Richie Dagger's Crime
Seattle, Washington, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | SELF
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Richie Dagger’s Crime are a Seattle band who are wanting to take the world by storm, but are doing so on a case-by-case basis, so face this. They have two projects due out before the end of the year, a full length album called Sea Of Dysfunction (Cabin Games) as well as a precursor to it, a street album called Just A Little Bit which will be out on August. For now, you are able to hear just a little bit from that street album by listening to “It’s Only Noise” but as you’ll find out, it’s anything but noise or a nuisance. The song is said to be “a re-imagining of British remix artist Jamie xx’s “The Rest Is Noise”” so if you’re into reimaginations, you may find this to be a raving sensation - This is Book's Music
Happy to have had this little soulful gem fall into my inbox! Coming out of Seattle, multi-genre band Richie Dagger’s Crime has released a new single off their upcoming summer mixtape titled, “Just A Little Bit.” The single, which will be featured on the Cabin Games-hosted mixtape, gets production from their resident producer Kjell Nelson, a vocal flip on Groove Theory’s “Tell Me” from singer Coreena, horns from Future Friday’s Eric Padget and guitar from Aslan Rife of Honey Moon Tree. The ‘Just A Little Bit Summer’ mixtape is the prelude to Richie Dagger’s full-length album, ‘Sea of Dysfunction’, which is slated for release this Fall - @Ellhah
Richie Dagger’s Crime is ambient dub at its most whimsical, a multitextured plunge into lo-fi pop techno. The post-witch-house/dub-tropi-step songs on Collection of Singles (CTPAK Records) cross genres faster than I can type hyphens: One song sounds like a more-psych-loving, less-huggably-beardo Grizzly Bear, another like a post-dubstep version of Radiohead’s Kid A touchstone ‘Idioteque.’
— Britnie Fuller, The Stranger - Brittnie Fuller
Musicians of today are proving their loyalty to the decade, but a local band offers to ascend the fleeting peak of current radio craze and render sounds of timeless yet current rock and funk. Richie Dagger’s Crime — once a solo artist, now a six-member rhythm machine — is reviving the unmistakable sounds of funk, while effortlessly blending, with justice, organic pop to form a sound unique to the genre.
Richie Dagger’s Crime (RDC), an official band since their first show this past January, has been lighting up venues all over the city and is quickly gaining an enthusiastic fan base. RDC ignites the crowd and brings out that grooving pulse we forgot we had, buried under years of trends. The set band is comprised of lead vocalist Richie
Nelson and instrumentalists Eric Padget, Andrew Gospe, Chris Schuett, Chris Anderson, Eric Sanchez and Coreena Brown.
I spoke with Richie Nelson, the Chicago-born lead singer, at a downtown coffee shop about the man, the music and messages. As obvious as inference might lead, the band isn’t named after him, but an inspiration, a reference to one of the most unique punk bands out of Los Angeles: The Germs and its lead singer, Darby Crash.
RDC’s name comes from the admiration for Crash’s mysterious and sometimes sinner persona of spirit and raw sense of dedication to artistry and the unmistakable concept of legacy. Darby Crash set out to inspire a generation of artists and make a permanent impression on his followers, by performing an unprecedented amount of energetic and visceral shows. After all the rise and careful fabrication of his message and career, Crash committed suicide as a promise to himself to live to the highest level of self and abruptly edge the line to his legacy at the height of prime. It’s the decision and his strikingly unique ability to hold on to a promise.
Nelson describes this as the concept of being “not the hero.” He wants to “humanize something considered to be bad” and to reform and widen the acceptable breath given to our current confines of humanity, gumption and internal strength.
Nelson states that the vision for the band is to create an immersive experience for the audience, to traverse music from both geography and genre and to always “go with instinct,” while along the way challenge the mind.
Richie Dagger’s Crime is gearing up to close an eventful 2016 with an album release Nov. 10 and two EP’s, the first of which will be a synth-rock oriented collection of covers and the second an electronic piece of original material. You can catch them at the Michael Jackson Birthday Night, Aug. 17 at Neumos. - Real Change
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
On their upcoming debut full-length, Sea of Dysfunction, Seattle band Richie Dagger’s Crime explore a diverse sonic range, flowing through cross-genres and the spaces in between. Throughout the album's 15 tracks, classical arrangements peek through ambient synthscapes and dreamy dub textures give way to swinging, R&B-tinged crooners—the culmination is an essence that is at once familiar and unexpected.
Richie Dagger’s Crime began in 2011 as the solo composition/recording project of Chicago transplant Richie Nelson and has since evolved into a collaborative project with Cabin Games resident producer Kjell Nelson and various local musicians including vocalist Coreena Brown, guitarist Aslyn Rife (Honey.Moon.Tree.), drummer Josh McClung, and horn player Eric Padget (Future Fridays).
“I realized I liked music when my mom said I was allowed to quit violin,” says Nelson. “Funny how thing are more rewarding when they’re your own decision.” The wide scope of sounds on Sea of Dysfunction can be traced back through Nelson’s varied musical background—classical violin lessons at the age of 5 lead to playing in bands (ranging from jazz to punk to pop to orchestra) before the world of electronic soundscapes sparked something deeper. “I bought a Roland 404 and sampling totally altered my writing style,” Nelson says. “For the longest time, I was convinced there were rules to what sounded right and wrong. Drugs, critical theory, and electronic music convinced me otherwise and I feel like I've been recovering from that break ever since.”
A little over a year in the making, Nelson began the writing process for Sea of Dysfunction using a sampler, rather than a computer, which allowed for larger brushstrokes and bigger-picture focus. “Moving to outboard gear helped me be less schizophrenic in my writing—the restrictions are wonderful, and I think this shift marked the exploration into Sea of Dysfunction,” Nelson says. Teaming with Cabin Games also gave Nelson the opportunity to open the project up to another producer. Of his first day recording vocals at The Cabin’s studio, Nelson says, “I showed up with what I thought were finished instrumentals and Kjell was like, ‘I can make this better.’ “My heart sank, but I liked his production, so I followed his advice. He re-wrote a significant portion of the drums as well as re-processed instruments—I absolutely fell in love with Kjell’s work. I like to invite as much critical input as I can get and I think working with another producer has incited that desire. I guess it’s a way to get in tune with gut feelings.” As for the album’s title—a lyric from his song “I Bleed the Future Seeds”—Nelson says, “I’ve been sitting on this phrase since 2008. I like to keep lyrics for a while until they have a place. It seems to capture the internet life we live in, as well as how crazy everything seems to be getting environmentally. It’s also referential to the type of music in the album—textural, nuanced, submersive, flowing, unexpected, Dionysian.”
Much like his own development as an artist, Nelson’s influences are truly across the board—an internship at Chicago archival record label the Numero Group solidified his penchant for soul, but he’s also drawn to everything from hiphop producer Clams Casino to iconic composer Philip Glass to the smoky soul of Amy Winehouse. “The other half of my influences come from my friends,” says Nelson. “The constant sharing of what's we've created is so joyful. I’m constantly intermingling with other artists around the city.”
Nelson is also the co-creator of CTPAK Records—a West Seattle-based experimental collective formed in 2012 that produces various projects including Children of Kids, a three-piece electronic group Nelson also performs with.
Currently, the live accompaniment includes Chris Schuett (guitar/vox), Erik Sanchez (bass/vox), Chris Anderson (drums), Coreena Brown (vox/percussion), Andrew Gospe (synth) and Eric Padget (trumpet).
Sea of Dysfunction will debut on Cabin Games Records in 2016 following the release of a 10-song mixtape titled Tenderness.
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