Musician Dave Baxter's solo adventure as Avalanche City

The first time I saw a photo of Dave Baxter, I couldn't help but wonder about his beard. It made him look a bit like a bear, but his eyes were kind of sad. So if he were a bear, he would probably be the kind of bear that might hide quietly behind a tree, not the kind that might rip your heart out. Similarly, his music isn't the kind that grabs you by the throat, but that doesn't mean they aren't memorable. His songs are easy to listen to, with pleasant melodies that sometimes sound like lullabies. The music is comforting, and the kind you wouldn't mind playing over and over.

Avalanche City, aka musician, singer and songwriter Dave Baxter, says that his album Our New Life Above The Ground is "just completely me." Photo from Karpos Multimedia

"It's the kind of album I'll take with me on a long road trip. Some songs make me think of leaving at sunrise. Some in mid-afternoon, your legs propped up on the dashboard, car windows open," my friend Katrina told me while listening to "Our New Life Above The Ground," Baxter's debut album as Avalanche City. Baxter, a multi-instrumentalist from New Zealand, wrote, produced, and recorded the album as well as played every instrument on it. According to his official website, his exposure to music began when he was a young boy. Perhaps his beard is a souvenir from the days he spent recording — including a week holed up in Kourawhero Hall with only cows for company. Apart from this one week spent north of Auckland, the rest of the recording was done without any help, which Baxter said could get quite difficult. "It's quite difficult to feel as motivated when it's just you by yourself. That's probably one of the big drawbacks, because when you're working with a bunch of people, you kind of, each encourage each other," Baxter told GMA News Online in a telephone interview organized by Karpos Multimedia Inc. on May 1. His decision to get away was to have a "bit more of an adventure." "At the time, I was working a lot from home and I wanted to sort of get out and not feel like the album was work. For me it was deciding to have a bit of adventure and to find a cool recording space," said Baxter, whose previous work included writing music for TV documentaries, short films, and advertisements. Recording an album by himself was something he had wanted to do, inspired by The Rocket Summer's guerilla DIY approach. The whole process of recording "Our New Life Above The Ground" took Baxter around six months. "It took me a long time doing the album by myself. It took me a week just to do the instruments, but everything else like the singing and vocals... I'd get bored with it and sort of not work on it for a while, and start again," he said. Despite the heavier workload, Baxter said the advantage of not having anyone to help out is that it's completely his own. "So what people hear, it's completely me. It's not like a bunch of people, and it's not like a producer who's telling me what to do, it's just completely me," he said.

Avalanche City is one of the headliners at this year's Wanderland.

Prior to Avalanche City, Baxter was part of hardcore band One Must Fall. Deciding to create an album all on his own meant having to learn how to sing. Baxter took on the challenge by singing every day for about a couple of hours for about six months, before he was comfortable singing live. "It was difficult and also terrifying as well. Your voice is basically a muscle so you can train it up and keep it stronger. I'm not a natural singer, but I have the advantage of being a musician for most of my life, so I've got quite a good ear when it comes to pitch," he said. When the album was finished, Baxter decided to put it up online for free. "I thought I'd release it and see how it ended up," Baxter said. The album's success was overwhelming, with over 10,000 downloads. "I think there was 15,000 that downloaded it, that's quite a lot in NZ. NZs quite a small country so that's quite a huge amount of downloads for a little country. So I thought I'd just take it down and start selling it," said Baxter, who is currently working on his next album, to be released later this year. According to Baxter, "Our New Life Above The Ground" is about hope, adventure, and freedom. "It was something that I'd been thinking about a lot, that life is sort of made to have fun and have adventure... I think that's pretty much the common theme in that album and also this next album that I'm doing as well," said Baxter, who will be performing on May 18 at Wanderland, an outdoor music and arts festival organized by Karpos. When performing live, Avalanche City features various musicians and instruments, such as the mandolin, ukulele, and glockenspiel. "I'm really excited about that. I love experiencing new cultures and having new experiences. If I'm wandering around Wanderland and people see me, they can just come and say Hi. It would be quite nice to meet some Filipinos," Baxter said. — BM, GMA News Dave Baxter will be performing at Wanderland on May 18 at the new Globe Circuit Events Ground in Makati City. Headlined by Australian quintet The Temper Trap, the music festival also features performances by Neon Trees, Nada Surf, Colour Coding, Tully on Tully, Up Dharma Down, Yolanda Moon, Pulso, Taken by Cars and She's Only Sixteen. For more information, visit www.wanderland.ph.