Early Dave / Early Daze 1976
Hare Krishna days, circa 1988
David – the first of three children – was born in Kent (UK) to Yvonne and Ernest Kingston on November 19th 1959. In the sixties the family uprooted to the Somerset countryside to live without electricity or running water (initially) in an old farmhouse located on the edge of Exmoor. Aged 16 David formed a band ‘Early Daze’ (later renamed ‘Helter Skelter’) with classmates at Minehead Upper school.
From 1980 through to the mid 90s David, then known as Divyasimha dasa, was an active member of the Hare Krishna movement. Many of the ideas and much of the thinking behind David’s lyrics draw on his experience during that period. David has been a vegetarian since 1979.
I continue to regard my membership of the Hare Krishna movement (early 1980s through to mid 1990s) a positive chapter in my life. For me, discovering the mantra chanting and philosophy of Krishna consciousness in my early twenties introduced me to something somehow deeply familiar. Although my outlook today has somewhat evolved into a more personalised brand of god consciousness, with differences in areas of focus* and emphasis to the Hare Krishna movement, I maintain a deep gratitude to the organisation, and especially to the founder A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami.
Home studio
David now lives in Oving, Bucks, England with his social worker wife Deborah, maintains day job as a web developer, and writes / records songs in his home studio. Follow David on Facebook and/or Twitter, and if wish to further explore the philosophy and existential thinking that lay behind many of David’s songs, please visit his blog at Amaiyu.com.
*Whereas the Hare Krishna movement might characterise this world as simply a place of misery wherein fallen souls are trapped by karma into a cycle of repeated birth and death, I now prefer to see it as a place where divinity is being expressed and explored by individual souls in ways of their own choosing, and to imagine that in so doing they contribute and serve the completeness of God. Even in the dark stuff. Somehow.