Having just released his debut album Firestarter the next couple of months are set to be a busy time for Brisbane’s Dan Parsons. Following the early reward of triple j rotation for the album’s title track, Dan will be treating Brisbane and Melbourne folk to some intimate solo shows in the next couple of weeks before packing up himself and band for their first interstate jaunt.

Acting as a snapshot of recent life experiences, Firestarter tells Dan’s personal story as someone who after spending his high school years emulating seventies heroes on a reel-to-reel eight track, leaves his bedroom and begins tumbling through one blinding, visceral experience after another.

The result is ten tracks of sincere pop that go straight for the jugular- including ‘Back Off’, written about Parsons’ short lived career in labouring hell and ‘Cedar Creek’, a bittersweet tune about his hometown. Others shift and change in the light, music and lyrics pulling against each other. Opener ‘Run With Me’ wears a melancholic demeanour, but glimmers of hope are felt through its understated enthusiasm.