Tristram Burden is a contender for Dos Equis’ “Most Interesting Man In The World.”
Background
DogStar Tantra is a return to Tristram’s solo roots.
Spending his teenage years in punk and indie bands across Northern Ireland, Burden poured all of his energy into writing after a move back to England. His stage name, DogStar Tantra, is derived from two ideas: 1.) ‘DogStar’ is rumored to be the third eye of the univerise; 2.) ‘Tantra’ because amongst its many possible derivations and definitions, is the central idea of transmission.
Tristram’s focus on writing wasn’t all on songwriting — in fact, he wrote 2 (and a half) novels along the way. As the story goes, in the words of Burden himself…
“I was propelled to Peru, where my guitar had been broken in transit, but fixed in Lima — after which it sounded better than ever before. Spending a few weeks in Bolivia unsuccessfully hunting for UFOs brought me to South Korea. And after six years playing a mandolin while fronting psychedelic folk-rock band Language of Shapes, I returned to my roots as DogStar Tantra.”
“Soul Strokes” was filmed on a cold, deserted Korean beach (still don’t get when & why he ended up in South Korea…) in two, continuous takes: one with the music at double speed, and the outer frames (left and right) with the music half speed, and played in reverse. As Tristram puts it, “Learning how to sing your own song backwards definitely does good things to the mind.”
Verdict
“Soul Strokes” immediately develops into a storytelling classic. With the context of the songwriting journey of DogStar Tantra, this should not be a surprise — yet, the wholesome, acoustic folk, psychedelic-rock symphony that unfolds belongs in conversation with the likes of Eddie Vedder and Tom Waits. While “Soul Strokes” and DogStar Tantra still has the massive legacy to build to reach the accolades of the aforementioned storytellers, on an objective basis, it is a solid, reputable track that evidences a mountain of experience, grit, and inspiration. Easily, a 4.5/5.
Support
All Alone In This Together 1 is the first of three EP releases over the course of 2017, with everything played and recorded at home, except for drums. J.E. Seuk lent her flute to “Soul Strokes” as well.
You can keep up with, and help Tristram, aka DogStar Tantra, in a variety of ways:
- Supporting him through Bandcamp
- Looking at his collection on iTunes
- Following him on Spotify
- Following him on Soundcloud
- Liking him on Facebook
- Following him on Twitter
- Or subscribing to his YouTube channel
