Biography
Indie pop project the Reds, Pinks & Purples is the creation of singer/songwriter Glenn Donaldson, someone dedicated to the pristine melodies and unvarnished emotions of mid-period Sarah Records and indie pop outsiders like East River Pipe. Working mostly alone, he released a string of singles and albums, like 2021's exquisite Uncommon Weather, that showcase his vision, intimate vocals, and unerring way with a hook.
Before launching this project, Donaldson notably played in lo-fi psychedelic pop duo the Skygreen Leopards, the Television Personalities-loving Art Museums, and a host of other projects like the heavy shoegaze duo Vacant Gardens and his lo-fi psych-folk project the Ivytree. Donaldson launched the Reds, Pinks & Purples in 2015 on a split single with the Piano Movers and Michael O of the Mantles. It took a couple more years before the project was heard again. In 2018, there were two singles/demos released: "Uncommon Weather" and "Human Life." The songs were recorded in Donaldson's San Francisco apartment, specifically the kitchen. Thanks to modern recording techniques and his own skills, they jangled just as cleanly and sounded as big as something made in a fancy studio. A full collection of songs titled Anxiety Art was released by Pretty Olivia Records in September 2019, then the I Should Have Helped You EP was issued in 2020 by the I Dischi Del Barone label. That proved to be a busy year in Donaldson's kitchen as the You Might Be Happy Someday album came out on Tough Love Records in October and another single, "Let's Pretend We're Not in Love,'' followed the next month. In early 2021, he released a record he made in 2018 with Woods' Jeremy Earl under the name Painted Shrines. The Reds, Pinks & Purples then returned with Uncommon Weather, the project's first album for the venerable Slumberland label.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
