Songwriter David Gibb has released a new album for children about bereavement, childhood, family and, above all, cycling.
Some families for their holidays might go to DisneyLand, or maybe take a trip to a sunny beach resort. When songwriter David Gibb was 8 years old, his parents decided to take him and his brother on a cycling trip across Europe on tandem bicycles.
This is just one of the childhood memories that make up Gibb's latest album for children and families, 'Pedal Onwards', a musical rendition of a childhood spent on two wheels. Growing up with a cycling obsessed father, and in a home where bicycles seemed to fill every corner, David was inspired to draw on his childhood memories after the sudden death of his father following a heart attack in 2017, whilst training at Derby Velodrome.
On his father’s death and how it affected him David says: “When you lose someone very important to you, life can sometimes feel like that moment when you’re trying to tune the radio in the car, but everything sounds fuzzy. You know how it ought to sound, but somehow you just can’t find the right channel anymore. I suppose this album is me, re-tuning my radio, so things sound right again. My way of doing that has been riding my bike and writing songs about my Dad. I’m really excited that over the course of these 12 songs, people will get to meet him.”
Despite the painful events that inspired the album, the songs are far from melancholic. There is a sense of joy and optimism which permeates throughout the record, with the message that when someone important is gone, the lessons, love and learning that they gave, remain forever.
David's trademark charm and humour is also evident, as he recounts the embarrassment of his Dad showing up to collect him from school dressed head to toe in lycra, and fondly remembers the local children queuing up to have their broken bicycles serviced by his father's mechanical wizardry.
With David’s Dad such a central character throughout the album, it’s perhaps no surprise that he also features on the album artwork. After discovering a 30 year old photograph of his Dad taking him out on his bike for the very first time, David asked award-winning illustrator Rob Jones to use the photo as the basis for the album cover. The result is a colourful, psychedelic, and joyful kaleidoscope of memories, which perfectly fits the uplifting and quirky tone of the album.
Following the trend of David's previous albums, the music covers an eclectic mix of genres including soul, rock and roll, folk, jazz and funk, always with an emphasis on songwriting and musicianship reminiscent of the classics.
To accompany the album, David and his team have created a series of music videos for children and families, with each video exploring a different song from the record, as well as David getting up to some shenanigans on his bike in his native Oxfordshire.
Packed full of catchy toe-tapping numbers and guaranteed to have both parents and children singing along in no time, this is an album about childhood, loss, family and, above all, cycling.
Music video for 'Two Wheeling’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2vP0YdLUis