Semantron

Semantron from Seattle, WA

Some musicians learn their craft through imitation. Dave French began with visions.

 

As a child he experienced synesthesia, perceiving musical sound as shifting shapes and movement in his mind. When he first sat behind a drum kit at twelve years old, formal instruction lasted only two lessons. Learning other people’s music felt like it would interfere with translating those inner forms into sound, so he chose a different path—one built around exploration rather than imitation. At eighteen he picked up the guitar and began writing songs before learning traditional chords, focusing on composition rather than studying existing music. For years he kept that creative world separate from his public musical life, playing in bands exclusively as a drummer while quietly developing his own language as a songwriter.

 

Around that same time, he acquired a cassette four-track recorder, beginning a recording journey that now spans more than three decades. Soon after he formed his first band performing his own songs. A move to France, first Paris, then a small village in the south, became a turning point. In the musical isolation of rural France, he began to shape a sound that finally felt personal enough to share.

 

After returning to Seattle, French took over a recording studio and began producing records professionally, including recording and producing the first solo album by Ben Shepherd of Soundgarden. During the same period, he maintained his own band featuring Shepherd on guitar while also joining Tad Doyle’s band Brothers of the Sonic Cloth as drummer.

 

French’s career soon expanded into the live music world. He ran sound at music venues around Seattle and later toured as a sound engineer for artists including Sleep, Om, and Boris. He also spent years working as a stage technician for artists such as Soundgarden, Neurosis, and others.

 

In 2020 the pandemic brought that chapter to an end, but another chapter was already unfolding. French joined the live ensembles of Steve Von Till—both his solo project and Harvestman—performing synth, Moog bass, percussion, guitar, bass, and backing vocals. Soon after, he was invited to become the new drummer for Yob, replacing the longtime drummer of twenty years.

 

Yet throughout the years of touring, another body of work had quietly been taking shape. That now arrives as SEMANTRON.

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