Exovex is the progressive rock creation of South Carolina singer, songwriter and musician, Dale Simmons. Featuring Gavin Harrison and Richard Barbieri (Porcupine Tree) as well as Josh Freese (NIN, A Perfect Circle, Devo, The Vandals) and Keith Carlock (Sting, John Meyer, Steely Dan) on drums, this project reflects progressive rock icons of the past while staying firmly rooted in the modern art rock genre. To date, two tracks have been released under the Exovex name: “Daylight” and “Seeker’s Prayer”. The tracks, part of a larger body of work called Radio Silence set for an early February 2015 release, are available for free download on this site. Visit www.exovex.com
About the Exovex sound, Simmons comments, “I have a broad range of influences with great appreciation for the work of artists like Steven Wilson, Peter Gabriel and David Gilmour. There are certainly degrees of influence by those artists in my music…some greater than others”. Simmons is particularly influenced by the progressive rock icon Pink Floyd and reverently reflects Gilmouresque melody and phrasing as a guitarist.
As singer, songwriter, guitarist and front man for several bands since the early nineties, Simmons covered a wide spectrum of musical genres ranging from progressive art rock to jazz and funk. The most notable was the South Carolina-based band, Furious Styles. Several songs from their 1997 self-titled debut went into rotation on East Coast commercial radio stations. Polygram Records (now merged with Universal Music Group) took notice, and was working on a recording deal until creative differences caused the band’s demise in 1998.
In 1999 Simmons moved to Europe and would spend the next seven years, refining his songwriting and music production skills. He built a modest studio in his apartment at Chateau d’Uriage (a 13th century castle in the Rhône-Alpes region of France) and began experimenting with sound design. Although only one CD release (No Real Direction) resulted from the expatriate effort, the experience would have a lasting impact on his songwriting and artistic vision. Simmons overdubbed all instruments for No Real Direction with the exception of drums, enlisting Chilean drummer Cristian Perez (Patti Labelle) as percussionist. Simmons and Perez co-produced and mixed the project in Perez’s Strasbourg, France studio.
After repatriating to the United States, Simmons built a new studio and began working on a new series of songs—some of which would eventually become Radio Silence. He recruited Porcupine Tree members Gavin Harrison and Richard Barbieri as well as world class drummers Josh Freese and Keith Carlock to play on the new project.
“I asked the guys to do whatever they thought would best serve the songs, I gave them complete creative control over their contributions to the recording” Simmons comments. “These guys are amazing artists, and I don’t think they would have delivered the great performances that they did had I tried to control the process more. That unknown creative variable was critical for me because it made the effort a true collaboration. Chance, chaos and the unknown can produce beautiful results if you can just let it happen. That’s more difficult than it sounds”.
This concept of an “unknown creative variable” led Simmons to conceive the name Exovex. A known function in mathematics can be written as f(x) (pronounced “F of X”). In the f(x) scenario, you know exactly what will happen to the resulting number because that function (f) is defined. On the other hand, if you have x(x) (pronounced “X of X” or “Exovex”) you are dealing with an unknown function (x) so you have no idea what the resulting output will be.
The Exovex debut album Radio Silence is scheduled for an early February 2015 release on iTunes and BitTorrent as a downloadable Bundle. A special limited CD edition (1000 signed copies) will be made available exclusively through www.exovex.com.
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