Eddie Durkin is a singer and guitarist and songwriter in indie rock band Lazarus Horse which put out its remarkable latest album Three Birds on August 4, 2023. The album is strikingly economical in its songwriting and audacious in its bare bones production. All but one of the songs is under three minutes and the greater number of the rest in the concise two and a half-minute range. The band could have paid for some studio time and rehearsed the songs to the point of absolute precision and pristine recording condition. But the album was recorded entirely to a smart phone with a few overdubs to preserve an immediacy, an intimacy of emotional resonance and a spontaneity of spirit that reflect the influence of the kind of pop songcraft from the likes of artists on the Sarah Records imprint, Beat Happening and Sparklehorse. It’s a lo-fi affair but with an out sized impact in which the band’s multiple vocalists are given the opportunity to shine. Fans of the song “After Hours” by The Velvet Underground will find a great creative kinship throughout Three Birds.
Durkin grew up on the west side of Denver and like many people had some basic music lessons as a kid including guitar lessons which he gave up when it wasn’t about the kind of music and creativity to which he was most drawn. So Durkin ended up playing football for a short time until it became obvious to him that that wasn’t for him either. Fatefully he was able to catch an OK Go show at the Bluebird Theater in 2005 when he was fifteen-years-old but mainly to see the indie rock band The Redwalls. From then on Durkin aspired to be in a band with the wide eyed faith of youth and by his late teens he was involved in one of his early bands that played live shows in the highly experimental rock band Stupendous Sound Society with his friend Conor Black. But the latter moved on from doing much music and with him went his collection of synthesizers and Durkin formed the more pop-oriented band Sparkler Bombs. With both projects Durkin performed shows in the DIY underground after attending shows at Rhinceropolis and showing up one day to drop off a demo recording to Travis Egedy aka Pictureplane who kindly offered to book Stupendous Sound Society on a bill.
By the early 2010s, the partying and substance abuse and resulting mental health issues caught up with Durkin and he had to be away from it all for a handful of years to get his perspectives more in order and to reconnect with his authentic self. Durkin was always an intelligent and sensitive person with a lot of creativity but when Durkin came back into writing and playing music he seemed to possess a high degree of self-awareness and that informed his songwriting and imbued it with great persona insight. The early incarnation of Lazarus Horse included Hunter Dragon aka Hunter Adams and the latter’s faith in Durkin’s talent gave the project an early impetus that propelled it to its current quartet comprised of Durkin and three members of the great indie rock band Rabbit Fighter: Brooke Theis (bass, vocals), Zoya Brou (guitar, vocals) and Daniel Sayers (drums).
Listen to our deep dive interview with Eddie Durkin on Bandcamp and follow Lazarus Horse at the links below.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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