Telford musician signs record deal without ever playing a gig
A "born again" musician who begun his latest project at the start of the pandemic has secured his first record deal without ever playing a gig.
George Pilgrem forms one half of Dullards, who were recently approached and signed by Ego Records after publishing their content online.
Producing his own music, George, 32, records with multi-instrumentalist Roger Heathers to make a mix of indie, power-pop and glam rock.
The singer-songwriter from Wellington had previously written music before taking a break, but said lockdown provided the perfect opportunity to put pen to paper once more.
"I've been writing music on and off since I was about 19 but at the start of the pandemic I was born again – I thought I'd give it one more chance to focus on what I really wanted to do," George said.
"It's all done in house as we're a studio band at the moment.
"We were going to do some live shows but it's a new project that's happened in the last year and Covid restrictions has stopped that from happening.
"But lockdown has given us all the time to reflect and work on the creative aspect of our music and we have so much free time to do that.
"We're quite popular on social media and Ego came across us and reached out."
George takes influence from the likes of David Bowie, Queen and T-Rex, and said the duo's name was a purposeful misrepresentation of what they set out to achieve.
"Dullards – I came up with the band name as it's juxtapose to the imagery and sound of the music we're putting out," he said.
The band has four singles out and is preparing for the first album's release, with details and pre-orders starting in February.
George added: "Roger plays quite literally everything. I haven't heard of anything he can't play.
"On our album he plays guitar, bass, keyboard and writes the drum parts, with a session musician playing the drums."
Dullards' music can be found by searching on all popular social media and music streaming platforms.
