One Hundred years after the 1910 Mexican Revolution and two hundred since the nation’s Independence, Wigan-born David Rybka releases his debut record.

Best known as the leader of The Victorian Dad Band (currently recording an album for Elbow and I Am Kloot’s label Skinny Dog), David Rybka has spent the majority of 2010 touring Mexico, exploring new creative terrain and writing a special collection of songs for release on Debt Records.

The record - entitled “Out Here” - won’t be available until November but the recently repatriated composer felt compelled to draw attention towards the country that inspired the songs, with a free download on what is arguably the most important day in the nation’s calendar: Independence Day.

“The country gave me so much - I was playing with amazing local musicians, performing in all kinds of places (even a maximum security prison) - I didn’t want to just release a record, I wanted to express what the country meant to me, almost as a Thank You rather than just a series of songs. 16th September is Mexican Independence Day and that’s when we’re giving away the single “Mexico”. No cost, no mailing list to sign, no catch - it’s not much but it’s my small homage to a place that altered the way I look at music.”

Rybka’s Mexico booking agent and creative consultant Jon Bonfiglio - who has previously organized tours there for Nancy Elizabeth, John Smith and Louis Barabbas - notes the importance of the record both in its honesty and tragic incongruity:

“A century after the revolution and one of the measures of progress here is 30,000 drug killings in the last four years… the Mexico in Dave’s music is a very different Mexico; it’s the Mexico of the glancing blow, of personal release by difference. I think in time (if not already) Dave will regard it as something of a dream, one in which he was briefly, humanly happy.”

Mexico has a history of attracting British creatives, inspiring the likes of D. H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley and Graeme Greene. David Rybka is the latest in this prestigious line and we look forward to showing the world what he made of his experiences there.

The single “Mexico” will be available for free download exclusively from the Debt Records shop from Thursday 16th September 2010. The full EP is on general release on 8th November 2010.

Leave a comment