Dylan Carlson (born March 12, 1968) is an American musician, best known as the guitarist and founder of the

drone metal Drone metal or drone doom is a style of heavy metal that melds the slow tempos and heaviness of doom metal with the long-duration tones of drone music. Drone metal is sometimes associated with post-metal or experimental metal. Characteristics T ...

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation ...

group

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surf ...

, and the main contributor to his solo project Drcarlsonalbion.

Early life and education

Carlson was born in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

. His father worked for the

Department of Defense Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philippin ...

, and, as a result, as a child he moved quite frequently, living in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

New Mexico ) , population_demonym = New Mexican ( es, Neomexicano, Neomejicano, Nuevo Mexicano) , seat = Santa Fe, New Mexico, Santa Fe , LargestCity = Albuquerque, New Mexico, Albuquerque , LargestMetro = Albuquerque metropolitan area, Tiguex , Offi ...

, and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York (state), New York; on the ea ...

, before coming back to live in Washington state.

Career

He had first become interested in being a rock musician at age 15, inspired by bands such as

Molly Hatchet Molly Hatchet is an American rock band formed in 1971 by guitarist Dave Hlubek in Jacksonville, Florida. They were a popular band during the late 1970s and early-to-mid 1980s among the southern rock and hard rock communities. The band releas ...

, AC/DC, and

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped de ...

. He also cites the

Melvins Melvins (sometimes The Melvins) are an American rock band formed in 1983 in Montesano, Washington. Their early work was key to the development of both grunge and sludge metal. Initially, they performed as a trio but later also sometimes appe ...

, and composers

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kn ...

and

Terry Riley Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for it ...

as major influences on his music. It was in

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

that he met

Slim Moon Matthew "Slim" Moon (born October 15, 1967) is an American musician and the founder of the American independent Record label, music label Kill Rock Stars (KRS). He also started its sister label, 5 Rue Christine. Slim ran KRS from 1991 to 2006, ...

, Greg Babior, Dave Harwell and Joe Preston, with whom he would later form Earth. During this time, he would often make "sonic collages" with his then-roommate Kurt Cobain. From 1991 to 1996, Earth had an ever-changing lineup. Carlson attributes a lack of (full-length) studio album recordings from 1997 to 2005 to "legal and drug problems".

Personal life

Carlson was a good friend of Kurt Cobain of

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lamp Richard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo. ...

and, like Cobain, has struggled with heroin addiction, particularly so after Cobain's death. In his biography of Cobain, ''

Heavier Than Heaven ''Heavier Than Heaven'' is a 2001 biography of musician Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the grunge band Nirvana (band), Nirvana. It was written by Charles R. Cross. For the book, Cross desired to create the definitive Cobain biography, and over fo ...

'',

Charles R. Cross Charles R. Cross is a Seattle-based music journalist, author and editor. He is primarily known for his coverage of Bruce Springsteen, Kurt Cobain and Jimi Hendrix. Career He was the Editor of '' The Rocket'' in Seattle for fifteen years (198 ...

asserted that "

In Bloom "In Bloom" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the second track on the band's second album, ''Nevermind'', released by DGC Records in September 1991. The album version is the s ...

" was a "thinly disguised portrait" of Carlson. He now lives in recovery of heroin addiction. He has survived a rare form of

Hepatitis B Hepatitis B is an infectious disease caused by the '' Hepatitis B virus'' (HBV) that affects the liver; it is a type of viral hepatitis. It can cause both acute and chronic infection. Many people have no symptoms during an initial infection. F ...

and liver failure. Carlson was married to fellow

drummer

Adrienne Davies Adrienne Davies is the current drummer and percussionist of the drone metal band Earth. Davies is credited as drummer on several of Earth's albums. They range from ''Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Sword'' (2005) and for drums, percussio ...

for a time.Adrienne Davies interview
/ref> Davies still remains in the band despite their split-up. Carlson was married to a

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

-born artist,

belly dancer Belly dance (Egyptian Arabic: رقص بلدي, translated: Dance of the Country/Folk Dance, romanized: Raks/Raas Baladi) is a dance that originates in Egypt. It features movements of the hips and torso. It has evolved to take many different f ...

, and performer named Holly. A picture of her profile was used as the album cover art for his solo album ''Conquistador''.

Solo discography

*''Gold'' (as Drcarlsonalbion) (2014) *''Falling with a 1000 Stars and other wonders from the House of Albion'' (with Coleman Grey) (2016) *'' Conquistador'' (2018)

References

External links

*
Earth's MySpace pageExtensive Earth InterviewDylan's Interview with I Heart Noise
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carlson, Dylan Grunge musicians American indie rock musicians Sub Pop artists Musicians from Seattle 1968 births Living people American experimental guitarists American male guitarists American heavy metal guitarists American post-rock musicians Guitarists from Washington (state) 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American male musicians Earth (American band) members