A few months back, Eric Roy Dinwiddie came by the studio to contribute a track to The Pub Album, our collaborative compilation out of Panama Sound. He didn’t bring a polished demo or a tight arrangement plan. He brought a quirky original song, four friends he’d recruited as backup singers, and an afternoon’s worth of good humor.
The song is called “In the Court of the King and Queen of Doubt.” It’s not released yet, but it’s one of my favorite sessions we’ve tracked here, and it says a lot about who Eric is as a musician.
The Session
The tune sits somewhere between lounge music and Frank Zappa, with a healthy dose of Monty Python absurdism and a little Dada thrown in for good measure.
Drew Murray played drums. Bill MacBeath played upright bass — and then, mid-session, ran home to grab his marimba because the song needed it. That’s the kind of day it was.
The four friends Eric brought weren’t there to sing harmony in the traditional sense. They mooed. They clucked. They made snide asides over the top of the track, and Eric welcomed all of it. When a take wrapped and the room settled, his verdict was simple: “Splendid.”
We got it in a handful of live takes with some overdubs layered on top, and then, just like that, everyone packed up and went home. No fuss, no second-guessing. That’s a specific kind of skill — knowing when a song is done and trusting the room to get you there. It’s also exactly the kind of session Panama Sound was built for: an untreated, character-filled space where a marimba run home to fetch mid-afternoon doesn’t feel like a disruption, it feels like the song asking for what it needs.
We’ll let you know when “In the Court of the King and Queen of Doubt” is out in the world. It deserves to be heard.
Who Eric Din Is
If the name rings a bell, it might be from the 1980s Berkeley ska scene. Eric Roy Dinwiddie — known for decades as Eric Din — co-founded The UpTones in 1981 while still in high school.
The band became a fixture at Berkeley Square and other East Bay venues, and helped set the stage for the ska-punk wave that broke nationally in the late ’80s and ’90s.
The “Din” name itself has a mundane origin story that Eric tells with the same dry humor that runs through his songwriting: while doing repair work at Subway Guitars in Berkeley, he shortened his last name on repair tickets to avoid confusion with a coworker who shared his initials. It stuck. In recent years, he’s returned to using his full name, Eric Roy Dinwiddie, on new solo work — a nod to his own roots.
The Solo Catalog
Eric’s solo material, released through his label Berkeley Cat Records, is mostly self-produced out of his home studio — he handles the songwriting, instrumentation, engineering, and mixing himself.
That DIY approach gives the records a loose, unfiltered quality that fits the songs, which range from ska and reggae-rock into synth-pop, schlager, and satirical spoken pieces.
A few places to start:
This Worldly World (2025)
A satirical look at digital-age fatigue and existential drift, delivered with hyper-catchy arrangements. The title track sets the tone, and “Me And The Little This Is Fine Fire Doggie” turns internet-era burnout into something genuinely funny and painfully accurate.
Street Party and CONTENT
Two full-lengths that balance lighthearted hooks with an undercurrent of cynicism. “Content, Content, Content” pokes at the pressure on artists to constantly feed the algorithm, while “Jupiter Girls” leans into playful, outer-space ska-pop.
Genre-bending cuts
“Much Better” features cover art from Bay Area cartoonist Shannon Wheeler, and “A Cat Named Paw” is a layered, home-studio love letter to a cat, produced with the same craft as anything he’s put out.
There’s also Berkeley Cat Records’ archival work — restored UpTones material transferred from 24-track analog tape, including In the Studio 1987, mixed and released decades after it was recorded at Music Annex in Menlo Park.
Where to Find It
- Bandcamp: ericdin.bandcamp.com and ericroydinwiddie.bandcamp.com — the most direct way to support the work, whether digital or physical.
- Streaming: Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube, under Eric Din, Eric Roy Dinwiddie, and Berkeley Cat Records.
- Merch: shirts, totes, and mugs through the Berkeley Cat Records website.
- PodCats: for something different, Everything Is Stupod and Storytime with Din are spoken-word projects hosted on the Berkeley Cat site.
Thanks for spending a day with us, Eric. We’ll be first in line when “In the Court of the King and Queen of Doubt” finally sees daylight.