Dylan Champagne sings about what everybody sings about: love, death, crimes against humanity, the apocalypse, beauty, regret, dreams, space, time, trains, surrealist painters, abandoned theaters, alcoholism, veterans, isolation, salmon fishing, exploding ships, sea-birds, scars, wine, medical conditions, star-crossed lovers, suicide, homicide, cemeteries, the brutality of social Darwinism in elementary school...

Dylan performed and recorded his debut solo album New Equation himself, in his basement. The mixes walk a tenuous line between lush and minimal, and the tone of the recording has been described as "haunting" and "intimate." Dylan's smooth and melodic vocal stylings could be compared to Nick Drake or Iron and Wine, though tonally, thematically, and compositionally the songs might be likened to Nick Cave or even Tom Waits.

The palette includes layered vocals, piano, acoustic and electric guitar, drums, concertina, violin (Joan Wilson Rueter), backup vocals (Val Esway), electric bass, the occasional synthesizer, and various extra percussion / noise. It was mastered by award-winning engineer Myles Boisen, who says of the album: "for every moment where you envision the singer hunched over a beat-up acoustic guitar in his darkened bedroom, there are the luminescent moments of literate, even philosophical brilliance, deliciously-crafted hooks, and musical surprises." 

The album is a new direction for Dylan, who spent the last 8 years in the Oakland math-punk band One Step Shift.

Dylan first began making music in junior high school, inspired by bands like Suicidal Tendencies, Minor Threat, Victim's Family, No Means No, and Operation Ivy. During this time, he sang with questionable results in several bands (most notably in a short-lived one named DOG with Asthmatic Kitty recording artist Rafter Roberts). Somewhere along the line he picked up guitar and piano.

Later, after getting an audio engineering certificate at the Conservatory of Recording Arts and Sciences, he secured an internship at world-famous recording studio Prairie Sun, where he had the opportunity to set up mics for a Tom Waits public service announcement about heroin, wrap cables for a Rambling Jack Elliot session, and bias machines, patch cables and take notes for a Steve Albini / Palace Brothers session.

In 1999, inspired by bands like Sonic Youth, Unwound, Modest Mouse, and Drive Like Jehu, Dylan started a three-piece band called One Step Shift. Over the next eight years, the band released four CDs and a 7-inch, and went on several tours. The band's unique sound was described by reviewers as "technical, sonic post-hardcore" and "guided and purposeful." When the band broke up in November of 2007, Dylan recorded New Equation and began gigging solo.

Dylan was born in San Francisco and now lives in Oakland, CA.