David Sutton is the kind of artist I've been striving to be with my own project.
He's a proven jack of all artistic trades. A musician, producer, collage creator, a videographer.
This isn't the first time he's been on the scene. In the nineties Sutton was a third of the band Zigsaur, who graced the Palmerston North scene in a time when the Square was even more dangerous to visit after dark.
That was nearly 20 years ago. While many people will have forgotten Zigsaur, the dissatisfaction everyone feels in this city, as expressed by the band in their song Drone Away, is never far from mind.
The first track I heard of David Sutton was Up for Air, from his 2013 album Cheese. With no background and no previous experience, I mistook David Sutton's as been another one of those aspiring Wellington bands from the underground garage roots/ska movement.
Hearing the whole album, I've realised that the Wellington Sound was just part of his repertoire. Cheese is an eclectic mix of different genres, experimental in that sense, but well put together as a whole. Not unlike the politically themed collage that graces the front cover.
Where I feel David Sutton found his sound in 40, the album which followed Cheese in 2014, Cheese is a mish-mosh of different influences and sound. Between the opening and closing cheese themed ditty's there are acoustic ballads, gospel singer backed, Bob Dylan as storyteller like tracks and modernisations of the pre-Orbison era British rock enjoyed by my older work colleague.
The standout track is the frivolous Zombie and its video, written in part by Sutton's young son James, who appears in many of the videos for both Cheese and 40.
You can stream or download selected tracks from Cheese from David Sutton's Muzic.net.nz profile page, or check out their corresponding videos on his Youtube.
David writes and records songs.