Published January 6, 2010
Sarasota float-around guitarist Dan Rixon unleashed a solo project in December with help from a number of other local hired guns. The album, fittingly called In My Head, is heavily Pink Floyd-inspired, especially Wall-ish, with random infant squeals, droning machines and thunderstorms filling the breaks between songs to add some natural rhythms to the tight instrumentation. Rixon admits that Floyd’s sound has always had an effect on him: “They’ve been my biggest influence since I discovered them in high school,†he says.
Rixon currently plays in a band called The Living Man with Matt Frost, who lends his keyboard and vocal talents throughout the project. Siesta Key staple Garrett Dawson takes up much of the drumming with fellow Key rat and Berklee College of Music student Steve Duerst filling in the bass and drums on other tracks. Rixon also attended Berklee in 2001 and his developed skills are apparent in the intricate reverb-laden guitar techniques he weaves together through alternate solo and riff. Layered vocal harmonies and Frost’s driving organ take you on a trip through drastic key and song structure changes. (more…)