The Dambuilders was a band in the early 1990s Boston rock scene. The founding members - Dave Derby, Tryan George and Eric Masunaga, all from Hawaii - had played in a number of bands 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, Masunaga, Kevin March and Joan Wasser. Many of the band's early recordings were engineered by Masunaga.
Commercial success
While The Dambuilders are generally considered an "indie" band, they received some commercial airplay with the single "Shrine" from the 1994 Atlantic Records release Encendedor. Although the song has no traditional chorus, The Dambuilders manage to create an appealing and memorable single using a distinctly melodic verse and an innovative instrumental section used as an intro, outro and bridge. Also contributing to the song's sound is the playing of bass chords. The song tells of a cross-cultural romantic courtship between the singer and a girl who "doesn't speak much English" but is familiar with the American music scene. In the song, the singer is willing to conform to traditional religious practices outside his own cultural sphere, but seemingly manages to stay true to his roots by redefining the acts as an aspect of his own non-religious, culturally inclusive belief system. Shrine was recently ranked #17 in the MTV's 100 greatest songs of the '90s: Lollapalooza list. Their 1997 album, Against the Stars, was released by Elektra Records. In 1999the band performed in Toronto.
Current activities
Currently, Derby and March are performing together as members of Gramercy Arms. Wasser has performed on both of their albums including a vocal duet with Lloyd Cole on the band's "Beautiful Disguise" single and video. The band, which also includes Sean Eden, Rainy Orteca, Hilken Mancini, Sandy Smallens as well as guest performances by Doug Gillard, Matthew Caws, Renee LoBue, Lloyd Cole, Chris Brokaw released its first album, called Gramercy Arms, in 2009 and is currently working on a follow up. Derby's other output includes two releases under the "Brilliantine" name, as well two solo albums. Wasser is now performing under the name Joan as Police Woman and released her first solo E.P., Joan As Police Woman, in June 2005. She released a full-length album with the band, entitled Real Life, in June 2006, followed by To Survive in June 2008, Cover in 2009, and The Deep Field in January 2011. March was also a member of Guided by Voices for several years and continues to do session work and tours with various artists. He is currently putting together a new group with his old friend, Nathan Larson of Shudder To Think. Masunaga now runs Modulus Studios, a mastering and DVD authoring studio, in Boston.
