Zaphod Theas (Allan Dawson) is a UK based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Zaphod plays a varied range of original acoustic and electric live rock performances in SL, ranging from soulful to heavy, with roots in blues, folk, punk, indie & classic rock. His music is heard regularly in Second Life and his recordings can also be heard on myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/allandawsonmusic

Zaphod also has a 10 song MP3 album for sale in Second Life, called "Ten for the Road", which is available either as a complete album or as individual songs at: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Gealain/146/231/106

About Allan Dawson (Zaphod Theas):

Allan has been involved in music for most of his life, having started performing at the deep end, aged 14, at an open air gig in front of 3000 people as lead guitarist for his covers band "Sonic Deflexion". He gigged regularly with this band through his teens and then continued working as a solo artist after this band split. He has gone on write and record dozens of songs and has has become a seasoned live performer. He is currently working on bringing all these songs together as a double debut album called "Start Again". The "Ten for the Road" album on sale in Second Life contains ten songs scheduled to be included in this album (including the title track) and is a good introduction of what is to come.

Allan is also a producer/engineer and an internet music pioneer. He has worked on live audio recordings for DVD releases by established artists such as Jesus Jones, Shed7, Berlinda Carlisle, Hawkwind and Southside Johnny, to name a few. He also worked for a couple of years on a pioneering internet radio station, which featured Allan as the main presenter for a show called "Waking Up The Neighbours!" showcasing music by many talented unsigned artists to over 20,000 listeners per week.

I write my own lyrics - I only really work with original music, although I do like to throw in the odd cover to help vary the set and keep the audiences attention! I wrote all the lyrics on the Ten for the Road album, except for The Vodka Advert, which was co-written with a friend called James Collett, he wrote the words and I wrote the music. The full list of songs in the Ten for the Road album is:

Start Again
Waiting For The Day
Why Did You Never Believe Me?
Give Me A Reason
Back On The Rack
The Vodka Advert
Last Bitter Tear
Hot Devil Rush Blood
Blackout (Live)
Little Miss Hookey (Live)

I wrote the music for all the songs listed above and am currently working on a double debut album which will most likely contain 32 of my own songs, including 3 - 4 which were co-written with others.

I am essentially a Rock musician, having started out as a lead guitarist in a hard rock band, but in my early twenties as I developed my skills for songwriting, production and singing, I started to absorb wider influences from other genres and I think this shows up in my work, sometimes more folky, bluesy, soulful, other times a hint of freeform improv jazz might creep in!

The way that people identify with the subject matter in my songs that gives me the greatest sense of reward, is that a song has reached out to somebody. I'm a poetic writer and sometimes I am obscure with my sources of inspiration where at other times I make them quite blunt, but many of my songs are an indirect reflection of emotions and ideas and philisophies that I have been faced with in my own life and in the same way challenge us all, in any walk of life.

People say I have a strong rock voice, my engineer who has worked with some big names in rock music said he finds my voice is ideal for rock vocal work. Somebody else once said I was possibly the best backing singer in the world - though I'm not actually sure if that was meant as a compliment! Ummm.....

It's been said that I've played some 'brave' song choices at acoustic gigs, I do like to go nuts on the acoustic and play things only designed for the electric guitar. That can be fun!

People are often impressed that I play lead and sing at the same time. To be honest, this isn't as hard as it sounds if you work at it, but it can be hard to remember all that AND remember you are a frontman! People have often praised me as a frontman, so I must be doing something right! Every now and again though, it can go completely wrong, and lead to some funny improv moments where I end up completely losing it and having to blag my way back into place!

Somebody once described it as Rock and Roll with a twist of Lemon - so I fired him! It's rock OR roll, not both! Oh and no lemon thanks, barmaid, If I wanted Lemon I'd have ordered Lemonade, not Coke!

More Information:
http://www.myspace.com./allandawsonmusic