I formally met Dominique Fricot a number of years ago at a music seminar I attended. I'd seen him around at shows and seen his band "the Painted Birds" play a few times and even played a show with them. We seemed to have a similar view on music and shared opinions on the state of the music industry and were able to offer each other constructive critiques of each others music. After that, I invited him to a few shows and last year we spent just over a week together on a holiday at the Coachella festival.
Last year he told me that the Painted Birds decided to go their separate ways and he was deciding to take the solo route. He wanted to change musical directions and show a new side of himself as a writer. At the time I was interested to see where this new path would take him and was looking forward to hearing some recordings.
Now if you talk to Dom, he'll tell you how many times I ditched out of attending one of his shows. Maybe he'll tell you I'm a bit of a flake. I don't mind. If you know him personally you will know that he will tell you exactly how he feels about you. Both the positives and negatives. I suppose this is the nature of an artist who wears his heart on his sleeve. He has an immense heart and I think it takes a lot of courage to challenge your friends to grow and offer real perspective into not only what they are doing right and why, but also what they should consider changing in their lives. He's recently given me some hard advice. I really appreciated it and have since been trying to fix the things he suggested I at least attempt to fix.
So he phones me this week. He has a show coming up and wants me to come. He's been reading the blog and thinks it's pretty good and I may have a talent. I said I'd love to attend as long as my rehearsal schedule does not conflict. He says, come on, I'm on late enough that you'll be able to catch it. I say ok, but I want to hear a demo song, and talk about it here.
Last night I get an email with a demo he wants me to hear. "What can I give" is the title.
My first impression is that yes this is a different direction. I'm not a huge "singer songwriter" fan but lately am becoming more drawn to this more simplistic art form. Want to talk about courage? Try singing a song on a stage with just an acoustic guitar and your voice. You better be damn good as a vocalist and/or a guitarist. Dom happens to be both. He has tone in his voice. He picks unique chord phrasing. He arranges tasteful wandering guitar lead lines. This song build from the start with just his voice and a guitar and builds with drums and bass and horns until the crescendo and then it's over. You want to hear it again. Here are sample lyrics:
I must be crazy cuz I'm thinking bout you all the time/I don't even know you that well/And what, the hell/I'll just call you up with something to do/You say yes you say maybe you'll say wait and see
I really like this song. Maybe I like it even more because Dom is my friend. My only small criticism of this song is related to production. I'm sure when it is recorded in a studio with real production it will be even better. I hope you come to his show tomorrow (Februrary 16, 2011) at the Backstage lounge (Granville island) and see what Dominique Fricot is about.
I will be doing a show review on Thursday so stay posted.
Here are his links:
www.myspace.com/dominiquefricot
www.youtube.com/dominiquefricot
www.twitter.com/dominiquefricot
Here is "What can I give" on Youtube:
Please download all of Dom's work here:
http://www.dominiquefricot.bandcamp.com/
Love,
Marty
@martyzylstra
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