William Dorey Biography, Family, Girlfriend, Net-Worth, Images, Songs & More

William Dorey (born June 20, 1991, Swanage, United Kingdom ) better known as his music moniker Skinshape, is a British singer, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ based in London. His music has sounds of funk, indie, soul, reggae, psychedelic rock, Afrobeat, and folk.

In addition to the Skinshape project, Dorey has also been a bassist for the band Palace (2014-2017). He has his own record label, called Horus Records, which reissues Jamaican reggae songs from the 60s-80s.

Skinshape

Dorey in 2019

Personal information

Birth name

William Dorey

Birth

June 20, 1991 (30 years)
Swanage, UK

Home

London

Nationality

British

Professional information

Genders

psychedelic rock, reggae, funk, trip-hop

Life & Career

Dorey got his start in music as a teenager, creating instrumental hip hop tracks from experimenting with samples on reel recorders. It was influenced by Pink Floyd, from the psychedelic music of the 60s, as well as the African sounds of Fela Kuti or Orchestra Baobab.

Skinsahpe (2014-)

Starting in 2010, Dorey would do his first concerts, which were DJ sets. He began work on what would become Skinshape's first album in 2013. This self-titled album was released under the Melting Records label in October 2014.

Dorey writes the music and lyrics and plays most of the instruments himself, including most of the vocals. He also collaborates with other musicians for additional instruments and vocals.

He records his music primarily at The Arch Studio in North London, but also on his home set, where he creates and mixes tracks.

Oracolo (2015) and Life and Love (2017)

Skinshape released their second album Oracolo in 2015. The cover for Oracolo ('oracle' in Italian) was designed by New York artist Jared Buschang. The album was remastered in 2020.

A third album Life and Love was released in 2017.

Palace (2014 - 2017)

Dorey was the bassist for the band Palace from 2014 to October 2017. One of the reasons Dorey quit was that he didn't like performing live; he preferred to remain anonymous, so no live acts as Skinshape, nor does self-promotion.

Filoxiny (2018)

Filoxiny is a corruption of the Greek word φῐλοξενῐ́ᾱ philoxenia, literally "love for strangers", and according to Dorey, it refers to a form of "evolved hospitality".

Strings and horns appear regularly throughout the album, which Dorey calls "the soundtrack to an imaginary movie." Thomas H. Green, a regular music critic for The Telegraph and Mixmag, writing for The Arts Desk, described the songs of Filoxinyfeaturing Pink Floyd vocals such as "scintillating, icy downtempo jazz." Filoxiny was included in "354 albums to let your mind" of Q Magazine.

Umoja and Arrogance is the Death of Men (2020)

A fifth album Umoja ('unit' in Swahili ) was released on Lewis Recordings in 2020 and received generally positive reviews, with special praise for its adoption of African rhythms. This album presents vocals in five different languages.

Dorey's sixth album, Arrogance is the Death of Men, was released in November 2020, although it had originally been said that it would be released on December 4 of that same year. Dorey reportedly wrote a significant part of a sixth album while locked due to the pandemic COVID-19.

The single I Didn't Know appears on the soundtrack of the Netflix movie All the Bright Places released on February 28, 2020. The single Summer appears on the 2020 Netflix series Outer Banks (ep. 3). The song Heartache appears on the soundtrack of the movie Who Needs Enemies.

Discography

Albums

Skinshape LP (2014), Melting Records
Oracle (2015), Beatnik Creative
Life & Love (2017), Dloaw & Co.
Filoxiny (2018), Lewis Recordings
Arrogance is the Dead of Men (2020), Lewis Recordings
United (2020), Lewis Recordings

Singles and EPs

Mandala (2015)
Summer (2016), Beatnik Creative
I Didn't Know (2019), Gemini (46)
Soul Groove (2021), Lewis Recordings

Skinshape Discography on Discogs.

Skinshape (William Dorey) | Wiki, Biography, Family, Albums, Songs, Discography, Reviews