Ian Dench

Ian Dench (born 7 August 1964, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England) is an English songwriter and musician. Dench was the guitarist and principal songwriter for EMF,^[1] who scored a major international hit reaching number 1 in the United States with "Unbelievable" in 1991.

Biography

Dench has worked with Amanda Ghost since 1995 when they started writing for her Ghost Stories album, which was released in 2000 on Warner Bros. Records

In 2007 they wrote the duet "Beautiful Liar" for Beyoncé and "Shakira", and "Tattoo" for American Idol winner Jordin Sparks.

Beyoncé's 2008 album I Am Sasha Fierce saw a further three Dench/ Ghost collaborations: "Disappear", "Ave Maria", and "Satellites".

From March 2009 until November 2010, Dench was Vice President of A&R at Epic Records in New York, where he A&R'd albums by Alice Smith and Augustana and signed the acts, Progress in Color and HeyHiHello.

Dench won an Ivor Novello Award for "Beautiful Liar" in the Best Selling British Song Category in 2008. In 2009, he was nominated for a Golden Globe as co-writer of "Once in a Lifetime", sung by Beyonce for the film, Cadillac Records. He was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 2010, one as co-producer of two tracks on Beyoncé's album I Am... Sasha Fierce, which was nominated as Album of the Year and the other for "Once in a Lifetime", which he co-wrote with Amanda Ghost, Scott McFarnon, The Rural and Beyoncé.

He co-wrote "Colours" on the Prodigy's 2009 album, Invaders Must Die, and "Red" a top 5 hit for Daniel Merriweather in the UK in May 2009. "Gypsy", another collaboration with Amanda Ghost, was the third single from the album, She Wolf by Shakira.

Dench began his music career playing in a punk band although his father, Harold Dench a classical guitarist, later taught Ian classical guitar. Dench also studied Fine Art at the Ruskin Art College, Oxford University. Before EMF, he was a member of Gloucester based band Apple Mosaic who were signed to Virgin Records. After leaving EMF, he found independent success with the band, Whistler, signed to Wiiija Records. Whistler released two albums, Whistler and Faith in the Morning.

He recently co-wrote the Sub Focus track "Endorphins" reaching No 10 in the UK charts also "Bedroom Hymns" from Florence and the Machine's Ceremonials album, and her collaboration with ASAP Rocky, "I Come Apart". He co-wrote "The Conversation" by Texas, "You can't stop the beat" by Wally Lopez a No 1 radio play record in Spain, "Someone New" for Nick Howard, winner of The Voice of Germany and is currently writing with Young Kato, Joe Keogh of Amber, and Schmidt.

References