Doldrums (2010's band)

Doldrums is the musical identity of Canadian singer, producer and visual artist Airick Asher Woodhead. Doldrums began in 2010 as a moniker to release home recordings before expanding into a live band and releasing three LPs: Lesser Evil (2013) on Arbutus Records, The Air Conditioned Nightmare (2015) on Sub Pop records, and Esc (2017) on Endless.

Doldrums began in 2010 at The House of Everlasting Superjoy, a DIY venue and warehouse living space in Toronto that Airick shared with members of the group DD/MM/YYYY, which he cites as a primary influence, along with the numerous American noise artists that the venue hosted. The first release was a VHS of videos and music that had been chopped up and collaged together, choosing the name Doldrums after the book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, a childhood favourite of his.

A cover of Portishead's "Chase the Tear" brought Doldrums attention after Portishead chose to include it as the B-side to the vinyl release, a charity release for Amnesty International on XL Recordings. Cult UK label No Pain in Pop released his EP Empire Sound that year, which consisted of material from the Parrot Talk VHS. In Montreal Airick collaborated with artists within the burgeoning electronic music scene centred around Arbutus Records, which Pitchfork described as a group whose "sounds may be disparate, but [are] united by their desire to tackle questions of identity from unique and exciting perspectives."

Montreal-based artist Grimes discovered Doldrums and invited him to move to Montreal in 2011. Her single "Oblivion" was inspired by Airick, and he was featured on her album Visions. The two embarked on a tour of DIY venues in America including Silent Barn in NYC, the Copy Cat in Baltimore, Secret Squirrel in Athens and the Magic Stick in Detroit.

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