Dan Haigh | |
---|---|
Born |
Grimsby, England |
5 December 1982
Genres | |
Instruments | Bass guitar |
Years active | 2003–present |
Associated acts |
Dan Haigh (born 5 December 1982) is an English musician, film director, video game designer, writer and visual effects artist. He is best known as co-founder of synthwave band Gunship and as the bass player in the English rock band Fightstar.
Dan Haigh was born in Grimsby and later attended Rugby School.
Haigh co-founded GUNSHIP with Alex Westaway in 2014.
Gunship (stylized as GUNSHIP) is a British Synthwave band formed in 2010 by Dan Haigh and Alex Westaway and later joined by drummer Alex Gingell. GUNSHIP's music has been described as "influenced by the soundtracks of 80s film, television shows, video games & cartoons".
Haigh wrote the following summary of the project: "GUNSHIP is a neon soaked, late night, sonic getaway drive, dripping with luscious analog synthesizers, cinematic vocals and cyberpunk values, exploding from the front cover of a dusty plastic VHS case which has lain forgotten since 1984."
The band are credited with helping to popularize the synthwave scene and evolving it by adding rock song structure and extensive use of vocals to a predominantly instrumental genre.
GUNSHIP have a reputation for creating innovative and interesting music videos and have collaborated with film director John Carpenter on their claymation homage to 1980s nostalgia "Tech Noir" co-written and directed by GUNSHIP and Lee Hardcastle. John Carpenter is quoted as describing GUNSHIP as “nice and cool.” and that Gunships ‘Tech Noir’ is “One of my favorite songs of the year. Gunship rules.” He also went on to say “It would be fun to collaborate with Gunship.” GUNSHIP have also created the "first music video made in the GTA 5 Rockstar editor" for their song "The Mountain" and made a music video entirely from pixel art with Jason Tammemagi for their song "Revel In Your Time"
The band's self-titled debut album received excellent reviews from both electronic and rock press alike and was credited with sounding simultaneously like "they dropped straight out of the decade itself." and for its excellent modern production "first of all, the production on this album is absolutely pristine – every fuzzy, reverb-soaked layer of analogue synthesizer sounds perfectly placed in the mix, balanced by melodramatic drum patterns that always stay true to their influence rather than taking a more standard EDM trajectory." mixed by producer Carl Bown "It could easily earn a place in synthwave history as one of the first crossover albums". In a commentary about a band, a critic wrote, "There's no doubt the level of effort they put into everything resonates deeply in the 80s retro community and beyond".