OFFICER

 Artwork by @mystupidsketchbook

WHO is he?
“My name is David Logan; I get called Dc by most of my friends. I was born in Scotland in the 80’s, where my mother grew up and moved as a five-year-old to Northern Ireland where my father grew up. There’s such a rich musical culture and heritage in both places.

I’ve always had melodies and rhythms running around my head and as a young kid growing up was always banging on furniture, messing around on various instruments belonging to my Dad, aunts, and uncles. I grew up with a strong mix of Celtic Folk, British Pop and American Blues and Rock always blaring somewhere, as well as having a lot of exposure to spiritually focused music as I spent a lot of time knocking around the local estates, pubs and in various little faith communities.

I really got captivated by music in a more focused and obsessive way quite late on actually, when I was about 18 and started to play guitar and write songs at that stage. The first thing I did was write a song before ever learning to play songs by other people. It was a song about my parent’s tempestuous marriage and eventual divorce. I then started to learn covers and play in local pubs at open mics.

I moved to London after finishing school, got a job and started a band and then with many twists and turns ended up kicking off this solo project OFFICER a couple of years ago. On my upcoming debut album Myriads I played guitar, synth, and piano and sang, writing all of the songs and lyrics and co-producing the album.”

WHAT is he singing about?
“I write about a lot of different things that life has or is taking me through. I guess it’s all about relationship really… My relationships with others, my relationship with the idea of home, the city, the world, my relationship with my own self, my relationship with what we are taught in our culture, my relationship with great books and pieces of art, my relationship with the figure of God, my relationship with my family and friends. I have been working with homeless and vulnerable people in London for the last decade and some songs are about my experiences in that very challenging world and the need and hurt and hope I see every single day.”

  WHERE is he from?
“I grew up in both Scotland and Ireland. They both have music running through the rivers, rushing through the forests, washing up on the seashore, gliding through the hills, clanging out of the taverns and homes. It’s really incredible and has left a permanent indelible mark on my soul and my music. Those landscapes will forever be a part of whatever it is that drives my music in its first moments of creation.

Along with that I spent my first few years in the city and then have now been in London a long time and spent most of my recent life in various cities and so I have been hugely enriched in terms of my music, ideas, experiences and mind set by other cultures and the mad constant clashes of the engines of the creative urban environment and its amazing people. I think if you put those two environments together you end up with a pretty accurate representative or metaphoric landscape for my music.

Often as I physically walk through the cities I am spiritually or mentally walking through somewhere like Donegal or the highlands of Scotland and playing and listening to music helps me to marry the two very contrasting and separate homelands together and so I think I get much more out of life wherever I am.”

WHY ‘OFFICER’?
“OFFICER works on different levels and so never feels boring to me. Firstly, it’s as simple as I just like it…I personally think it’s a beautiful word to hear, speak and look at, and yet it has a cantankerous complexity and darkness to it in some of its connotations.

I think that growing up in Northern Ireland through the tail end of the troubles has definitely, to some subconscious degree shaped my choosing or more acceptance of that moniker. There were ‘officers’ everywhere… of the paramilitaries, police, religious groups, army and all the rest. I guess I like the idea of the word being used for something a little more positive and redemptive – something that brings people together rather than causes division, as music so often powerfully does. Although, I’ve got to say I don’t really think of it on that level at all from day to day – only when people ask me!

Originally it was suggested to me by my friend who thought it would really suit what I was doing with my music and it just stuck with me and kept trumping its rival ideas for aliases, so I took it on.”

WHEN can I see him live?
OFFICER is currently piecing together his band from the musicians who helped him record his upcoming debut album Myriads to tour the UK, Ireland & Germany in autumn 2015. In the meantime you can catch him June 11 at Citadel, St Helens (UK) for a live acoustic show.

HOW can I get to know him better?
Listen & Watch: Website // Soundcloud // Youtube // Bandcamp
Like & Follow: Facebook // Twitter

Watch the video for Glass Ceiling from upcoming album Myriads