Brighton date as singer-songwriter Dave Arcari captures live feel on new album
Scottish blues/roots/Americana singer-songwriter Dave Arcari plays Komedia, Brighton on Saturday, March 7 to promote his latest album Still Friends.
His eighth solo album, it features 12 self-penned acoustic tracks. Six streaming-only singles in advance of the album’s release attracted a steady flow of radio airplay across the UK, Europe and beyond which Dave believes helped build anticipation for the release.
The album was highlighted as pick of the month on its release by the UK Independent Blues Broadcasters’ Association. It has also been shortlisted by the UK Blues Federation in the album of the year category of the UK Blues Awards 2026, and Dave has been shortlisted in the awards’ acoustic artist of the year and traditional blues artist of the year categories.
The album is available on limited edition violet vinyl, CD and streaming/download via all digital services. The entire production was funded in the first week of a month-long Kickstarter campaign in 2025.
As Dave says, it’s an album that really captures what he wanted it to capture, stripped back, all acoustic with no overdubs – and all recorded in his own studio.
“It is my eighth album-length release. It's my seventh studio album. There was a double live album on vinyl which I did a few years ago. Over the years in my past life I'd run a recording studio and I've done a lot of audio stuff and I guess I have a background in audio production but I also have my own studio. It was only ever meant to be for demo-ing stuff and songwriting. The solo stuff started about 2004 and the first few albums were mixed and mastered in what I would call proper studios, quite reputable studios.”
But for this album, Dave wanted to capture a live sound. The DIY approach and the Kickstarter campaign ensured that the costs were manageable.
“I have done albums that I have recorded at home and then have mixed in other studios but I decided with this one that I wanted to record it and mix it and master it myself to keep the costs down. The potential benefit was that I was going to have time. You don’t need a huge amount of time but if you're in a commercial studio and you go for a toilet break then it's the most expensive toilet break you will ever have!
“It also gives you more control. But it's not just about the control. My wife is no sound engineer but she knows how I sound live and it's just so difficult to capture that even though I'm playing live in a studio. Somehow you don't get the sweat and the spit that you get when you're actually playing live at a gig. The live album obviously captured that but it was pretty rough around the edges. But I think I've managed to capture that on this album. The home recording software and equipment has got a bit better at not sounding quite so digital.
“And I just found it quite a nice stress-free way of doing it. When I was back running a commercial studio I did find it difficult to try to perform and engineer and produce all at the same time but I think my set-up now is such that there is a good workflow to it all, and I have the technology that I need to be able to control it.”