Bio: Windmill - aka 28-year old Matthew Thomas Dillon - is emerging as one of the UK's best singer-songwriters, his music a heady distillation of US indie, early '70s melancholia and twisted ... (more)
Bio: Windmill - aka 28-year old Matthew Thomas Dillon - is emerging as one of the UK's best singer-songwriters, his music a heady distillation of US indie, early '70s melancholia and twisted folk-pop. Born and raised in Newport Pagnell (a small town south of London, and home of the Aston Martin), Dillon's music has always been his escape. Possessed of a distinctive voice that sounds like Neil Young on a helium comedown, Matthew produces songs that swell with bruised emotions, fragile melodies and bombastic orchestration.
Puddle City Racing Lights may be his first proper release, but it follows countless homemade albums recorded on a $300 four track and intended for only him and a few close friends to listen to. Dillon used to make these demos on his keyboards in his bedroom (locking himself in for hours and missing university lectures for the sake of his art), all the while imagining what kind of record he could create with "an acoustic piano, real strings, and real drums" and before long he was able to do just that.
The resulting album is a pivotal part of Windmill's blossoming. Making his stage debut as recently as 2005, Dillon has made a great leap in a short space of time, producing an astonishing debut album within two years of that tentative first step into the public domain. Echoing the greats of US indie - Built To Spill, Guided By Voices, Mercury Rev and Flaming Lips - and lyrically concerned with the detritus of modern life - airport lounges, plastic chairs, flourescent lights - Puddle City Racing Lights is an album that demands repeat plays. And this accomplished debut is completely the vision of one man.
Dillon had such a clear image in his head of what Windmill songs should sound like that he was reticent about getting others involved. It was, he says, a scary prospect, but one made easier by a crack team of musicians (members of The Earlies' live band and former Alfie member Ian Smith) and co-producer, Tom Knott. Together, they whipped up a storm of lush strings, clashing percussion and cacophonous vocals.
Dillon himself provides the album's key instrument, the piano. It's an instrument he has always felt a kinship with and he recalls buying records and skipping ahead through the tracks until the pianos kicked in. "Piano, huge drums and finding a different way of saying things - that's Windmill to me." (less)
