Stickboy - A simple boy made of sticks

Stickboy is our first featured fresh wave

I could not think of a single better way to start the “Fresh Waves” column than sharing one of my favourite musical discoveries of the year. Although some might say that with close to fifty-five thousand friends at MySpace, three full albums available at iTunes and having a song featured on the popular TV show Gossip Girl, Stickboy, or just Craig Edmondson if you prefer, is hardly a rookie.

That might be true to a certain extent, but this column is all about sharing the sound of artists that most people are less likely to have heard already, and I firmly believe that this guy of sticks and his tunes deserve far more attention than they have been given so far.

It was pure luck that ensured my finding of Stickboy’s MySpace profile, but I was immediately drawn in by the pleasant melodies and clever lyrics, and the fact that I have knack for the slightly weird and somewhat corny reinforced my instant fascination. A guy made of sticks who lives in a tree making music about dancing a piroutte to feel young again? Can’t avoid falling for that!

Stickboy is an artistic soul, both when it comes to music and picture taking.

However the interesting his story might have been though, it all really boils down to the music, and thankfully that’s where Stickboy shines. The melodies are, according to himself, the most important part of his songs, and while always phenomenally catching, I personally think it’s his skills as a storyteller that makes him shine.

It was the song “ To Do List ” that caught me first. The song is basically a list of more or less realistic things he wants to do with his life, and it’s beautifully crafted with pop-cultural references (I wanna meet Jeff Buckley, Kurt Cobain and Elliott Smith to say thank you for giving me the music that I grew up to / be saved from the sea by David Hasselhoff), and at the same time it gives us an impression of the dreamy, imaginative personality that seems to be the basis of the conception of many of his songs (I wanna swim faster than a racing car / play my guitar on a shooting star / eat chocolate ’til my belly pops).

Currently you’ll find four more songs on his MySpace profile (he seems to like to mix them up quite frequently), including ” Pirouette “, which is arguably his most catchy to date, a song about a guy trying to borrow some wisdom from a girl and ends up dancing a pirouette and feeling young again.

Investigating his story and finding out more about this guy proved to be a challenging task, because despite of his relatively large following at MySpace, there’s not too much information about him floating around there on the internet. A couple of interviews did however reveal some interesting tidbits of information. His name is as previously mentioned Craig Edmondson, and he hails from the north-western parts of the United Kingdom, more specifically Manchester. The Stickboy name comes from a Tim Burton poem titled Stickboy and Match Girl in Love. That and the fact he’s skinny, just like sticks, he notes in one interview.

He records all of his songs independantly, and he works alone because the members of a band he once had ” had to get “proper” jobs “, but he recently got a band together for a UK radio session where they played three of his songs. Hopefully this means that there’s still hope for those of us waiting for a chance to experience his music live, although there’s been no word from the man himself regarding this.

Album cover for Under The Sleepy Moon

When it comes to his discography it certainly had me confused for a while, but I think I have it straight now. He has three digital full-length releases on iTunes (under the name Stickboy UK): Pointing At Clouds, The Red Words and The Magical Tree and Other Stories (see his MySpace profile for direct links to the iTunes albums). He has also released one physical record titled Under The Sleepy Moon, which can be purchased here. On top of this, a digital split EP with another Manchester band called Toto Run was recently released on iTunes, and it featured Pirouette as well as a previously unreleased song entitled ” A Flame To A Spark “.

As I’m sure all of you understand, I really can’t urge you strong enough to check out Stickboy’s music. I have already turned a couple of my friends into fans, and if you want to give it a chance as well I would recommend purhcasing the Pointing At Clouds album off of iTunes as the perfect start. It is filled with enchanting songs about life, love and moving your bed out under the stars, and how could you possibly resist that?