The Dambuilders

The Dambuilders
The Dambuilders, 1994. L-R: Eric Masunaga, Dave Derby, Kevin March and Joan Wasser.
Background information
Origin	Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Genres	Indie rock
Years active	1989 - 1998
Labels	Cuacha!, Elektra Records
Associated acts	Exactones, Joan as Police Woman, Guided by Voices
Past members	Dave Derby, Tryan George, Eric Masunaga, Kevin March, Joan Wasser, Debbie Fox

The Dambuilders was an indie rock band that began in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, in 1989 and later relocated to Boston. They released seven LPs (six studio albums & one compilation) and a number of EPs before breaking up in 1998. Members have gone on with other musical projects, most notably the band's violinist/vocalist, Joan Wasser, as Joan as Police Woman.

The Dambuilders was a band in the early 1990s Boston rock scene. The founding members - Dave Derby, Tryan George and Eric Masunaga, all from Hawaii - had played in a number of bands (such as the Exactones) before moving to Boston in 1990. The band began as the Dambuilders in Hawaii in a three-piece and four-piece configuration. Early violin was provided by Debbie Fox. With Fox's involvement, nearly all of the band's songs had electric violin tracks. Around 1992, the "classic line-up" consisted of Derby (bass guitar and lead vocals), Masunaga (guitar), Kevin March (drums) and Joan Wasser (violin). Many of the band's early recordings were engineered by Masunaga.

While The Dambuilders are generally considered an "indie" band, they received some commercial airplay with the single "Shrine" from the 1994 Atlantic Records release Encendedor. Although the song has no traditional chorus, The Dambuilders manage to create an appealing and memorable single using a distinctly melodic verse and an innovative instrumental section used as an intro, outro and bridge. Also contributing to the song's sound is the playing of bass chords. The song tells of a cross-cultural romantic courtship between the singer and a girl who "doesn't speak much English" but is familiar with the American music scene. In the song, the singer is willing to conform to traditional religious practices outside his own cultural sphere ("...if I stay with her I'll lose track of all time, so I light a candle to the shrine..."), but seemingly manages to stay true to his roots by redefining the acts as an aspect of his own non-religious, culturally inclusive belief system ("...and call it Rock n' Roll"). Shrine was recently ranked #17 in the MTV's 100 greatest songs of the '90s: Lollapalooza list.