Pigeon Spins Featuring an Interview with Silver Dawn

Silver Dawn - Beautifully Awkward

After a slow gestation, this alternative indie bedroom musician's work of experiments and improvisations with samplers and synths, guitars, production and voice- to purge herself, with confrontational honesty, of the feelings that can't be expressed in any other way- is going to be released on January 2nd 2026.

Created during a turbulent period in her life, of experiencing bereavement and betrayal, she drew on her influences of Dream Pop, Kraut Rock, Techno, Grunge, Free Jazz and Electronica, as part of her healing journey. She defiantly crossed genres and subconsciously avoided song form, in order to be true to her feelings and authentically real. The title track "Beautifully Awkward" - a eulogy for all the edge-cases out there who don't quite fit categorization- was made by exploring resampling of a vocal sound and manipulating it in different ways to create all of the instruments apart from the percussion. This eight track EP is a varied soul-purge - at times reflective and gentle, at others bitter and sarcastic, veering through rage to hope and bliss, intending that others may feel seen and heard by listening to it.

"I'm excited to get this out - its been such a journey making it" - Silver Dawn

Born in West London, UK, Silver Dawn’s interest in music was fostered by her music aficionado father, who introduced her to rock n roll, reggae, world, folk, and classical music, she inherited his eclectic taste and augmented it with prog, techno and free jazz and grunge. She studied jazz and composition a LCM, and played in various short-lived post-punk and experimental outfits.

Silver Dawn’s interest in music was fostered by her music aficionado, physicist father, who had a sense of reverence for vinyl and the eclectic recordings etched into their spiraling grooves. Encouraged to experiment and question things as a child, and given free reign to play with fascinating equipment he brought home from NPL, she wondered about the ‘mathematics of vibration in time’, which is music what music is, and how this can evoke such strong feelings in our bodies, vibrant images in our minds, and jolt our nerves into needing to dance.

Trying to solve this mystery, led her to study jazz and composition at LCM, to research the physics and history of music, to write songs, join choirs, holler at free jazz jams, get lost in the rhythm of samba bands, to write and play in post-punk and experimental outfits and to teach herself music production.

Through music, she finds memories and feelings are triggered that can’t be accessed or expressed in any other way, and has found this exploration tends to turn into a journey into the self.

Interview with Silver Dawn

(•)> What inspired your upcoming release and its experimental approach to music?

I’ve never really been able to pin myself down to a preferred genre and found it difficult to explain what I do and what I like. This release is about me accepting myself as I am and giving myself permission to be hard to categorise and just get it out there anyway. Its been a journey.

(•)> How did growing up with a physicist father influence your understanding of sound and vibration?

My dad looked at everything and explained everything with a scientist’s understanding, and my curiosity was encouraged. It was mind-blowing to me when he explained that everything in the universe is moving and vibrating - light, sound, matter. Radio waves are miraculous when you think about it. I really wanted to understand why harmony worked - what is the maths behind it. Even now, how amazing it is, that we can hear fractions? I find sound synthesis incredible too - the nature of a saw tooth wave being different from a square wave - that our ears are able to detect it. I think in a nutshell, it gave me a sense of wonder and awe.

(•)> You describe using samplers, synths, guitars, production, and voice to purge emotions. How does that process work for you?

There’s a kind of polarity between harmony and chaos. Too much perfect harmony and slickness and there is no life, too much chaos and dissonance and it is just nihilism. There’s something about playing sweet notes with a heavily distorted guitar or dissonant chords with a delicate instrument that just gets me - Like choirs singing a minor second. There is a sweetness in the roughness and a roughness in the sweetness that reminds me of certain feelings I can’t explain with words. Getting into a creative state of mind and improvising is where it all happens - not really knowing where I am heading, just following what I feel.

(•)> How has your study of jazz, composition, and music history shaped your sound?

It's shaped my listening and my understanding, so in my head I can hear Georgian vocal harmonies, bebop sax, or ragas for example, when I am listening to pop music. The sounds I like and that occur to me spring from this soup of all the music I have heard, studied and thought about. It's a bit lonely because it's unique and a bit weird, and a hard sell to others.

(•)> How do different genres, from free jazz to post-punk, influence your compositions?

Free jazz has given me an enjoyment of a lot more musical chaos and dissonance than the average person can tolerate and post punk isn’t overly concerned with being pleasing or fitting forms perfectly, yet it is still often mainstream songs with fairly straightforward harmony.

(•)> What role does improvisation play in your songwriting and production?

Improvisation is really at the core of my songwriting and production. I am too impatient to try to perfect things. Most audio is the first take that I weave back into and layer organically.

(•)> How do you use music to access memories and feelings that can’t be expressed otherwise?

When I am exploring and experimenting, I can hit upon something, like unexpectedly biting down on a cardamom seed, and I get flashbacks and vivid memories of feelings and atmospheres. I can’t choose what I am going to evoke - I just notice what comes up and try to go with it.

(•)> How has teaching yourself music production changed your creative process?

It means that I don’t have to explain to others what I am hearing to get them to play it and I don’t need to compromise. I can just do what I want.

(•)> How do you balance experimentation with creating something emotionally resonant for listeners?

My hope is that if I feel something and it resonates for me, then surely someone else out there is going to feel it too.

(•)> What’s next for you after this release on January 2nd, 2026?

I am looking forward to releasing more music and starting to collaborate again, having got this solo project EP off my chest.

(•)> That's all, Folks! Check out Silver Dawn on the Pigeon Spins Playlist