Biography

Synth Noir for the Faint of Heart: Sidetrack Walker delivers hauntingly human gut punches.

Born in a cultural wasteland, settled in the northern gloom of Kiel, and made a home in sound: I’m Dominik Sonders, and Sidetrack Walker is how I make sense of it all.

Dark yet polished, my music draws from Synth Pop, Trip-Hop, Singer-Songwriter intimacy, and Drum’n’Bass urgency – but still bears the mark of my Doom Metal and Prog Rock roots. My vocals often take the lead: emotionally bare, and not for everyone.

I tried bands but went solo in 2015 to stay true to my vision. Coming from piano, guitars and drums, I bring a songwriter’s mindset to synths and treat them as bandmates. This shift helped shape Sidetrack Walker’s intense, genre-fluid sound.

At its core, my music is about raw authenticity and wearing your heart on your sleeve. It aims to disarm, devastate, and ultimately heal. Like therapy, it confronts harsh truths to open up fresh perspectives. As Tom Slater (Withered Hands Podcast) put it, “You don’t see it coming.” That’s the impact I aim for: visceral, unexpected, and hauntingly human.

Listeners describe my music as “heavy without being heavy,” “totally strange & different,” and – my favourite – “a little too ambitious for us” (a label’s polite no that became my badge of honour).

But it’s not all doom and gloom: my honest, intimate songwriting is interspersed with dark humour and tongue-in-cheek social commentary. The plight of minorities – especially neurodiverse people – is a theme close to my heart.

From songwriting to mastering, I handle it all. When you press play, what you hear is me – uncompromising and unfiltered.

… Apart from the good old resonant low-pass filter.

Reviews

“[Deprivation] has a subtlety to it that gently builds and weaves its story both in and around you with its calming, almost funk like grooves”

“Undeniably, Sidetrack Walker […] has a knack for composing soft and atmospheric melodies that are easily accessible.”

“a magnificent album in its contrasts”

“Sidetrack Walker offers us intimate compositions, the reflections of an artist who does not feign his emotions”

“an incredible mix of dark psychedelic jazz and trip-hop, which could work well as the soundtrack for surreal horror”

“It’s wonderful to immerse yourself in the various songs, soak up their energy and let it recharge your batteries.”

“abundant with dark, sparkling jewels of Chamber Pop“

“[W]hat blew me away the most about Will to Leave was the sheer distinction. Sidetrack Walker’s tendency to pull from a myriad of genres […] allowed their sound to spill an alchemic amount of atmospheric intensity.”

“Soft guitar timbres meet piano notes, sometimes challenging, sometimes soothing. They combine with the powerful and emotional vocals to form outstanding arrangements which will draw you deeper and deeper into the darkly romantic world of Sidetrack Walker.”

“The album’s strongest suit must be the arrangements with their delicate balance of piano, guitars, voice and a mostly gentle rhythm section. All of this combines to form a variant of singer-songwriter Art-Rock that is sometimes folky, sometimes influenced by Art-Pop or Alternative Rock. […] All you’ll need is to establish, or to find within yourself, the focus and relaxation necessary to properly savour the delicate music on ‘Come What May’ […].”

“[T]he album begins with the stark, plaintive notes of ‘Behind the Scenes’; a brooding proggy number loaded with elegant misery. Folky acoustic guitar, sorrowful vocals and sparse piano create a lush soundscape that gets the album off to a promising start.”

“We will fall under the haunting charm of the little miracles of ‘Savour’ and ‘Ghost Stories’. Dominik’s main quality is to infuse his compositions with musical structures of impressive effectiveness. The development initiated at the beginning of the melody transforms and blossoms with its abundance of harmonies and superb instrumental parts […].”