Dylan Rippon is a songwriter, producer, guitarist, and founding member of Solar, Grand Union, Gramercy, Bears From Labrador, and WA Wa Punx. He began his career in London in the late 1990s. Using samplers and tape machines he immersed himself in the lo-fi scene that stood at odds with Britpop. His solo albums are characterized by a collage of styles and textures - samples, live drums, synthesizers, and acoustic guitars are used to create a post-modern pop sound that defies categorization. There's an undeniable Americana, deep love of the Blues, Country, and West-Coast Psychedelic Rock. Rippon attributes this to spending part of his childhood at an American school in the Middle East and his parents' love of Buffalo Springfield, The Band, and Don Williams. His lyrical work is kaleidoscopic and idiosyncratic - his subjects far outside the pop 'norm' - shaken baby syndrome, Jean Baudrillard, coal mines, suicide-bombers, Enrique Metinides, The Battle of The Wilderness, Chinese astronauts, boy soldiers of Sierra Leone, child-abusing Catholic priests and porn stars, to name but a few. Dylan characterizes himself as an outsider, "before I was 12 years old I had already attended more than 10 schools in different parts of the world - I never really knew where home was". For the time being home is Den Haag where he lives with his wife, two children, and dog, Shackleton.
