Milkteeth Douglas Dare

• 1 I Am Free 05:42
• 2 Red Arrows 03:19
• 3 Heavenly Bodies 03:16
• 4 The Piano Room 01:09
• 5 Silly Games 04:40
• 6 The Joy in Sarah's Eyes 03:29
• 7 The Stairwell 01:53
• 8 Wherever You Are 03:54
• 9 The Window 01:17
• 10 The Playground 05:11
• 11 Run 03:51
• Total Runtime 37:41

Info for Milkteeth

English songsmith Douglas Dare returns with his third and most stripped back studio album to date, Milkteeth, released on 21st February 2020 with Erased Tapes. Produced by Mike Lindsay — founding member of Tunng and one half of LUMP with Laura Marling — in his studio in Margate in just twelve days, Milkteeth sees Douglas become confident and comfortable enough with his own identity to reflect on both the joys and pains of youth. In doing so, he has established himself as a serious 21st century singer-songwriter with an enduring lyrical poise and elegant minimalist sound.

Douglas Dare grew up on a farm as the youngest member of a large extended family, where he was often found in his own private world, dancing in his mother’s pink ballet dress. “Only now do I feel free to express my inner child again, and am giving myself permission to play dress up,” says Dare of Milkteeth’s cover shot, in which he wears soft makeup and is draped with layers of white linen, acting the part of a Greek muse. “I never felt like I fit in. I was different, odd. I wanted to dance and sing and dress up and on a small farm in rural Dorset that really stuck out.”

Where previously he has been known as a piano player, for Milkteeth Dare picked up a new instrument, the autoharp, and as soon as he sat down with it, songs poured out – he wrote the album’s first single Silly Games, in under an hour.

Milkteeth opens with I Am Free, which loops piano and lyrics in an intimate dance, comparing the seemingly inexorable freedom of childhood to flying. The Playground is a song Dare says he’s wanted to write for years, about a yearning for childhood innocence and simplicity. While Red Arrows tells a story of vulnerability, of craving parental comfort, The Joy In Sarah’s Eyes is a Jeff Buckley-esque ballad for a new generation. In Heavenly Bodies there is an unhurried darkness that nods to Leonard Cohen’s songwriting, and is also the first time Dare has played the guitar on record. The melodies on Milkteeth are deliberately simple; Dare wanted it to feel familiar right from the first listen. In between these songs sit instrumental pieces — The Piano Room, The Stairwell, The Window – named for the spots they were recorded in, moments for stillness and reflection.

Douglas Dare

Douglas Dare
London-based singer-songwriter and pianist Douglas Dare grew up in the small coastal town of Bridport in South West England.

Encouraged by his mother, a piano teacher, he began composing instrumental music at a young age but didn’t take up songwriting until 2008 while studying music at University in Liverpool. His elegantly moody, piano-based songs and haunting voice drew comparisons to artists such as Thom Yorke and James Blake, and in 2013 attracted the attention of London independent label Erased Tapes, who specialise in avant-garde music.

Following the release of his acclaimed debut album Whelm in 2014, Douglas toured the world, first supporting the likes of Ólafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm and Fink, and then headlining tours across Europe.

His second album Aforger, set for release on October 14th, was mixed at the iconic Abbey Road Studios and produced by long-time collaborator and Dare’s live drummer, Fabian Prynn. The album, which sets music to Dare’s original poems, is a marked evolution from his debut; not only sonically, with both a brass ensemble and choir featured in a number of songs, but also lyrically he’s head in a more candid and vulnerable direction.

Inspired by recent events and revelations encountered in his life, Aforger questions the boundaries between reality and fiction and Douglas looks forward to integrating these ideas into his visuals and live performance.

Booklet for Milkteeth