Doldrums is the musical identity of Canadian singer, producer and visual artist Airick Asher Woodhead. Doldrums began in 2010 as a moniker to release home recordings before expanding into a live band and releasing three LPs: ''Lesser Evil'' (2013) on

Arbutus Records Arbutus Records is a Montreal based record label and Artist Management, management company founded by Sebastian Cowan in 2009. The label is named after the street by the same name in Vancouver, where Cowan grew up. The label have also begun expand ...

, ''The Air Conditioned Nightmare'' (2015) on

Sub Pop Sub Pop is a record label founded in 1986 by Bruce Pavitt and Jonathan Poneman. Sub Pop achieved fame in the early 1990s for signing Seattle bands such as Nirvana, Soundgarden, and Mudhoney, central players in the grunge movement. They are often ...

records, and ''Esc'' (2017) on Endless.

History

Doldrums began in 2010 at The House of Everlasting Superjoy, a DIY venue and warehouse living space in Toronto that Airick shared with members of the group

DD/MM/YYYY DD/MM/YYYY (pronounced "day month year") was a Canadian experimental rock band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They were known for their abstract music, use of unconventional instruments, use of complex time signatures, and their rotating member ...

, which he cites as a primary influence, along with the numerous American noise artists that the venue hosted. The first release was a VHS of videos and music that had been chopped up and collaged together, choosing the name Doldrums after the book '' The Phantom Tollbooth'' by

Norton Juster Norton Juster (June 2, 1929 – March 8, 2021) was an American academic, architect, and writer. He was best known as an author of children's books, notably for ''The Phantom Tollbooth'' and ''The Dot and the Line''. Early life Juster was born in ...

, a childhood favourite of his. A cover of Portishead's " Chase the Tear" brought Doldrums attention after Portishead chose to include it as the B-side to the vinyl release, a charity release for Amnesty International on XL Recordings. Cult UK label No Pain in Pop released his EP ''Empire Sound'' that year, which consisted of material from the ''Parrot Talk'' VHS. In Montreal Airick collaborated with artists within the burgeoning electronic music scene centred around

, which '' Pitchfork'' described as a group whose "sounds may be disparate, but reunited by their desire to tackle questions of identity from unique and exciting perspectives." Montreal-based artist

Grimes Claire Elise Boucher (; born March 17, 1988), known professionally as Grimes, is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer. Her early work has been described as extending from "lo-fi R&B" to futuristic dance-pop, and has in ...

discovered Doldrums and invited him to move to Montreal in 2011. Her single "Oblivion" was inspired by Airick, and he was featured on her album ''

Visions Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain un ...

''. The two embarked on a tour of DIY venues in America including

Silent Barn The Silent Barn was a collectively directed community art space in Brooklyn, NY. The initial iteration of the Silent Barn, an underground performance space, opened in 2006 in Ridgewood, Queens. The Silent Barn collective relocated to a new space in ...

in NYC, the Copy Cat in Baltimore, Secret Squirrel in Athens and the Magic Stick in Detroit. Doldrums' first LP ''Lesser Evil'' was released on Arbutus on February 25, 2013. The album was well received and the band toured extensively, supporting artists Crystal Castles and Purity Ring as well as playing headlining shows and festivals.

Black Dice Black Dice is an American experimental noise music band based in Brooklyn, New York and consisting of brothers Bjorn and Eric Copeland along with Aaron Warren. Formed in 1997, the group was initially inspired by hardcore and noise rock, but subse ...

, another key early influence on Doldrums' music, remixed the single "She Is the Wave". The band played 11 shows at the SXSW music festival in Austin in 5 days. In 2015 Sub Pop Records announced the release of Doldrums' second album ''The Air Conditioned Nightmare'', marking the band's departure from Arbutus. The group headlined tours in America and Europe and played OFF festival in Poland. Following a live performance on Boiler Room TV the band's van was broken into and laptop, passport and other equipment stolen, resulting in the cancellation of a European tour with the band HEALTH and forcing Airick to stay in Canada, a period which he described as a "wake up call", due to the things he was doing being "emotionally unsustainable". In July 2017 the new album ''Esc'' appeared, along with the video and single "Runner Up". In April 2021, Woodhead announced on Instagram that he would be retiring the name ‘Doldrums.’ In the same post, he launched a new project ‘Crasher’ a punk band formed with friends during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Musical style

Doldrums' music has been described as occupying the middle ground between noise and pop, and as '

post-internet Post-Internet is a 21st century art movement involving works that are derived from the Internet or its effects on aesthetics, culture and society. Definition Post-Internet is a loosely-defined term that was coined by artist/curator Marisa Olson ...

' as it makes use of a wide variety of styles and is created primarily by collaging samples together, with added live drumming and percussion. Woodhead's voice has been described as androgynous, or

countertenor A countertenor (also contra tenor) is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of the female contralto or mezzo-soprano voice types, generally extending from around G3 to D5 or E5, although a sopranist (a s ...

As a lyricist he has written about the changing relationship of humans to their machines and each other, weaving together psychedelic and surrealist imagery to create character narratives.

Live

Live members of the live band have included Petra Glynt on drums, Steven Foster on drums, Kyle Jukka on samples, Guy Dallas on synth, and Airick's brother Daniel Woodhead (from the band

Moon King Moon King is the synth-pop project of Canadian songwriter and producer Daniel Benjamin. Moon King's music has been described as dream pop, electronic pop or indie rock. Recently the project's sound has shifted to include disco, synthpop and house ...

) on drums. The live band is known for chaotic performances involving extended live-improvisation jams by the musicians and encouraging dancing, audience participation and crowd surfing. In October 2017 Glynt released the solo album ''This Trip''.

Discography

Albums *''Lesser Evil'' (Arbutus Records, Souterrain Transmissions, 2013) *''A Very Doldrums Christmas'' (Digital, 2014) *''The Air Conditioned Nightmare'' (Sub Pop, 2015) *''Esc'' (Endless, 2017) Extended plays *''Empire Sound'' (No Pain in Pop, 2011) *''Egypt'' (Arbutus Records, Souterrain Transmissions, 2012) Singles *"Euphoria / Strange Waves" 7" (We Are Busy Bodies, 2010) *"aHundred" 7" (We Are Busy Bodies, Split w DD/MM/YYYY, 2011) *"IDONTWANNABEDELETED" 7" (featuring Samantha Urbani) (Sub Pop, 2015) Videos *''Parrot Talk'' VHS (Ministry of Truth, 2010)

References

{{reflist *https://www.discogs.com/artist/2620318-Doldrums-5 *https://thelast-magazine.com/doldrums/ *http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/10-new-artists-you-need-to-know-march-2015-20150326/doldrums-20150325 *http://exclaim.ca/music/article/doldrums-island_stage_guelph_on_july_24 *http://bullettmedia.com/article/doldrums-on-the-psychological-choice-to-make-art-not-money/ Arbutus Records artists Musical groups established in 2010 2010 establishments in Canada