David Click's artist story begins in DeKalb, Illinois, where his early recording, touring, and band work grew out of the same local scene that shaped his first studio and festival work. Before The Oven ATX became a full-scale Austin production hub, Click was already building rooms, booking shows, recording friends, playing guitar, and trying to keep a scene moving.
Band OneAstral Guard
Astral Guard was one of the first bands that put Click into a serious working-band environment. The lineup centered around Carl Nelson on vocals and multiple instruments, Matthew Judson on drums, Jacob Miguel on bass, and Click on guitar. Nelson and Click lived together during this period and co-wrote much of the band's material.
The band connected the DeKalb house-show world to Click's first touring experience. He turned twenty-one on the road with Astral Guard.
Carl Nelson later worked as an audio engineer at WNIJ Northern Public Radio. He passed in 2019.
Band TwoOurglass
Ourglass grew out of the same DeKalb creative circle, with Click and Chris Goranson sharing guitar and vocal duties, Matthew Judson on drums, Mark Walters on bass, and Danielle Guilini bringing classical violin into the band. Earlier versions of the group also included Ross McCully on bass and James G. Clucas on guitar.
The band combined psychedelic guitar, grunge, alternative rock, jazz-trained players, and classical violin into a sound that felt connected to the 1990s without being frozen there. NIU's Northern Star profiled Ourglass around the release of As Above, So Below.
Ourglass is the bridge in Click's musical life. The classically trained violin kid, the DeKalb venue worker, the recording engineer, the festival organizer, and the guitarist all show up inside the same project.
Band ThreeStarved Rock
After the Austin migration, the Ourglass lineage continued under the name Starved Rock, a nod to Starved Rock State Park in Illinois and to the lean years of moving a band, a life, and a studio dream across the country.
The Starved Rock lineup carried forward Click, Chris Goranson, Matthew Judson, and Jacob Miguel. The records were made wherever the work could happen: garages, lofts, apartments, bedrooms, JBTV rooms, Hostel Earphoria, and small studios across Illinois and Texas.
Selected Starved Rock releases include Cursed, Never Surrender (A), Never Surrender (B), Drunk Skunks, and As Above So Below (the continuation and reissue of the Ourglass-era record).
Solo projectClick Music
Click Music is the solo and studio-facing side of David's catalog. The releases sit closer to the polished production end of his work, including Aquatone, Cheated On Me, A Sight for Sore Eyes, Stuck in Your Ways, and Counting the Rings.
Counting the Rings was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Chris Gelin in Chicago, connecting Click's own songwriting back to the Lincoln Hall and JBTV years that shaped him as an engineer.
The throughlineOne long migration
Across Astral Guard, Ourglass, Starved Rock, and Click Music, the story is less about four separate projects than one long migration. DeKalb became Chicago. Chicago became Austin. House recordings became broadcast sessions. Local shows became touring runs. The band room became the studio. The studio became The Oven.
The people changed, the names changed, and the rooms changed, but the purpose stayed the same: make the music real, document it while the people are still in the room, and build a place where the next version can happen.