Digney Fignus

Hook-laden pop tunes and dance-inspiring rhythms have brought guitarist/vocalist Digney Fignus and his eponymously named band to the forefront of the Boston/Cambridge rock scene. Initially based in punk and new wave music, the group evolved into one of the region's best country bands. A founding member of the Spikes, Fignus helped to spearhead Boston's art rock scene in the late 1970s. Although he left performing for several years while helping his girlfriend, Maryanne Carmel, to run a popular Boston nightclub, Streets, he returned with a vengeance.

Forming his own group in 1983, Fignus struck gold from the beginning. Although only five hundred thousand copies of their first single, "The Girl with the Curious Hand," were printed when originally released on the independent Starstruck label, it became a hit when the video of the tune took top honors in MTV's Basement Tapes competition, in October 1983. In addition to receiving five thousand dollars worth of audio equipment, Fignus and the group attracted the attention of Columbia, who signed them to a recording contract and released their self-titled debut album in 1985.

Increasingly veering towards country music, Fignus remained one of New England's top performers. His album, Boston Town, was nominated as "CD of the year" by the Massachusetts Country Music Awards Association. The son of a bus driver and part-time television repairman, Fignus was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts and raised in nearby Lexington. Inspired by the music of the Beatles, he taught himself to play bass and formed a band with junior high school friends. Attending Lowell Tech for a year, Fignus left school and relocated to southern California, where he continued to sharpen his skills as a musician. Although he joined a local band after returning to Boston, he soon left again to seek fame and fortune in New York. Unable to advance further than playing for loose change on a Broadway street corner, Fignus' dreams of stardom in the Big Apple turned to frustration. Returning again to Boston, he soon found his first success as a member of the Spikes.