Grandpa Was A Lion
Dancer
unsigned / GWAL

Grandpa Was A Lion somehow makes me think of Where the Wild Things Are. I don't know why, maybe it's just the mood of the songs. Making me recall and think of the main character, Max. Maybe it's a sense of hearing music expressing loneliness, escape, fantasy world, portraying a loner. Somehow. Maybe.

Grandpa Was A Lion is one man; Justin D'Onofrio. Earlier this summer I received an e-mail with one of his songs, which I liked and responded to. Then I got 6 more songs, and I suppose (I'm not sure) this being a debut mini album. D'Onofrio is a musician from Connecticut (born on a farm in New England), now residing (as many a creative mind) in Brooklyn. On his myspace-site he puts influences to be: J.D. Salinger, The Beatles, Grizzly Bear, Elliott Smith. Musically GWAL is closest to Grizzly Bear, but maybe closer to acts like, say, Bon Iver. Or Andrew Bird's shy little brother. This is really, really fragile, low-toned music. Whispering, gentle, quiet. Labelled 'chillwave', or 'glo-fi'.

D'Onofrio's songs is like a cup of tea on a cold, dark night when summer's gone and winter's ready to creep upon you. My favourites are: "Mississippi Dreams", "Flying Birds", and "Hello from the farm". Like he writes on his myspace-site: 'Played some music and wrote some words down and thought, "well, thats alright" . So then I kept doing that'. Well, Justin, keep on doing that.

Copyright © 2010 Håvard Oppøyen