| Biography: | ********!!!SPECIAL ALERT FOR AFFICIENDOS!!!**********
shshsh!!
COMING SOON TO PROJECT OPUS. The loin-lubing cello years.
Recorded at last.
In the early 1990's SELDON nutured his talent on the North lsand with virtuoso cellist CHRISTIE STAUDHAMMER. By the late 1990's they were wowing intimate audiences around the Vancouver scene. Then continents separated them for many years. None of their music had been recorded. It had been played to the winds of the whispering forests and far flung northern beaches. It'd disappeared into the untold layers of Vancouver's buzz. Lost but for the memories of those who'd witnessed it.
BUT WAIT!!
On December 16th 2004 , the day before STAUDHAMMER moved forever to a place SELDON would never live, she was enticed into a secret venue in Vancouver and cello tracks to 4 of their classic songs were laid.
The mini-album "CumQuot", featuring Christie Staudhammer on cello, is now complete and is imminently available for digital-downloading.
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ANGELICA GOES TO #1!!!
In May 2005 the unlikely hit song Angelica , Track 9 of "THE BEAST WITHIN" , reached #1 on a top ten recommended list on podcast THE NEXT BIG THING.
Besides numerous webstations , the songs SAME GAME , CLEO , BURDSONG and ANGELICA are being played on co-op station Village 900 in Victoria B.C. , college radio stations including Kamloops , B.C. and C.B.C. Radio Canada.
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ROGER SELDON
(Songwriter)
Born and raised in South Africa and travelling the globe now for over 15 years, SELDON finally managed to stop in one place long enough to record his 1st album "THE BEAST WITHIN" in Fishhoek , Cape Town late 2003. Mastered and manufactured in Vancouver , Canada , the album was officially and globally released September 2004.
With over 20 years of songwriting this tip of the iceberg truely represents the 1st unleashing of SELDON's beast within. This album is made up of an eclectic mix of songstyles with some of the earliest tunes mixed up with the new.
SELDON on songwriting :
...actually, I prefer to call it song-discovery. In the process of messing about with sound, melodies , riffs and soundscapes (pieces of songs) are revealed and the sensitive ear need just trace the song backwards and forwards to it's natural beginning and end. Often some arrangement is then required. Sometimes words accompany the song pieces and an entire perfect song is written in 5 minutes (eg BURDSONG). More often with me the song remains unarranged and wordless , sometimes for years (eg, DREAMCHAIN, music 1989 and words 2000) until time and self-discipline synergize. Luckily , in recent years I have been blessed with the friendship of some wonderful and serious poets who have allowed me the honour of using their words (eg GLIMPSE , ANGELICA).
Most of the songs can be played in a number of different styles. On this album they are mostly played in the style in which they were originally written. Criticisms of the album (which can be more revealing and paradoxically complimentary than laudations) include stylistic digression and lyrical obscurity. But then these ARE poems , and to ponder or not? that is the question.
Being a gypsy for a lot of years many of SELDON's songs have become popular at his regular low key appearances around the world. The Hibiscus Coast (see www.southernexplorer.co.za) , Plett , Cape Town; all in South Africa; and Vancouver , Nelson , Northern Vancouver Island and Kitimat in the Wild Northwest of British Columbia have been his regular stomping grounds. A few of his songs (HEAVY RAIN , DREAMCHAIN , BURDSONG , SAME GAME) have been covered by artists in some of these places (Larva Rocks , now known as DreamChain - Johannesburg , Sean Germond - Cape Town , Barbie Meyer - Margate).
He enjoyed a long and fruitful development period through the 90's playing as a duo with accomplished cellist Christie Staudhammer initially touring beaches , forests , houses & lakes about Northern Vancouver Island and later the coffeehouses of Vancouver City. They also played around Plettenberg Bay South Africa towards the end of the last Millenium. Sadly , no formal recordings of those years exist , BUT ; in December 2004 , the day before Staudhammer moved permanently to Florida , U.S.A. , SELDON managed to get her into a studio in Vancouver to lay some cello tracks for a future album. This is expected in 2006.
In late 1996/7 he joined bandmembers Liz Adams , Scott Blackley (Muzzy Pep, The Great Dividing Range) and Patrick Singh in the Whitehorse-based Yukon altpoprock band "HOOP" as bassist for their tour of the East Coast of Australia in early 1997.
2004 saw SELDON colaborating with songwriter/slide guitarist Malachi Greenidge in the duo Holy Joe & The sKeptiK. (Look out for Malachi on MySpace.com).
Mostly SELDON has been writing and jamming with any inspiring talent he intercepts in his wanderings to the abovementioned locales.
The last 10 years have seen SELDON splitting his time between the southern tip of Africa (music & surfing) and the Canadian West Coast (music , snowboarding and , most unfortunately , work).
His sold-out and packed-out gigs at the Sundance Javabar in Campbell River and The Common Bistro on Denman Street in Vancouver , as well as a genre-defining 6 week run of shows at Rocky Ridge on The Hibiscus Coast , South Africa, in July/August/September 2005 lead to a more formalised and intense gigging/touring schedule in 2006. January 2006 saw him playing The Duncan Garage Showroom in Duncan , The Spiral Cafe in Victoria and The Common Bistro in Vancouver. A repeat tour of the southern Zululand coast with 11 sequential Friday night shows at Rocky Ridge developing into a weekly festival of Original Music with SELDON hosting many untapped and rockin' locals.
Comments & questions , both musical and personal , can be sent to
"THE BEAST WITHIN" by ROGER SELDON includes liner notes and lyrics. It also includes BURDSONG ("the lovesong of the decade" as judged by lovers around the world). SELDON prefers that "THE BEAST WITHIN" be played LOUD.
IT MUST BE PLAYED ON DECENT STEREO EQUIPMENT.
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