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I have been a musician since the 1970s, and a music journalist since the 1980s when I started writing for The Times of London, Q and Rolling Stone magazines. I started leading my own band as a singer and guitarist in 2005, which eventually morphed into the David Sinclair Four (DS4) with the arrival of guitarist Geoff Peel and bass player Jos “Wolfman” Mendoza in 2013. My son Jack Sinclair was the DS4’s first drummer and is now the band’s producer, having worked at Trevor Horn’s Sarm Studios and become a World Series of Poker champion in the intervening years. That’s another good story.

The new DS4 album Apropos Blues – our third – will be released through Proper distribution in September 2022. It marks a big leap forward. Joined by harmonica genius Laurie Garman along with Rory Mendoza on drums, Geoff and I have fashioned, honed and poured our souls into a collection of songs which combine a vintage sense of blues, rock and R&B filtered through a modern, London singer-songwriter lens. Apropos indeed!

I have interviewed and reviewed stars from Mick Jagger and Billy Gibbons to Celine Dion and the Spice Girls. And I have written band biographies like this for a living. None of which makes it any easier for me to tell you just how much my band and our new album means to me. It’s a personal thing, of course. But a professional challenge also. To compose words and music that reach and engage the emotions of an audience is surely one of the hardest and most rewarding communication skills in the world. It takes all the passion and patience at your disposal - and then squeezes a bit more out of you after that.

Since I started my band, we have played every venue and festival in and around London that would have us: the 100 Club, the Borderline, Half Moon Putney, the Crawdaddy, the Social, the Dublin Castle, the Fiddler, St. Harmonica’s, Dusty’s Blues Bar, the Boom Boom Club, Cornbury, Latitude, and further afield at the North Wales Blues & Soul Festival, the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh, the Clutha Bar in Glasgow and many more.

We have done radio sessions with Kid Jensen, Janice Long, Sunny and Shay, Richard and Judy, and persuaded Paul Jones to play harmonica on two of our albums. Our biggest streaming track on Spotify, Living Like a Yo-Yo, was produced by guitar legend Robin Trower and the album it came from, Take me There, was produced by Jordan Fish of nu-metal Brit nominees Bring Me The Horizon.

Apropos Blues was written and recorded during the period of Lockdown and subsequent restrictions. There’s a lot of songs about escaping. “Take me somewhere that’s not here…” is a line I enjoy singing from the bullish, americana-tinged The Bands of London. Another theme is the importance of anchoring your life in the present. “While you’re dreaming of tomorrow/Today will disappear” is the takeaway from Years are Gone, a slow, sepia-tinted blues in the counter-intuitive key of Abm.

I love connecting with an audience and we’ve had some emotional encounters with our most devoted followers since the Covid arrived. When we play the title track of the album, I explain that “Apropos” is not merely referring to “that which is pertinent or to the point”. To the DS4, “Apropos” is a state of mind. Come and join us on a journey to the heart of the Apropos Blues. “Fast and slow/ High and low/Apropos!”

London, February 2022

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Hip Hopping Audio / Hip Hopping Lyrics / Let It Rock Audio / Let It Rock Lyrics / Hip Hopping Preview / Watch Apropos Blues on YouTube / Watch Let It Rock on YouTube. / Download Biog and Socials as PDF / Download Hi Res Photo / Download Photo with Logo