Biography

James and the Giant emerged as a live act in early 2009, although they had previously been playing together for nearly six months under a nameless guise.

Led by Crewe based singer-songwriter Dayve Dean, the band play a mixture of acoustic and folk-pop, channelling the likes of REM, Tom Waits, David Gray and Aimee Mann into their original music. Completing the band line-up is local radio DJ Dan Logan and guitarists Carl Hill and Steve Welch.

While the effervescent Logan - who presents his music show on Focal Radio – remains a mainstay on drums, the rest of the band take it in turns to play the other instruments. Never one to rest on their laurels, Carl and Steve mix guitar and bass duties with Dayve, although things start to get a touch more radical when the mandolins, harmonicas and two duelling glockenspiels enter the fray.

Most of the songs played by the band come from singer Dayve’s second album Octagon, recorded in 2008 and produced by Nigel Stonier, who has previously collaborated with the likes of Fairport Convention, Lindisfarne and Sandi Thom. Featuring backing vocals from award winning singer/songwriter Thea Gilmore and recorded mainly in Liverpool at The Loft, Octagon is a collection of intelligently crafted pop songs with killer hooks and insightful lyrics.

The album was launched in 2008 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, with Dayve playing solo for three weeks solid in Scotland’s capital city. Now, faced with the task of fleshing out the album properly on the live stage, comes James and the Giant.