About Sympathy7

Sympathy7 was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1975. Under the watchful wing of his mother he took up guitar lessons at the age of 7 but after only one lesson he decided that playing guitar was not for him...

Some years later he was inspired by a friend, Dylan Mitchell, to re investigate playing music and was quickly absorbed into the beautiful world of music composition and performance.

One year later, with an electric guitar, no amplifier and armed with a collection of AC/DC and Metallica songs, he was approached by Dylan to join LYD. LYD were quickly signed to Human Condition Records, an independent record company in Edinburgh, where they release a number of records.

After many pleasurable and interesting years of touring, writing and performing with LYD, Sympathy7 felt the need to set himself free, dust his wings and fly off in a new direction. He wasted very little time in setting up a small home studio. Completed in 1991, he named it the womb and began to compose a selection of songs, one of which, entitled Sympathy7, he took as his pseudonym which he still uses to this day.

Sympathy7 was signed to Nude Records, home of The London Suede (Sony/BMG) in 1998 which allowed him to expand the womb into a semi professional recording studio. By 2001 when Nude Records closed it's doors for the last time, Sympathy7 was released from his contractual obligations and free to pursue independent releases once again.

Since then Sympathy7 has moved to Melbourne, Australia, has been writing music for Film, Television and Theatre, as well as writing solo albums and producing music for other artists. He is also a member of The Forgotten Ghosts and The Convenience of Modern Culture.

News!

Sympathy7 is currently in the studio recording a new album, with the working title "autophobia - a fear of loneliness" it is being co-produced by Sympathy7 and Peter Camilleri. If we do say so, it's sounding Great so far. We think it's his best work to date.

Listen!

You can listen to Sympathy7 releases on the Itunes Store (coming soon) on the sympathy7 myspace page or by buying the albums (our preferred option ;-))

Discography


IF	Words and Music	un automne 98	Sympathy7

Reviews

The Times (London) ***** 5 Stars

The Edinburgh singer songwriter Gavin Henderson has made one hell of a debut album, full of fantastic orchestral arrangements and achingly edgy songs. He played and wrote all ten tracks in his home studio and if he is given a bigger budget next time there is no telling what he is capable of. Hypocrite begins with a yearning falsetto and ends like an out-take from Massive Attack 's Mezzanine, while Amethyst is the kind of beautiful instrumental that Brian Wilson used to knock out in his sleep. The rest is sheer urban poetry. I can 't wait for the next one.

The Scotsman **** 4 Stars

Behinds the prosaic title lies an intriguing solo debut from Gavin Henderson, an Edinburgh singer /songwriter who embraces serene melancholia in a variety of ways -in the mix of alternative country and plangent post rock that is the smog like Rush, in the folky Amethyst and with the occasional diversion into loops and samples. With its plaintive vocal, broody atmosphere and electronica embellishment, Hypocrite could be an out-take from the last two Radiohead albums, while closing track Scratch has some of the haunted weariness of Dead Can Dance 's Brendan Perry. Maybe next time he'll really get under the skin.

The Big Issue – UK -*** 3 Stars

It opens with down beat folk - electronica and sci-fi samples, by Hypocrite and Amethyst it 's become mid period Radiohead complete with languid falsetto vocals. By Rene and the album 's closing tracks, Henderson is David Gray writing songs for Eddie Vedder. Very accomplished.

Vic Galoway – BBC Radio1 Evening Session

Acoustic guitar and beats -driven, melancholic haven for deep, dark and often disturbing emotions. The beats are in the tradition of Massive Attack, Tricky etc, but the songs have a more Radiohead slant with some classic ‘60 's structures and sweet, melodic and often falsetto vocals. The titles generally seem to be one word exclamations -‘Hypocrite ', ‘Scratch ', ‘Fire ' etc that leave the listener in an ambiguous mindset as the lush and orchestral layers pull you in deeper.

Uncut ****4 Stars

Lazily deceptive and sweetly melancholic, the album's mood slaloms between Beck-like acoustica (“Rush”), Radiohead spook-ballads (“Hypocrite ”) and creamy gently-spining Beta Band odysseys. Like the latter 's Steve Mason moonlighting between Blind-era Sundays and early Cure, with dizzying strings courtesy of Talk Talk.
One to watch.

IF Music Video / Film Clip

Sympathy7 IF Music Video/Film Clip - Directed by Muz Boz