Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
Originally gaining attention as the front man for Boston punk trio, The Spikes, in the early ’80s, Digney Fignus, is a genre-defying American singer-songwriter, bandleader, and producer, whose career has taken him from the underground punk clubs of Boston, to the top of the national Americana charts.
Digney grew up in Lexington MA, and currently resides in Cape Cod. He confessed, “I started out singing in the choir, that’s not exactly the punk scene,” he quipped. “In high school, I started playing in bands and doing all that kind of stuff.”
In his adult life, Digney found himself the owner of the number one club in the Boston music scene, Streets, as well as performing in his own band that eventually landed a Columbia record deal. That band was a winner of the MTV Basement Tapes competition with their quirky little video for, “The Girl With The Curious Hand.” “It was a very exciting moment in my career, I gotta tell ya,” he said.
Moving forward, the band eventually dissolved and Digney found himself the winner of a songwriting challenge that earned him some recording time as a prize. “I made an EP that ended up getting nominated for a New England country music record of the year – I remember thinking, ‘how did that happen?’ He was mostly writing on an acoustic guitar at that time, due to lack of studio space. But that evolved his sound enough to initiate a genre’ shift for his music.
His latest release, Black and Blue – The Brick Hill Sessions, is a collection of songs recorded over six years, and marks his most adventurous and lyrically resonant work to date. “It recently took a big jump on the Americana charts,” Digney commented. “I recorded this one over a six year period. I moved to the Cape about 10 years ago – and discovered a terrific a music scene; a lot of festivals, especially in the summer time. I also found a terrific little studio. So whenever I had enough music I would go over and record another song.”
Find our more about Digney here. Listen to the full interview here.