Simon Dawes

Simon Dawes emerged as a clean-cut alternative rock outfit rooted in Malibu, the affluent coastal enclave outside Los Angeles. Their sound merged the Shins’ eccentric, 1960s-flavored songcraft with the polished, airwave-friendly gloss associated with the Killers and Maroon 5. High-school classmates Taylor Goldsmith and Blake Mills anchored the group, with Goldsmith handling lead vocals and Mills on guitar; Wylie Slam played bass while session drummer Stuart Johnson, whose credits include Matthew Sweet and John Doe, completed the rhythm section. A June 2006 profile in a Malibu lifestyle magazine asserted that the band’s name derived from the middle names of Goldsmith and Mills and added that Goldsmith was the son of R&B veteran Lenny Goldsmith, whose résumé features a 1970s tenure with Tower of Power. Producer and A&R executive Tony Berg, known for work with Michael Penn and X, brought the quartet to The Record Collection, the Warner Brothers–backed imprint operating under an independent facade; the group signed in 2005 and issued its debut EP, What No One Hears, that October. The full-length Carnivore arrived in September 2006, accompanied by a slate of North American dates alongside Band of Horses.