Bio

Cavalcades is the indie-poppy-folky-rocky project of New Zealand songwriter Fraser Dron. He’s a slow and whimsical thinker who is fond of dancing awkwardly behind the safety of a microphone.

Fraser went to the Harbour Sessions at the Wunderbar in November 2008 and got all excited when he saw a flyer about the open mic night in December. He wrote a couple of songs in his friends’ garage, recruited his friend Matt to play snare-drum, and walked the Wunderbar’s hallowed planks one month later.

Things then slowed down a bit – he got a ‘real job’ writing software manuals; he wrote more songs; he stared out the window a lot. Eventually he was asked back to play at the Harbour Sessions in March 2009. This performance was a quiet success, but the tedium of day-to-day life lulled him back to sleep, and little progress was made until December 2009, when he spent a fevered weekend in local studio The Sitting Room, recording Cavalcades’ debut E.P. “Awaken Quite Alone”. This set off a minor frenzy of activity in which he played two support slots at The Wunderbar, wrote even more songs, and drew a picture of a boat. In early May 2010, the E.P. was ready to be released, so he did.

Cavalcades’ music is indie-pop with folk, rock and jazz inflections, and has drawn comparisons to The Arcade Fire, Frightened Rabbit, Jens Lekman and Death Cab for Cutie.