Profile: Dirt Star is halfway between the gutter and the stars

Scratch that. Dirt Star's 'Hole In The Universe' has all the swagger of Edwyn Collin's 'A Girl Like You' plus the crazed Martian appeal of...Babylon Zoo? It does say on his AliveNotDead page that his sound has been described as "electro-fied Beetlemania in silver Martian space suits". That's actually a fitting description. But he's not without variation: in 'Funny Man' (the second vid below), he goes for Ryan Adams type aching high notes. And reaches them.

Exiled in the Asia Pacific region from the US of A, Dirt Star hasn't been thrown any favours. He's worked his way the musical food chain, having been a street performer, electro DJ, guitarist and lead singer in an indie band. Now you'll find him boasting a CV that includes playing alongside Warren Ellis fronted Dirty Three, Rheostatics and oddly enough, Faye Wong.

Check out the vids below, as well as his MySpace and AliveNotDead pages. Plus, if you do wanna get in touch with him for bookings, you can email him at thedirtstar@gmail.com.