William DuVall

For those of a similar name, see William Duval (disambiguation).
William DuVall

DuVall performing with Alice in Chains at the Roskilde Festival in 2010
Background information
Born (1967-09-06) September 6, 1967
Washington, D.C.
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Musician
  • songwriter
Instruments
  • Vocals
  • guitar
Years active 1983–present
Associated acts
Website williamduvall.com
Notable instruments
Framus Diablo and Panthera
ESP Hybrid
Gibson Les Paul
William DuVall performing with Alice in Chains at Roskilde Festival 2010

William DuVall (born September 6, 1967) is an American musician, best known as being the current vocalist and a co-guitarist for the alternative metal band Alice in Chains replacing original vocalist Layne Staley, who died in 2002. DuVall joined Alice in Chains in 2006, and he appears on the 2009 album Black Gives Way to Blue as well as the 2013 follow-up The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here.

DuVall is also co-founder, lead singer, guitarist and lyricist for Comes with the Fall. In his long musical career, DuVall has played a role in many bands playing in a variety of genres, an example being the influential punk rock group Neon Christ.

Biography

Early career (1983–1992)

Main articles: Neon Christ, Bl'ast, and No Walls

DuVall's music career started in the early 1980s Atlanta hardcore punk scene. He first performed with Awareness Void of Chaos.

In 1983, DuVall helped found the controversial Atlanta-based hardcore punk band Neon Christ, contributing guitars and lyrics to the band's albums.[1] Other members of this band were vocalist Randy DuTeau, bassist Danny Lankford, and drummer Jimmy Demer. Neon Christ had strong ties to hardcore luminaries Corrosion of Conformity and Bl'ast. With a couple of short East Coast tours and two albums, the politically-pointed band started gaining popularity. The band used its popularity to support many charitable causes including working to free Fela Anikulapo Kuti.

The band disbanded in 1986, reuniting for a one-time show featuring the original members on December 24, 2004. Currently, the members are said to be filming a documentary, which concluded with a February 2, 2008 show at Lawrenceville, Georgia's punk haunt The Treehouse.[2]

After Neon Christ originally broke up, DuVall was briefly the second guitarist in the popular Northern California hardcore punk band Bl'ast,[1] contributing a small bit of writing to their second album, It's In My Blood,[3] released on the hardcore punk–alternative label SST Records, founded by Greg Ginn of hardcore punk band Black Flag. DuVall did not, however, stay with the band long enough to record on the album.

In 1987, DuVall formed the Final Offering with vocalist Randy Gue (a former Neon Christ roadie),[4] Corrosion of Conformity bassist Mike Dean and drummer Greg Psomas.[5] However, Psomas's heroin habit hindered them from working consistently.[1] Dean would go back to work with Corrosion of Conformity; Psomas died of an overdose in 1994.[1]

DuVall spent the late 1980s with a Jimi Hendrix-inspired band, No Walls. Other members of this band were jazz bassist Hank Schroy and drummer Matthew Cowley.[5] They released one album[1] in 1992.[5] He also spent the late 1980s in college earning a degree in philosophy, with a specialization in religion.

Mid career (1992–2007)

Main articles: Madfly and Comes with the Fall

In 1994, DuVall co-wrote the song "I Know" for fellow Atlanta musician Grammy-nominated Dionne Farris; this song won DuVall an ASCAP award.[1]

In the late 90s, DuVall founded the band Madfly with Nico Constantine, Bevan Davies and Jeffery Blount. He served as guitarist, singer and songwriter. Their efforts included two albums, Get the Silver and White Hot in the Black, the former was released on Killing Floor Recordings, the latter through Blackheart Records and distributed nationally by Mercury Records/PolyGram.

1999 found DuVall, Bevan, and Nico moving on to form Comes With The Fall, adding Adam Stanger as bassist. CWTF released their first cd Comes with the Fall in 2000, and their second cd The Year is One in 2001. CWTF began touring as both the opening band and as part of Jerry Cantrell's solo band for his Degradation Trip tours in 2001 and 2002. Follow up releases: Live 2002 cd, companion to their Live Underground 2002 DVD; The Reckoning ep in 2006 and Beyond the Last Light cd in 2007. CWTF's entire catalog was produced by William's DVL Recordings label.

Present career (2007–present)

Quickly becoming Cantrell's go-to man, DuVall and Cantrell's musical collaborations led to DuVall joining Cantrell's band Alice in Chains, replacing Layne Staley, who died in 2002.

Initially, Cantrell and the other veteran members of Alice in Chains had said this reunion didn't necessarily foretell a future for the band and that this was just a tribute to Staley and their fans. Drummer Sean Kinney went further, saying at that time he would have liked to change the name and adding, "I don't see continuing as Alice and replacing somebody."[6] DuVall expressed similar sentiments with regards to the task of filling in for Staley.[5] However, the reformed Alice in Chains generated enthusiasm from their fans to convince them to keep the name. DuVall claims to have met Staley's family, who have all purportedly given the band their blessing.[7] In 2007, Alice in Chains began touring with Velvet Revolver and Kill Hannah. The ReEvolution tour was in two parts. The first took in many European cities and the Eastern United States. The second part, also referred to as "The Libertad Tour", is primarily a cross-country tour that spread into three cities in Canada. For the first time in 15 years Alice In Chains toured Australia as second headliner under Nine Inch Nails on the Soundwave Festival. Personally, it was DuVall's first visit to Australia. It had since been advertised on the official Alice in Chains website that the band – now with DuVall officially noted as lead singer – was working on new material with an album, now known as Black Gives Way to Blue, released on September 29, 2009.[8]

In 2008 he performed vocal duties with MC5/DTK at the Meltdown Festival curated by Massive Attack.

In 2011, Alice in Chains took time off after touring more than 30 countries and mourning the death of their original bass player Mike Starr, according to his long-time replacement Mike Inez.[9] However, DuVall stated that there was a possibility of another album in the near future, commenting, "It would be fairly safe to say that you don't come this far and do all this work just to stop for another 15 years."[10] In March, it was announced that Alice in Chains would begin recording a new album at the tail end of 2011.[11] In May 2013, the album The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here was released.[12]

In the meantime, DuVall has reunited with his former Neon Christ bandmates to do a documentary film called All Alone Together: Neon Christ and Atlanta Hardcore, which he said director Edgar Johnson had first pitched to him back in 2005.[4][13] In 2016, he released the album Broken Lines with the supergroup Giraffe Tongue Orchestra founded by Ben Weinman of The Dillinger Escape Plan.[14]

Discography

Title Release Label Band
Neon Christ 7” 1984 Social Crisis Records Neon Christ
Neon Christ 2x7" 1990 F-King Records
No Walls (extended play) 1992 Third Eye Records No Walls
Get the Silver 1996 Killing Floor Records Madfly
White Hot in the Black 1998 Blackheart
Comes with the Fall 2000 DVL Comes with the Fall
The Year is One 2001
Live 2002 (live album) 2002
The Reckoning (extended play) 2006
Beyond the Last Light 2007
Black Gives Way to Blue 2009 Virgin/EMI Alice in Chains
The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here 2013
Broken Lines 2016 Cooking Vinyl Giraffe Tongue Orchestra

Videography

Release date Title Label Band
2003 Live Underground 2002 DVL Comes with the Fall
2011 Black To Comm Easy Action MC5 DTK
TBA All Alone Together: Neon Christ and Atlanta Hardcore Social Crisis Films Neon Christ

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Duteau,Randy "INTROVERTED LOUDMOUTH" Retrieved on April 12, 12, 2011
  2. ↑ Ratlanta.com "Ratlanta.com", Retrieved July 8, 2009
  3. ↑ "It's In My Blood". Discogs.com. October 25, 1990. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
  4. 1 2 All Alone Together: Neon Christ and Atlanta Hardcore Retrieved on April 10, 2011.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Radford, Chad (April 13, 2010). "With Alice in Chains, William DuVall finds his audience". Creative Loafing.
  6. ↑ Harris, Chris (February 23, 2006). "Remaining Alice In Chains Members Reuniting – News Story | Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV News". Mtv. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
  7. ↑ Christopher, Michael (September 23, 2003). "Banged up but still unbreakable: Comes with the Fall". PopMatters.
  8. ↑ Benson, John "Alice in Chains reunion "Gives Way" to album, tour", "Reuters" July 3, 2009. Retrieved July 8, 2009
  9. ↑ "ESPN Music's 2011 bass-ball preview Mike Inez". ESPN. March 31, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
  10. ↑ "Alice In Chains finds its voice". Theweekender.com. April 13, 2010. Retrieved April 17, 2010.
  11. ↑ "Alice In Chains To Begin Work On New Album". Metalhammer.co.uk. March 21, 2011. Retrieved November 2, 2011.
  12. ↑ "Alice in Chains: New Album Title Revealed". Blabbermouth.net. 2013-02-14. Retrieved 2013-02-14.
  13. ↑ Carr,David William DuVall Sheds Light on Neon Christ and Atlanta Hardcore, "CWG Magazine" February 11, 2011 Retrieved on April 10, 2011
  14. ↑ GIRAFFE TONGUE ORCHESTRA Feat. ALICE IN CHAINS, MASTODON, THE DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN Members: 'Crucifixion' Song, blabbermouth.net, 19 June 2016
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