Today on the podcast we are featuring the UK Singer Songwriter Dave Vamfer. Learn more about him and listen to his track “Tricks of Life Medley.”
Show Notes and Full Show Transcript
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Hey everyone welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe Music podcast. I am your host Jeanette Kimszal. For those of you just joining us, this is the podcast where I talk about different musicians and how their music affects me and then play their tracks for you to listen to.
So you can check it out and form your own opinion as well. And I’d love to know what you think of the track if you’re so inclined to do so. And I’ll have details where you can tell me if you want to share your opinion at the end of this show.
So Dave Vamfer is actually the stage name for singer/songwriter David Reggie Phillips. This stage reason was born from the fact that he felt he didn’t have a unique enough name that would stand out in social media or the music scene.
So he came up with Dave Vamfer and went from there.
He’s currently residing in Folkestone, Kent but is originally born in London.
Dave learned to play guitar as a teenager. The music bug bit him early on and he has just been writing and playing ever since.
He was first a bass player in a rock band before leaving school. Then he went on to become a lead singer and guitarist in the London-based band Gallop which included a lineup of guitar, bass, sax, and drums.
Gallop wound up breaking up but Dave continued on as a solo artist. He also occasionally plays with other musicians in a duo or trio for live performances.
It was not until he took early retirement that he found the time to record music and created his first album Find The Sound which was published in 2020. Dave now concentrates on recording and writing, he rarely plays live anymore.
Even though he’s been playing over his entire life, it wasn’t until his retirement that he got into recording and getting into the nitty gritty of becoming a full-time musician.
It opened up this new possibility for him and he has so much time that he can just you know devote and dedicate to getting out the music that he wants to get.
When it comes to Dave’s musical styles he has been described mainly as a pop-rock artist but his musical styles do also run the gamut.
He has played everything from rock to EDM and hip hop, he really says that his “home” style is right around the rock/blues, or jazz-flavored pop persuasion.
A lot of his repertoire includes things like rock, house, pop, blues, samba, reggae, bluegrass, jazz, ballads, and folk, and he also sometimes combines things for different styles.
Or you know creating a new kind of flavor and kind of like his own kind of mixture of these different genres.
He likes to experiment with genres until he finds something that makes the song work for him.
The track I’ll be playing in a little bit is off his latest 3 track album which was independently released and is available now on streaming platforms like Spotify, Amazon, and his Bandcamp page.
I’ll leave links to these in the show notes if you want to check out any other of his music.
This is an interesting track because it is not just one song but it is actually three songs in one. It’s got the name of the title, “medley” which usually means a combination of different things you know.
There are vegetable medleys and there are musical medleys. It definitely does have some kind of duality to it.
Not only in the music but also in the lyrics. It kind of bounces around to different ideas about the song.
It talks about being kicked when you’re down and it can be very downtrodden it can be looked at as a sad song but what really it is is it’s kind of showing that you can get motivated with a little kick to move on.
And it’s a nice reminder that there are a lot of ups and downs in life. The important this is to not let it beat you into the ground and like try to look at things with a bigger picture.
You know, what is this experience teaching me, and what is this experience kind of leading me to? Sometimes you can learn a lesson from a negative experience and kind of understand how things can go awry.
This can help you face reality. Because I think that if things are always perfect then we never appreciate anything. And I know like for me a lot of things like gratitude practices and being thankful for things is helpful because I think that if you are never really thankful for anything then you don’t really appreciate anything.
And as bad as things seem do go bad you appreciate things so much more when they get better.
And you know according to Dave, he said he wrote this song Tricks of Life about you know how life appears to promise you eventually realize you…things aren’t going to materialize.
While there is a disappointment it’s not really a negative thing you know? It’s just kind of like dealing with reality as I said before. Learning how to mentally deal with reality.
If we are never taught how to deal with you know, negative things or bad things its just kind of like, its not healthy mentally.
So you know I think this song has a good message to it and I think it has an interesting sound to it and I feel like the music compliments the message.
Whereas like the music has an upbeat feel but also a downbeat feel.
And it’s a very short song but I feel like it’s a very impactful and very powerful song. But yeah its something to listen to maybe a couple of times to really get where he’s coming from.
And it’s interesting again because it’s kind of different medleys or music that are melded together.
The main musical feel of this is very uplifting you know it’s got like this rock/pop feel with this solid message attached.
And the message is just further embedded into you because of like these features you know?
It’s got these jangly guitars. It’s got this soothing sax and has a snappy hooking chorus that just comes together so beautifully.
Vamfer’s vocal and lyrical approach has been compared to the likes of Paul McCartney.
And he’s been getting a lot of love from the blogosphere. He’s had features on websites like The Mouth Soap, Breaking & Entering, Living Life Fearless, and Obscure Sound.com
I’ll leave a link to these in the show notes if you want to check out other things that have been said about him.
But he’s been getting a lot of praise for his intrinsic and very distinct musical styles.
So I think I’ve chatted enough about this track and without further ado here is “Tricks of Life Medley” by Dave Vamfer.
We would love to know what you think about Dave Vamfer and his track “Tricks of Life Medley” You can tell us in a comment on the podcast webpage. You can also leave an audio comment at the link in the episode summary.
For more information on Dave Vemfer check out his official website https://www.davevamfer.com/. That is www dot D-A-V-E-V-A-M-F-E-R dot com.
You can also like and follow him on Facebook and Twitter at the handle Dave Vamfer. That is D-A-V-E-V-A-M-F-E-R
If you are looking for more new music be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you will get the latest updates on our artist features. You can also find more music features on our website at www.EatSleepBreatheMusic.com. That is E-a-t-S-l-e-e-p-B-r-e-a-t-h-e-M-u-s-i-c dot com.
Thanks for listening and see you in the next episode!
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