Christopher Dedrick
| The Free Design | |
|---|---|
| Origin | Delevan, New York, United States |
| Genres | Sunshine pop |
| Years active | 1967–1972, 2000–2001 |
| Labels | Project 3, Ambrotype, Marina, Light in the Attic |
| Website | www.thefreedesign.com |
| Past members | Chris Dedrick (deceased) Sandy Dedrick Bruce Dedrick Ellen Dedrick Stefanie Dedrick (deceased) Rebecca Pellett |
The Free Design was a Delevan, New York-based sunshine pop band. Though they did not achieve much commercial recognition during their main recording career, their work later influenced bands including Stereolab, Cornelius, Pizzicato Five, Beck and The High Llamas.
The members were all members of the Dedrick family: Chris Dedrick (12 September 1947–6 August 2010), sister Sandy and brother Bruce were the original lineup. Chris Dedrick wrote most of the songs. Younger sister Ellen joined the group later, and youngest sister Stefanie (1952–1999) joined near the end of their initial career. Their dad, Arthur, was a trombonist and music arranger. Their uncle Rusty Dedrick was a jazz trumpeter with Claude Thornhill and Red Norvo. They formed the band while living in New York City. Chris has said the group was influenced by vocal groups like The Hi-Los (who performed in Greenwich Village frequently at the time) along with Peter, Paul and Mary and the counterpoint experiments of Benjamin Britten. Their trademark sound involved complex harmonies, jazz-like chord progressions, and off-beat time signatures, all products of Chris's classical training.
The band released seven albums from 1967 to 1972, the first six on Enoch Light's Project 3 label and the last one, There is a Song, on the Ambrotype label. For the most part, they were accompanied on the albums by studio musicians.
After the band's breakup in 1972, Chris Dedrick recorded a solo album, Be Free, which went unreleased until 2000. He moved to Toronto, Canada, where he became a music producer, arranger, and a classical and soundtrack composer. He worked with directors Guy Maddin and Don McKellar, winning a Genie Award for Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World, and he made music for the Ray Bradbury Theater TV-series. In 1997 Dedrick won a Gemini Award for his work on the television series Road to Avonlea. Chris was nominated a total of 16 times for Gemini awards, winning a total of four, the others for Million Dollar Babies, Shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast and The Great Canadian Polar Bear Adventure. He won a SOCAN award for Tripping the Wire and a Hot Docs award, also for Shipwreck on the Skeleton Coast.
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