Biography
Originating in South London’s Tooting district, Dignan Porch started out as Joe Walsh’s solitary bedroom experiments in lo-fi psych pop, unrelated to the well-known guitarist of identical name. The venture soon expanded into a complete group that included Walsh’s brother Sam on guitar, Ben Goodwin on bass, and Philippa Bloomfield on drums. Walsh had planned to name the project simply Porch until he appended Dignan in honor of a friend’s dog. The group’s debut single, the ninety-second “On a Ride,” appeared in 2009 and drew the interest of Captured Tracks after the label encountered the band on MySpace; the imprint promptly signed them and issued their first album, Tendrils, in early 2010, an effort drawn chiefly from Walsh’s eight-track home recordings. On the 2011 Deluded EP, Dignan Porch worked with Henry Withers and brought in keyboardist-vocalist-visual artist Hayley Akins along with drummer Stephen Keane, both of whom helped shape the release’s smoother and more fully realized textures. The band’s next long-player, Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen, arrived in August 2012 after being captured live with only light overdubs. For their comparatively lean third album, Observatory, Dignan Porch switched to the London label Faux Discx while tracking the record inside Walsh’s flat above a used carpet shop.
Albums
