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The first time I saw Richard Walters perform was in a dingy, basement venue in the centre of Oxford awash with the smell of the neighbouring cosmetics shop and packed with pound-a-pint loving students. A slight, un-shaven man quietly crept onto stage whilst everyone obliviously found the bottom of their glasses and held conversations of outside world. Sat upon a rickety stool, legs arched inwards, head down, as close to disappearing into himself as he could muster, fingers gently started plucking and the room fell instantly silent. The way this stranger's delicate voice makes you stop dead in your tracks and the hairs on the back of your neck turn upwards is not too disimilar to the feeling you get when you first fall in love, and that's exactly what this is. Richard Walters is a 23 year old singer-songwriter born and raised in Oxford. He writes beautiful, fragile, acoustic songs which make you fall in love.

From his days in local band Theremin (Shifty Disco Records) to the current times of Oxford's premier solo artist, Richard's story is one of many triumphs and accomplishment. In the last two years he has written and recorded with long-time hero Bernard Butler, played the prestigious SXSW festival in Austin, Texas and toured the UK with Dave Matthews and Gemma Hayes as well as a handful of dates in Hong Kong. He has released an EP which gained much praise from Nic Harcourt on his LA based KCRW radio show, Morning Becomes Eclectic, and had one of his songs featued on the popular TV show CSI: Miami, receiving the biggest response CBS have ever had for a piece of music on their programme. On top of all this, Richard has formed two bands: Monoband with ex-Cranberries man Noel Hogan, and Missing Pieces with ex-22-20's frontman Charly Coombes.

'The Pilot Lights EP', set for release in February 2007 via Big Scary Monsters Records, was recorded in part by David Kosten (producer for Air Traffic, Iain Archer, Bat For Lashes and many more) and in part by Guy Sigsworth (ex-member of Frou Frou (along with Imogen Heap) and producer for Björk, Madonna, Lamb and others).

Pilotlights EP

Record Label Shmecord Label

MP3: Myspace
Video: Coming very soon

www.richardwaltersmusic.co.uk
www.myspace.com/richardwalters

See website

Drowned In Sound
"He's re-inventing a tired subject and making it sound exciting again... The future holds a lot of promise for Richard Walters"

Disorder Magazine
"Walter’s songs are vulnerable and very human... Give him time and Richard Walters could be a really wonderful and affecting artist"

initforthemoney Zine
"Walter's songs are haunting, they have the ability to lift you in some parts and in others to send a chill down your spine. There's no doubting this talent and it's one that is surely destined for much greater things"

Decode Magazine
"Blown away... Speaking of love and comfort, tenderness and sadness, this is a ball of emotion pitched straight at the heart"

Backlash Magazine
"Pilotlights is an EP that freezes you with its haunting, delicate songs...Ethereal and ghostly, these are lullabies for the disturbed – comforting yet strangely unsettling in their broken, broken beauty"

Nightshift Magazine
"Simple, stunning twilit songs of sadness, some autobiographical, others simply stories... Not just an EP, `Pilotlights’ is a genuine treasure"

South China Morning Post
"His fragile but emotive voice is distinctive and he admits that his influences are mainly women: Björk, Judee Sill and Tori Amos, although he also cites the Associates' Billy Mackenzie and Jeff Buckley. All the influences resonate in his powerful, often mournful, songs"

Thoughtworthy
"Even without the gentle persuasion of his pied piper style vocal hooks, I suspect the soft beauty of his voice would be more than enough to sway me. As it is, this Oxford songwriter has hit upon several different ways of writing and delivering the lines that urge you to try and sing along almost on the very first listen"

BBC Radio Oxford
"If you don’t know Richard Walters then you’re no Oxford music enthusiast"

Decodemedia
"Blown away... Speaking of love and comfort, tenderness and sadness, this is a ball of emotion pitched straight at the heart"

OHM
"That someone can convey this much angst in such a beautiful way is truly amazing