DM Stith. And So I Watch You From Afar

DM Stith: family matters

Say hello to David Michael Stith. You’re going to be hearing a lot about him in 2009. And 2010. And probably 2011 too.

Every once in a while a dude with an exceptional voice comes along and takes all the headlines. In recent years we’ve had Jeff Buckley and Antony Hegarty, both gifted with vocal chords to make you stop in your tracks. DM Stith also belongs in that rarified company.

Stith hails from Bloomington, Indiana, a bit of a hotbed for interesting new-school folk music. It’s also home to the Jagjaguwar and Secretly Canadian labels.

Stith’s family background was both intensely religious and hugely musical. The religion is a major influence on his lyrics. As for the music, his father is a college music director, his mother is a pianist, his grandfather is a professor of music, and his sisters are opera singers and tap-dancers. So obviously Stith wouldn’t be spending his spare time playing baseball.

Stith tried to escape, after a fashion, by taking up drawing and painting. Still, he spent time in bands of his own, such as a noise-band called Starchild, and becoming an accomplished jack-of-all-strings-and-keys.

After college Stith moved to Brooklyn, where he earned his corn as a graphic designer before slowly getting the music bug. He helped My Brightest Diamond’s Shara Worden with the recording of her solo album, Bring Me the Workhorse. This encouraged him to write and record his own spooky folk songs. A bunch of them appeared on a demo album called Ichabod and Apple, which made its way to Sufjan Stevens and the Asthmatic Kitty label.

There’s a lot of heart and soul on Heavy Ghost, which is Stith’s first “proper” album. These are heavyweight songs, the sound of an artist soaring away to the stars in a way that is woozy, celestial, intimate and downright extraordinary.

[ www.myspace.com/dmstithOpens in new window ]

And So I Watch You From Afar: instruments of change

Just when we were about ready to write off post-rock and instrumental rock as the refuges of those who can’t string two words together, along come And So I Watch You From Afar.

These four desperados arrive armed with a chat-up line of a name and a blistering sonic barrage.

What’s most fascinating about ASIWYFA is where they’ve gone in search of inspiration. While many of their non-singing peers have backed themselves into a corner by repeating the same notes over and over again, the Belfast band take their designs from a vast musical spread. They namecheck Ethiopian jazz, hip-hop and calypso – and these influences do shine through when the band start to play.

Their self-titled debut album arrives next month, and ASIWYFA will probably spend the rest of the year bringing the good word to venues everywhere.

** And So I Watch You From Afar is released on Smalltown America on April 13th. ASIWYFA play Belfast’s Mandela Hall on April 4th and Whelan’s, Dublin on May 3rd. www.myspace.com/ andsoiwatchyoufromafar

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