Biography
Undoubtedly among the era’s most colorful frontmen, David McAlmont also earned acclaim as one of Britain’s most overlooked singers, first attracting widespread notice as half of the duo McAlmont & Butler alongside Suede guitarist Bernard Butler. After spending the 1990s and 2000s building a catalog of solo and joint releases, he turned toward emotionally charged performance pieces and scholarly work throughout the following decade, then formed a close creative alliance with producer Hifi Sean at the start of the 2020s.
McAlmont entered the world in Croydon in 1967; three years later his mother and sister took him to Guyana, where, after a born-again conversion, he began performing in a Pentecostal congregation. Having finished A-levels in history and literature, he came back to Croydon in 1987 and answered a Melody Maker notice placed by Saul Freeman. The two launched Thieves, yet the group disbanded before issuing its first album; after touring in support of Morrissey, McAlmont issued that same album under his own name. In 1994 he joined forces with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to create McAlmont & Butler. Although their debut, The Sound of McAlmont & Butler, drew strong reviews and yielded the Top Ten U.K. single “Yes,” the partnership proved brief. The pair appeared live only twice, and by the release of their follow-up single “You Do” they were already locked in a bitter breakup.
During 1997 McAlmont lent his voice to David Arnold’s Shaken & Stirred, an album of reimagined James Bond themes. Their version of Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds Are Forever” reached the Top 40, yet the video drew greater notice for McAlmont’s dramatic white catsuit and diamond earrings. The same team later wrote “Surrender,” a song k.d. lang considered for the Tomorrow Never Dies title track before Sheryl Crow’s composition was chosen instead. A year afterward McAlmont delivered his second solo album, A Little Communication, featuring contributions from Jeff Goldblum, Max Beesley, and Craig Armstrong. Armstrong returned the favor in 2002 by inviting McAlmont to sing on “Snow,” a track from his album As If to Nothing.
That same year McAlmont & Butler unexpectedly reunited to record Bring It Back. This time the pair actively promoted the project through joint interviews and live dates, resulting in a Top 20 chart placing and the hit single “Falling.” In 2003 McAlmont developed a passion for jazz, appearing at a John Coltrane tribute concert at the Barbican, DJing at the London Jazz Festival, and contributing to Courtney Pine’s Devotion. Hut Records postponed the release of his third solo album, Be, yet in 2004 he issued Set One: You Go to My Head, a set of standards in the spirit of Cassandra Wilson and Betty Carter. By 2006 he had taken his first academic post, teaching at the Architectural Association Interprofessional Studio (AAIS) in London.
After supplying backing vocals for several Butler-related projects, including sessions for Duffy and Sharleen Spiteri, McAlmont completed the 2009 album The Glare, a collaboration with composer Michael Nyman. Another joint effort followed with the 2011 Smokehouse EP, recorded with longtime associate Guy Davies under the name Fingersnap. While continuing to teach at the AAIS, he enrolled at the University of London in 2012 to study the History of Western Art & Architecture.
Throughout the mid-2010s McAlmont maintained a busy stage schedule: after a short 2011 tour with Fingersnap, he joined the 2013 production Wall to Wall: Bowie, reworking David Bowie songs under musical director Janette Mason. Further joint performances with Butler took place in 2014 and 2015. An interest in queer storytelling led him into performance art, including the 2017 piece girl.boy.child for the National Trust’s Prejudice & Pride project, the 2018 presentation Portrait of a Black Queer Briton at the National Portrait Gallery, and the short film Permissible Beauty created with photographer Robert Taylor and filmmaker Mark Thomas. He returned to recording with the 2019 Alex Webb collaboration The Last Bohemians (credited as McAlmont & Webb) and, in 2020, began working with producer Hifi Sean on the single “Bunker to Bunker.” The partnership quickly flourished, yielding the EP Beautiful in 2023 and the albums Happy Ending (2023) and Daylight (2024), the first of which reached number eight on the U.K. chart.
McAlmont entered the world in Croydon in 1967; three years later his mother and sister took him to Guyana, where, after a born-again conversion, he began performing in a Pentecostal congregation. Having finished A-levels in history and literature, he came back to Croydon in 1987 and answered a Melody Maker notice placed by Saul Freeman. The two launched Thieves, yet the group disbanded before issuing its first album; after touring in support of Morrissey, McAlmont issued that same album under his own name. In 1994 he joined forces with former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler to create McAlmont & Butler. Although their debut, The Sound of McAlmont & Butler, drew strong reviews and yielded the Top Ten U.K. single “Yes,” the partnership proved brief. The pair appeared live only twice, and by the release of their follow-up single “You Do” they were already locked in a bitter breakup.
During 1997 McAlmont lent his voice to David Arnold’s Shaken & Stirred, an album of reimagined James Bond themes. Their version of Shirley Bassey’s “Diamonds Are Forever” reached the Top 40, yet the video drew greater notice for McAlmont’s dramatic white catsuit and diamond earrings. The same team later wrote “Surrender,” a song k.d. lang considered for the Tomorrow Never Dies title track before Sheryl Crow’s composition was chosen instead. A year afterward McAlmont delivered his second solo album, A Little Communication, featuring contributions from Jeff Goldblum, Max Beesley, and Craig Armstrong. Armstrong returned the favor in 2002 by inviting McAlmont to sing on “Snow,” a track from his album As If to Nothing.
That same year McAlmont & Butler unexpectedly reunited to record Bring It Back. This time the pair actively promoted the project through joint interviews and live dates, resulting in a Top 20 chart placing and the hit single “Falling.” In 2003 McAlmont developed a passion for jazz, appearing at a John Coltrane tribute concert at the Barbican, DJing at the London Jazz Festival, and contributing to Courtney Pine’s Devotion. Hut Records postponed the release of his third solo album, Be, yet in 2004 he issued Set One: You Go to My Head, a set of standards in the spirit of Cassandra Wilson and Betty Carter. By 2006 he had taken his first academic post, teaching at the Architectural Association Interprofessional Studio (AAIS) in London.
After supplying backing vocals for several Butler-related projects, including sessions for Duffy and Sharleen Spiteri, McAlmont completed the 2009 album The Glare, a collaboration with composer Michael Nyman. Another joint effort followed with the 2011 Smokehouse EP, recorded with longtime associate Guy Davies under the name Fingersnap. While continuing to teach at the AAIS, he enrolled at the University of London in 2012 to study the History of Western Art & Architecture.
Throughout the mid-2010s McAlmont maintained a busy stage schedule: after a short 2011 tour with Fingersnap, he joined the 2013 production Wall to Wall: Bowie, reworking David Bowie songs under musical director Janette Mason. Further joint performances with Butler took place in 2014 and 2015. An interest in queer storytelling led him into performance art, including the 2017 piece girl.boy.child for the National Trust’s Prejudice & Pride project, the 2018 presentation Portrait of a Black Queer Briton at the National Portrait Gallery, and the short film Permissible Beauty created with photographer Robert Taylor and filmmaker Mark Thomas. He returned to recording with the 2019 Alex Webb collaboration The Last Bohemians (credited as McAlmont & Webb) and, in 2020, began working with producer Hifi Sean on the single “Bunker to Bunker.” The partnership quickly flourished, yielding the EP Beautiful in 2023 and the albums Happy Ending (2023) and Daylight (2024), the first of which reached number eight on the U.K. chart.
Albums
