Dawnstar are an indie-rock band from

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary. The band's original line-up includes the songwriter Attila Wind (vocals/guitars), Bálint Hamvas (bass), and Viktor Albert (drums). The sound of the band is generally a mix of flanging and light distorted guitars, throbbing bass, and enchanting keyboard melodies. Dawnstar represents a mixture of mid-1960s psychedelic, late 1970s goth, mid-1980s grunge and 1990s

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

of the

Budapest indie music scene Budapest indie music scene was the indie music scene of Budapest, Hungary in the 2000s. It was often associated with bands like Amber Smith, The Moog, EZ Basic and We Are Rockstars. History Beginnings The early 2000s was the revival of the in ...

History

Formation

Wind, born to an English father from

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port city in Tyne and Wear, England. It is the City of Sunderland's administrative centre and in the Historic counties of England, historic county of County of Durham, Durham. The city is from Newcastle-upon-Tyne and is on t ...

and Hungarian mother from

, met Hamvas in the mid-1990s at the

Teleki Blanka Gymnasium The Teleki Blanka Gymnasium is a gymnasium located on 37 Ajtósi Dürer sor in the neighbourhood of Városliget in the XIVth district of Budapest, Hungary. The school is one of the oldest schools in the capital city of Hungary. History After the ...

in Budapest, Hungary. In 1999 they formed Ansellia, named after the

eponymous An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

, as a duo project and recorded their first demo, ''Eunomia''. In 2000 Wind composed eight new tracks which were recorded in Piliscsaba. This demo entitled ''Vanity'' helped the band recruit Albert who was Hamvas's classmate at the Budapest Business School. After several concerts at local clubs, in spring 2001 the band started using the name Dawnstar, which is a combination of ″dawn″ and ″star″ as an alternative for Morning Star or

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...

, instead of Ansellia. They gave their first concert with this new name on 13 December 2002 at the Woodoo club in Csepel. The early sound of the band was influenced by the grunge revolution from

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

. However, later the band started to mix their sound with many different music genres such as psychedelia,

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-r ...

and

garage rock Garage rock (sometimes called garage punk or 60s punk) is a raw and energetic style of rock and roll that flourished in the mid-1960s, most notably in the United States and Canada, and has experienced a series of subsequent revivals. The sty ...

. In 2002 Dawnstar recorded their third demo, ''Under Your Wings'', at the Pick-up Studios in Budapest. The result was a mixture of flanging verses and distorted choruses establishing the distinctive sound of the band.

Hiatus

The band were on hiatus from 2003-05 due to the foreign studies of the band members. In 2003 Wind continued his studies at University of Trieste in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

while Hamvas at the

University of Padua The University of Padua ( it, Università degli Studi di Padova, UNIPD) is an Italian university located in the city of Padua, region of Veneto, northern Italy. The University of Padua was founded in 1222 by a group of students and teachers from ...

in 2004. On 16 April 2005, Dawnstar performed at the Ecofest, organised to celebrate eco-friendly ideas by the Védegylet. A week before the show, Wind recruited Mitropulos as an additional musician to play the keyboard. Finally, Mitropulos joined Dawnstar as a permanent member in late 2005. In 2006 Dawnstar recorded their fourth demo entitled ''A Metrosexual's Confessions''. In 2006 the band played three shows at the Erzsébetliget Theatre in Budapest. Before their third show on 31 November 2006, the band members were interviewed by

Beatrice Beatrice may refer to: * Beatrice (given name) Places In the United States * Beatrice, Alabama, a town * Beatrice, Humboldt County, California, a locality * Beatrice, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Beatrice, Indiana, an unincorporated ...

's lead singer Feró Nagy. On 30 March 2007, Dawnstar performed at the

Budapest Fringe Festival The Budapest Fringe Festival is an annual event held every spring in Budapest, Hungary. It is a fringe festival, on the model of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Budapest Fringe Festival was first held in 2006. The festival brings more than 500 ...

Change The World

On 30 November 2007, Dawnstar released their first EP, Change The World, including three songs: the title track ''Change The World'', ''Scarlet'' and ''Don't Die A Martyr For Me''. The band opted for Heaven Street Seven's Zoltán Takács and László Philip as the sound engineers for the record. The band spent two days with the recording at the Abnormal Studios in November, 2007. On 22 January 2017, the band's song entitled ''Don't Die A Martyr For Me'' was listed among antiwar songs on the Italian website, Antiwar Songs. On 6 July 2009, Dawnstar played at the Donaukanaltreiben Festival in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

. The band was spotted on the community website, Myspace by Heidimarie Pyringer, who organised the concert for the band in the Austrian capital. On 10 April 2010, Dawnstar played at the Fringe Festival in

Pécs Pécs ( , ; hr, Pečuh; german: Fünfkirchen, ; also known by other alternative names) is the fifth largest city in Hungary, on the slopes of the Mecsek mountains in the country's southwest, close to its border with Croatia. It is the administr ...

which was selected to be the European Capital of Culture for the same year. Next year, on 1 April 2011, Dawnstar performed at the Budapest Fringe Festival for the third time.

Saturnine Valentines

In 2012 Dawnstar started recording their first full-length studio album entitled ''Saturnine Valentines'' at the Abnormal Studios in Budapest. The band hired

Dávid Schram David Schram is Hungarian musician and record producer, best known internationally as the guitarist of the Hungarian rock band FreshFabrik and the producer of Sexepil's '' Your Scream Is Music'', and Shell Beach's '' This Is Desolation''. Li ...

, who previously worked on Shell Beach's

This Is Desolation This Is Desolation is the second full-length studio album recorded by Shell Beach. It was released in November, 2012. Recording and production The band worked on this 11-song record for the past two years. The album has 11 tracks and includes M ...

and

FreshFabrik FreshFabrik is a Hungarian industrial nu metal band consisting of Szabolcs Oláh aka (kju:) (vocals, guitars), András Szabó (drums) and Levente Kovács (bass & programming) and László Szvoboda (guitars, vox, synth.). FreshFabrik is the fir ...

's MORA, as mixing and mastering engineer for their album. On 19 May 2013, Dawnstar uploaded three songs (''Love's Gonna Be Tender, In Heaven We Meet Again, Ophelia'') from their upcoming studio album on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second most ...

and

SoundCloud SoundCloud is an online audio distribution platform and music sharing website that enables its users to upload, promote, and share audio. Founded in 2007 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, SoundCloud is one of the largest music streaming s ...

and three months later the full record was available on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

. In December 2013, Dawnstar was featured on J.D. Doyle's

Queer Music Heritage JD Doyle (born September 24, 1947) is an American LGBT music and history archivist/historian and radio producer. He is a staff member of the weekly radio show Queer Voices and produces the monthly radio shows ''Queer Music Heritage'' and ''OutRa ...

. In the same month Love's Gonna Be Tender was aired on OutRadio. On 19 January 2016, the band's first video clip, ''In Heaven We Meet Again'', was premiered on Underground Magazin. The video was shot in Üröm in December 2015 and it was directed by Wind. The video was inspired by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez's psychological horror movie

Blair Witch Project ''The Blair Witch Project'' is a 1999 American supernatural horror film written, directed and edited by Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez (director), Eduardo Sánchez. It is a fictional story of three student filmmakers—Heather Donahue, Mic ...

. On 12 February 2016 the band played a show at Szilvuplé Bár és Varieté in Budapest with three guest vocalist including: Viktória Wind (née Bordács), Zsófia Toporczy (Plüssnapalm), and Viktóra Sereg. This was the first time when guest vocalist were invited to support the band. On 17 June 2016, Dawnstar released their second video entitled ''London Nights''. In the video Wind is wandering in the streets of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

The United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

passing by some famous sights such as

Tower Bridge Tower Bridge is a Grade I listed combined bascule and suspension bridge in London, built between 1886 and 1894, designed by Horace Jones and engineered by John Wolfe Barry with the help of Henry Marc Brunel. It crosses the River Thames close ...

and

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglicanism, Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London ...

. The other band members, Albert and Hamvas are waiting impatiently for Wind to arrive at the rehearsal room. At the end of the video Wind arrives at the rehearsal room and the band start to play the song together. The London scenes were shot on 13 July 2013, while the rest of the video was filmed in Budapest, Hungary on 22 May 2016. On 26 August 2016, the band debuted on

Rádió Rock 95.8 Rádió Rock 95.8 was a Hungarian rock music radio station. It was the only radio station in Hungary which broadcast rock music exclusively. History On 17 May 2016, the Rádió Rock began broadcasting. The radio station aimed to gain 2,5 million ...

with their song ''In Heaven We Meet Again''. A couple of days later, on 9 September 2016, another song from ''Saturnine Valentines'', ''London Nights'' was also aired on the radio station. On 17 November 2017, the band played a show entitled Saturnine Nights at the Szilvuplé in Budapest. On 27 November 2016, the band was interviewed by Ádám Rédl on

. During the one-hour talk 5 songs were aired on the radio station including ''Love's Gonna Be Tender'', ''Ophelia'', ''Almost Every Flame Will Fade Away'', and two previously played songs: ''In Heaven We Meet Again'' and ''London Nights''. On 13 April 2017, Zsolt Szemenyei joined Dawnstar as a keyboard player.

Band members

;Current line-up *Viktor Albert – drums (2001–) *Bálint Hamvas – bass guitar, backvocals (2001–) *Attila Wind – vocals, guitar (2001–) ;Former members *Zsombor Havass – guitar (2006) *Anna Mitropulos – keyboard (2005-2011) *Zsolt Szemenyei – keyboard (2017) ;Touring members *Nikolett Poór – cello *Viktória Wind (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth ...

Bordács) – backvocals *Zsófia Toporczy – backvocals *Viktória Sereg – backvocals

Timeline

Discography

;Albums *''Change The World'' (2007) *''Saturnine Valentines'' (2013) ;Singles *''Love's Gonna Be Tender'' (2013)

Videography

;Music videos *''In Heaven We Meet Again'' (2016) *''London Nights'' (2016)

References

External links

Dawnstar
(official website)
Dawnstar
at

Dawnstar
at

Dawnstar at the Donaukanaltreiben Festival
{{Authority control Hungarian indie rock groups English-language singers from Hungary