Fyfe Dangerfield

Fyfe Dangerfield, who established and leads the Guillemots, is a British singer and songwriter whose first solo album, Fly Yellow Moon, appeared in 2010. He entered the world as Fyfe Antony Dangerfield Hutchins on July 7, 1980, and lived the initial eight years of his life in Birmingham, England, relocating in 1988 to the nearby community of Bromsgrove, whose population stands at 30,000. There he formed Senseless Prayer alongside fellow students Charles Hildebrandt and Alex Rajkowski; the group taped a Peel Session for BBC Radio 1 that was broadcast on May 2, 1999, and issued a pair of EPs during its run.

Dangerfield shifted to London in 2002 and assembled the Guillemots, an indie-rock outfit completed by Brazilian guitarist MC Lord Magrão, Canadian bassist Aristazabal Hawkes, and Scottish drummer Greig Stewart. After inking a deal with Fantastic Plastic Records, the band issued its first release for the label, the limited-edition four-track EP I Saw Such Things in My Sleep, in 2005, with the single “Trains to Brazil” arriving later the same year. Two additional EPs, Of the Night and From the Cliffs, the singles “We’re Here” and “Made-Up Lovesong #43,” and the full-length debut Through the Windowpane all surfaced in 2006. A Polydor release produced chiefly by Dangerfield himself, Through the Windowpane climbed into the Top 20 of the U.K. albums chart, buoyed by multiple hit singles and widespread critical praise; it also earned a nomination for the 2006 Mercury Music Prize, ultimately awarded to the Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.

The next album, Red, arrived in 2008 under the guidance of producer Adam Noble, reached the Top Ten, and yielded the Top 20 lead single “Get Over It.” Dangerfield then turned toward a solo path, again working with Noble and additional collaborators. His debut under his own name, Fly Yellow Moon, followed in 2010 after the release of its lead single “She Needs Me,” one of several tracks on the record mixed by Suede guitarist Bernard Butler.