Gramercy Arms Gramercy Arms has released three albums. Their first eponymous album was released on
Reveal Records and Cheap Lullaby Records in 2008. Their second album, "The Seasons of Love" was released in 2014 on
Reveal Records. The album received a positive review in
The Wall Street Journal. A video was released on
YouTube for the album's song "Beautiful Disguise" which featured
Lloyd Cole and
Joan Wasser on lead vocals. Their third album, "Deleted Scene" was released on Magic Door Records in April 2023 and their fourth album, "The Making Of The Making Of" was released on Magic Door in April 2024.
The Dambuilders In addition to his work with Gramercy Arms, Dave was a founding member of
The Dambuilders, a band in the early 1990s Boston rock scene. The founding members: Derby, Tryan George, and Eric Masunaga, all from Hawaii had played in different incarnations (such as the Exactones, Papaya, Pomade, Green-Eyed Tiki and Chicken Eats the Worm) 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.
Lloyd Cole Following the dissolution of the Dambuilders in 1996, Dave formed a lo-fi home-recording-focused musical project called
Brilliantine. Dave's friend Claudia Gonson (The Magnetic Fields) introduced him to
Lloyd Cole who was initially interested in producing Brilliantine only to join as keyboardist. When Cole's bassist was unavailable for a tour of the US and Brazil, Dave was recruited to play bass in
Lloyd Cole's band The Negatives. Derby and Cole have co-written numerous songs and shared production credits for both of their respective musical projects.
Other projects In 2003 Derby released his first solo album "Even Further Behind" on Badman Recordings and in 2007 released "Dave Derby and the Norfolk Downs" on Reveal Records.
Film and TV Derby has also composed and produced music for film and TV including a song that he co-wrote with
Michael Kotch and Colleen Fitzpatrick
(Vitamin C) for
Hannah Montana in
Hannah Montana: The Movie . ==References==