a reconstruction for BBC's Crimewatch amongst other freelance engagements that he fits in around his music.
Beginnings and Cold Blooded Innocence
In the early days Graham got increasing frustrated at not being able to move things forward in various bands he was in as a teenager. A couple of years later he adopted the name The Masked Musician and bought a digital 8 track recorder. This is where the production side began as he started out making a set of rough demo's of what would become Cold Blooded Innocence (the first version). This was the first time he played multiple instruments, using a home made bass guitar that his uncle had built and keyboard generated drums. "The early recordings were pretty rough around the edges but it was a starting point, by the end of those sessions I was starting to lift isolated drum hits out of other recordings to make things sound better". By 2002, the original version of Cold Blooded Innocence was completed, it had 13 songs and a hidden track but it was never commercially released. "I had a couple of guitar pupils at the time who wanted a copy but that was about as far as it went". After that a cover version of Children of the Revolution was recorded where Graham's dad (a huge TRex fan) took the lead vocal and Graham played the instruments and did backing vocals as well as producing the recording. A remix version was also produced. "I edited so many drums hits and other sounds on the remix that I almost broke the 8 track machine, I was pushing way beyond what it was designed for. I realised at that point that I had outgrown my beloved 8 track and it was time to go computer based". A video was also shot for Children of the Revolution but neither it or the audio recording were released commercially, though unofficially the TRex fan club circulated copies of the songs. An attempt was made to screen the video at a TRex Fan Club convention in Leeds in 2004 but the screening had to be abandoned due to technical problems. The video for the song Never Known was shot at the same time as Children of the
Revolution and used the same sets in a different way.
1.618 and Commercial Releases
In 2004 Graham started work on his follow up album '1.618'. By this point he had relocated to Leeds, West Yorkshire and was doing some freelance TV jobs alongside his music. Production on '1.618' did not end until 2006 "That's the joy of being a multi-soloist and trying to fit your music productions around other life distractions - its takes a lot of time and patience to pull it all together". 14 songs were recorded of which 12 made it onto the album, the other 2 ended up as B sides. When the recording sessions started there were no great plans for releasing the album, it was more of a passion project but over the 2 1/2 years of production that thinking changed as it emerged that the production quality of '1.618' was much higher than its predecessor and was good enough for a commercial release. After the album was completed a search for a distributor began. Once a distribution agreement was in place the label Tempest Eye Records was formed and a video was shot for 'Three Year Headache' which had been chosen to be the lead single. The single spent 6 weeks on rotation at radio stations in New York and California as well as other stations and shortly after a follow up single 'Stay Dangerous' was released which was equally well received by international radio. The album was then released followed by a 3rd single 'Perfectionist Being'. The new single also faired well on radio. Though the album was not a favourite of the critics it did manage to reach No. 28 in Play.com's Metal Downloads chart beating established acts such as Motorhead. The Stay Dangerous single also gained a featured placement alongside Avenged Sevenfold on eMusic in the week of its release.
In 2007/08 some songs from 'Cold Blooded Innocence' were re-recorded and new version of the album was put together for release but no new videos were shot. 'Tainted' was the lead single and in particular this was picked up by KRFC radio in Colorado and rotated for a whole year (many to thanks Dave Tallent), it was followed by 'The Day I Stopped Caring' and 'Feel For Me', both were favoured in particular by American Radio and the latter is still The Masked Musician's best selling single to date.
Name Change and Personality Assassin
In 2010 preperations began for a 3rd album with 17 new songs, this was a much bigger ambitious project than the previous albums. The project was not completed until 2014 "3 1/2 years is a long time to carry a project but with so many songs of such breadth it was always gonna be a long haul. One of the songs is a 7 minute epic that took 132 channels to mix, had to be careful to not overheat the computer on that one..." Towards the end of the project, it was decided to go for a name change "The Masked Musician name said everything it needed to in terms of the artist but the mask thing was always meant to be a metaphor, some people seemed to be taking it literally, expecting some kind of Slipknot type act and thats not the way it was intended". After some brain storming The Masked Musician became Derelict Daydream. Personality Assassin is the name of the new album and will be the first one to feature the Derelict Daydream name alongside Yesterday's People which has been chosen to be the lead single, a new video has been shot for this song.