DAVE SPALDING

Best known for his guitar work and songwriting in the instrumental indie-rock band Pell Mell, Dave Spalding got his start making music as a young teen, just as rock 'n roll was exploding in the mid-60’s.

Dave formed his first band, Half Moon Bay, with hometown schoolmates in Los Alamos, New Mexico. The band quickly became popular playing gigs and dances around town. In the summer of 1978, Spalding convinced the manager and core members of the band to move to California where things were “happening.” Relocated & reconfigured, the band changed its name to Mersey’s Cadillac and established itself as a working bar band in Northern California. The band members went their separate ways in 1983.

Afterwards, Spalding worked briefly as guitar roadie for The Call, a Santa Cruz-based band with an MTV hit, “The Walls Came Down.” While on tour, Greg Freeman, The Call’s bass player, introduced Spalding to Pell Mell's instrumental music. After leaving The Call, both Dave & Greg moved to San Francisco. Greg signed on as Pell Mell's new bass player and Dave became the band's sound man and ultimately their guitarist. Spalding & Freeman also opened Low Down, a small recording studio in San Francisco where some of Pell Mell’s subsequent album material was recorded, as well as seminal SF indie rock and punk bands like Thinking Fellers Local Union 282, X-Tal, Slovenly, and Vomit Launch. With Dave on guitar, Pell Mell recorded 3 albums on 3 consecutive labels: "Flow" on SST, "Interstate" on Geffen, and "Star City" on Matador. 

​

Dave eventually moved to Boston and put together and fronted a band called Shelf Life with respected local Boston musicians Brian Dunton (Tackle Box, Helium), Shaun King Devlin (Dump Truck, Tackle Box, Helium), and Mike Lehey (Jenifer Trynin, Tackle Box). An album's worth of material from this period was recorded at Fort Apache's newly-opened 2nd studio, but these songs were never released.

​

Pell Mell split up around 1997. Dave departed Boston, left Shelf Life, and moved to Manhattan. With new solo material, Dave began playing gigs in and around the the city. His album “Invisibles" was recorded with the help of many talented New York-based musicians Dave met while playing around NYC.

​

Dave now splits his time between Taos, New Mexico, and Los Angeles, California. He continues to write solo material and performs with his band The Complex. He also has a new music project in Los Angeles with a band called Or.

​

Check out upcoming events and press here...