Dan Webb - Sunshine​/​Dialogue (2023) [Hi-Res]

Over a four year period, Melbourne producer Dan Webb set about interviewing a range of artists including Grammy Award winners, Rock and Roll Hall-of-Famers, and emerging indie upstarts. These conversations informed the creation of his fourth full length album, Sunshine/Dialogue, to be released June 9.

Of all the artists he spoke with, Greg Saunier of Deerhoof was the one whose words were most impactful. So much so, that Greg’s philosophical musings are directly sampled on the album’s emotional centrepiece, ‘A Good Song’.

“When the definition of a good song becomes a proscription, it's completely useless,” Greg’s voice can be heard to say over an expansive soundscape. “You want the opposite. What you want is a good song to become undefined, so that everything that has been proscribed is now allowed, everything that has been unheard can now be heard.”

Over the course of twelve wildly imaginative tracks, Dan takes this concept and runs with it, delivering sounds which are eclectic, whimsical, and sometimes challenging. That is where the magic of Sunshine/Dialogue lies - taking an established approach to music and completely reinventing it, emerging with an album that somehow retains incredible pop appeal despite its unabashed avant-garde leanings.

The stylistically versatile nature of the record is the result of endless experimentation over a career spanning 15 years. “I've recorded literally hundreds of demos and ideas over the past few years,” Dan says, “I put a lot of them together, like a jigsaw puzzle containing both complementary and contrasting pieces.”

Dan’s music has often been described with terms such as ‘electro-jazz’ and ‘psych-rock’. And while this is accurate in some ways, it only tells part of the story. Dan’s conversations with diverse artists have led to a genre-less approach that needs to be heard to be understood.

As Saunier implies on ‘A Good Song’, music can only truly be judged by how it makes you feel. Sunshine/Dialogue will make you feel a way no record has before.

Composed, performed, produced, mixed and mastered by Dan Webb.

Ivan Krnic - guitar (tracks 1, 4, 6, 10)
Niki Yaghmaee - violin (tracks 1, 2, 3, 10)
Golsana Shenasaei - cello (tracks, 1, 2, 3, 10)
Laurence Wilkins - trumpet (track 9)