David Kilgour and The Heavy Eights

David Kilgour has a new album with his combo the Heavy Eights - released on April 18. Titled Left by Soft, it is David's eighth solo album and his fourth with Arch Hill. To celebrate the release of the album his heading out on a three date tour of the country, kicking things off in Wellington... Thursday 28th April, SFBH - Wellington Friday 29th April, Kings Arms - Auckland Saturday 7th May, The Empire - Dunedin Tickets on sale now from Undertheradar.co.nz Left by Soft was recorded in the Catlins, about two hours south of Dunedin, New Zealand, in an old lodge surrounded by native bush, birds, and the sea. David spent about a week down there with the Heavy Eights. Thomas Bell engineered and produced but also played bass and cooked the band awesome meals every night. After chilling out most mornings, the band would start recording mid afternoon into the night. Apart from a couple of overblown tracks, they kept overdubs to a minimum and when mixing left most takes as is - no cleaning up via Pro Tools editing, etc. To me, it sounds like the band on a good night, warts and all, says Kilgour. It's probably the first real band LP I've made since Frozen Orange or the David Kilgour and the Heavy 8's LP from the mid '90s. Left by Soft, his first album in four years with the Heavy Eights (Taane Tokona on drums, Tony de Raad on guitar and keyboards, and Thomas Bell on bass and keyboards), comes on the heels of the Clean's excellent 2009 outing, Mister Pop. You could say it's all part of a late-career renaissance, but that implies there's been some sort of valley in his 30 years of making music. This time, there are more of the elegantly chiming chords and beautifully drifting solos, all presented with Kilgour's sparkling pop sensibilities.