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Biography
Woody Dares discovered rock and roll music at fifteen years old in St Louis, Missouri (USA). A transplant from France, he was taking English courses and staying with a host family when he started banging out Chuck Berry and Elvis Presley tunes on his first guitar. Once the fire of music started burning in the summer of 2004, it never stopped.
When he returned to France, he had only four words etched in his mind : play, write, sing, compose. Woody fronted punk bands as singer and guitarist for two years and began to study at the well-known CIAM music institute in the city of Bordeaux. After school, he ditched the books and joined the band Laréplik, a prominent street-folk band in Bordeaux. Fueled with punk rock energy and instruments like accordion, double bass, drums, banjo and guitar, Laréplik won over crowds and continued to ascend the ranks of the French music scene and beyond.
With Laréplik, he toured and played 50+ shows in France, Switzerland, Czech Republic and Germany playing with bands like Pigalle, Peter Pan Speedrock, Banane Métalik, Métisolea, Les Sales Majestés, Los Tres Puntos, etc... In 2011, the band recorded their third album : “De l’amour, de la mer, et de la mort” (“About love, sea, and death”).
Following this, Woody Dares decided to put his guitar and songwriting ability back into action and recorded his own songs. His first EP is called “La vie est un brouillon” (“Life is a draft”).
Travelling around South East Asia in 2012, Woody found a home in a beautiful Thai island where he was hired to play one hour of Rock’n’Roll every night as a solo leading act, and another couple of hours as a lead guitarist for a Thai Reggae Band (Jah Jah Land).
In 2013 & 2014, Martin Joly and Patrick Becknell joined him to create a high energy power trio that went by the name of Woody Dares & The Western’s Toners. They were touring around Thailand and Cambodia playing songs from 1936 to 2014, cover tunes and original compositions from blues to folk, punk to funk, jazz for good measure, and that good old fifties rockabilly.
After that, Woody decided to settle in Cambodia and open his own music venue : Straycats Bar. For years (2014-2019), the place welcomed musicians from all over the world and hosted what might have been the best jams of South East Asia. The place got sold due to the chinese invasion, the massive deforestation, and the destruction of what used to be a paradise just a few years back.
Woody then became a professor at Phnom Penh University of the Arts and lead a few different courses : jazz guitar, band performance, rhythm, and recording. At the same time, he taught drums, bass, piano and guitar in private lessons for Soundskool and Music Arts School, as well as perfoming concerts in numerous bars, restaurants and hotels around the city and beyond.
Overall, Woody Dares has done over 1000 shows in France, Germany, Swisstzerland, Crezch Republic, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia & Laos.
Woody is currently touring in France with two different projects : a duo with double bass player Kilian Landais and a four-piece rockabilly band named Killbilly.
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