Sidetrack Walker

Sidetrack Walker delivers hauntingly human gut punches. A focal point for my diverse influences, my music aims to confront dark themes head-on, providing a therapeutic sense of catharsis. In the words of Tom Slater (Withered Hands Podcast): “You don’t see it coming.”

From Sidetrack Walker’s inception in 2015, change has been a constant throughout my discography. But my albums are all tied together by a deep-felt sense of melancholy and authenticity. Some of my work has strong leanings towards Darkwave and the darker side of neoclassical music, whereas Come What May (2019) showed more of a folky Art Rock direction with full-fledged band arrangements.

The fifth studio album, The Sickness (2022), had a much stronger focus on sampling and electronics. Its sound is much warmer, almost ‘retro’ (...) Mehr anzeigen, drawing heavily on musical influences from the 70s and 90s alike.

In the wake of my growing love for synthesizers, it seems only fitting that my attention has since shifted towards the 80s, the decade in which dark styles of music really came into their own. Extinction Events, Sidetrack Walker’s upcoming new exploration of the human condition, is a marriage between classic 80s synth aesthetics and my trademark emotional songwriting. I’d like to think that the album evokes a timeless sense of dystopia suitable to the present and the 80s alike.

On my sixth full-length album, I question the role of art in this dystopia: is artistic integrity even possible when culture is measured by its profitability or twisted to fit corporate identities? Worse still, is art merely a lame excuse for those too afraid to actually stand up for their beliefs (myself included)? And what of our individual lives: can we still find some measure of peace and prosperity in all this madness? In its ambiguity, the album also explores the potential that might arise from tragedy. After all, if it hadn’t been for mass extinction events, mankind might never have existed.

(Photo: Michael Ernst) Weniger anzeigen