Dan, could you share your earliest experiences with music and what inspired you to pursue a career in the industry?
I grew up in a household where music was a regular feature, from my parents’ influence into growing up with the Eighties hits on the TV, such as Top of the Pops or Saturday morning children’s TV. My parents played a lot of music for me and my sisters, such as Paul McCartney, John Lennon, ABBA, Elvis Presley, John Denver etc. My earliest memories of music goes back to my childhood, looking back it’s amazing actually how much music we heard in our childhood, how much music we soaked up. From early on I loved music and heard of lot of mainstream singers and bands, it was only looking back that I realised how much we had got to know. Music was a constant in our world, always in the background, we didn’t think much about it, it was always there. For me it evolved from my childhood to my adolescence, I guess it was only natural I would want to learn an instrument one day, to sing and write, to replicate those early experiences.
How would you describe your musical style, and what distinguishes your sound from other industry artists?
Although I’m often compared to Neil Young, I wasn’t that influenced by his music, although I had heard ‘Harvest’ and ‘After The Gold Rush’, my main influence had been Dylan. However, there was a live BBC TV Show Neil Young did back in the seventies, that did stand out for me, seeing him in an intimate live space naturally making music, just him and acoustic guitar, harmonica and a piano. Ironically, I had an early leaning to pop music, something which is often seen as not as ‘cool’ maybe, but that mainstream pop high stayed with me. Although my work would veer far from that style and sentiment as the years progressed, that always stayed with me. That pop sounding high was sometimes something I wanted to re-capture, even though my music was always alternative, and not mainstream. From early on it was a natural aspect of my writing to keep it varied, to soak up as many influences as I could so I had more options when creating songs, more choice and flexibility, rather than one style.
I always strived to flex those styles, to put myself to the test, to find new things in the music. I certainly didn’t always achieve what I wanted, songs and albums could be regarded as not having worked, but that wasn’t the point, I was trying new things, different approaches, new ways of thinking and writing that would stretch myself as a musician. Sometimes I’ve looked back and thought, ah why didn’t I just play it safe and just stick to something that worked, something that could have easily pleased a listener or audience. I think all I ever wanted to be was a real artist, as clichéd as that could sound. That approach took me on a journey through my work which has been my experiences, and the music which came out of those experiences and journey.
Are specific elements or themes consistently appearing in your body of work?
I think the central themes to my music, as I see it in my mind, would be; the individual, the world and the unknown. These are the central themes to my work, everything I’ve written and created has come from these three foundations. For example, the relationship of the individual to themselves, which could be me, someone else, or who I am singing about or to in a song, and also this relationship to the outside world, basically an inner and outer world expressed through the songs. I first came across the idea with Ramsey Campbell’s horror stories, where he ventured into these themes, a psychological landscape. Early on, the ‘landscape’ became a central idea to my work, like you could draw or paint a landscape, in as much or as less detail as you wanted, this abstract formed the songs, the structures, the images, the lyrics, story and narrative, the feeling. Ramsey Campbell had used these ideas to great effect in creating a psychological landscape of atmosphere and experience, this often grounded my approach.
This was central to my song writing from early on and gradually effected even how I would arrange the songs, the set lists on albums or live shows and even how I viewed performances – for example, in a project I did a few years ago called ‘The Basement Sessions’, we mostly just performed with 2 or 3 chords repeated over and over again, but the performance, the music would rise and fall, build and quieten, pick up and slow down, sometimes for long performances. It was a soundscape, a landscape to mirror the lyrics and the narratives. I often gave a nod towards these methodologies in my album art; I’ve mostly drawn and created my own album art, which is why there were at times front covers with just a scene, some hills or fields, just a setting where these songs would take place.
Can you walk us through your typical song writing process, explaining how you generate ideas and transform them into fully-fledged songs?
I started off just playing around on my acoustic guitar, trying different chords and coming up with melodies that came to me, that was how I started writing songs, probably common for a lot of songwriters. I would just pick up the guitar if I felt like it and hum and mumble some words until I could hear a song there, sometimes it worked and a lot of early songs came from that. I did that for many years. I also tried the same process on a keyboard, which changed the feel of the songs, I only know a few chords on a keyboard but that sometimes changed things for me. In recent years I had to change that approach, at times I struggled to pick up an instrument and do that still. Instead I’ve sometimes written the song titles first, and then songs might come to me and I’ll note them down. I’d imagine from the song title what the sound will be, if it will be slow or upbeat, band sounding or acoustic, what the lyrics, story and feel will be like etc.
For some years I’ve just made notes on my mobile phone, as I carry it with me everywhere. If I get an idea or a lyric or an idea comes to me I note it down. I then come back to it later and craft those notes into actual lyrics and songs; I edit and re-edit everything into something that works. Sometimes I’ll be out and about and someone will say something, or I’ll see a sign or something written somewhere and it’ll trigger an idea, I’ll remember it or note it down and come back to it. I’ve currently got a file on my computer with lots of these ideas which I sometimes come back to and finally realise into songs. I have a few album ideas for example, but they haven’t made it into actual recorded albums, but I may come back to them one day. There’s a few albums I’d like to record from these. These have been my main approaches, however recently I’m trying to get back to coming up with song ideas more naturally than consciously writing things down. I have a handful of tunes with a few lyrics that have come to me in my dreams, I’ve woken up with a melody and lyric in my mind and then quickly recorded it on my mobile before I forgot it.
This has happened a few times over the years, that a song has come to me in my dreams. An early example of this was a song called ‘Oh Rich Souls’, I woke up with the chorus in my mind and then soon recorded it with just me and keyboard, so I didn’t forget the song. Another song which differed from these approaches was a more recent song called ‘Rings of Saturn’ – when I had been learning the guitar back in ’93 I had played the A to the Am chords and then repeated it, it reminded me of Stanley Kubrick’s ‘2001 Space Odyssey’. However, I was just learning the guitar and didn’t have the ability to do anything with it. I remember later reminding myself of this moment, in the introduction of my 2001 song ‘Time Traveller’, using that A to Am change, it had a space feel. Then, in 2016 I finally came back to that idea to write a song, using that chord change and writing ‘Rings of Saturn’.
“Chronology – Story Seasons – 2013-2018 (Nine)” spans several years. How did you decide on the specific time frame for this compilation, and what significance do these years hold for you?
When compiling ‘Chronology – Story Seasons’ I wanted a representative series of songs spanning from the very start to when the compilation was released late last year. In some ways it was easy to choose which songs from which albums – I looked back at each album remembering which songs had stood out as the best tracks, either to me, or to friends at the time. Of course I admit there were poor albums throughout ‘Chronology’, however, to be fair to the albums, there were often 2 – 3 good songs on each album, something that could redeem an album. Obviously this wasn’t intentional at the time, when I made albums, I was following my own muses and interests, I felt I was tapping into something as they say, but I guess it was a saving grace when coming to this compilation. Each part of ‘Chronology – Story Seasons’ highlights the best tracks of each album, from either one track to a few tracks which stood out at that time. That’s as far as I could go in bringing this set together, I think as an artist all you can do is do what you do, and then other things are made sense of by other people. Ironically, when I make compilations, which I’ve made a lot of through the years, I’m balancing different interests, although I think my ‘best of’ compilations can garner the most criticism than the albums. Because I’m not a well known or famous artist with ‘hits’, I have always been compiling perceived ‘hits’, songs which I would imagine stood out. Of course, this is very subjective, although at times I don’t even include songs I necessarily like that much, but I acknowledge they were liked by friends or fans.
(mobile phone recordings)’. With that period, it was kind of transitional, I had begun 2013 with a kind of religious vibe, like Dylan had done with his Christian period, it verged on activism at times, something I later consciously pulled back from. That part of the compilation went from there to ‘The Crash’, where I started to depart from those feelings, to separate myself from those tendencies, to write more natural songs, such as love songs or songs about life. The period ended with just me and a mobile phone, catching moments with simple songs, simple sentiments. Maybe as the years have passed I’ve tried to wipe away anything that is less me, less authentic, to eventually find myself through the songs and albums, find my sound – like a photograph gradually coming into focus, maybe that’s a theme of ‘Chronology’.
The album title suggests a journey through different seasons. How does “Waitin’ on Your Love” fit into the broader narrative of “Chronology – Story Seasons – 2013-2018 (Nine)”?
I wrote and recorded ‘Waitin’ on Your Love’ with an album in 2016 I titled ‘Country Heart’. That song was a simple blues rock number which I felt represented the album as a single, along with another song ‘To Have & To Hold’. Going through a transition with the albums, I was gradually peeling away where I had started – gone were the songs of activism, or a bigger production, any big expressions were becoming simplified, I was finding my voice in a more traditional approach to songs – such as country rock, rock and blues. I had always veered to creating something different and new, in my mind anyway, but by ‘Country Heart’ it was new and different to me to be embracing these old music styles in my own way. Throughout a lot of albums in the back catalogue, I’m often starting again, taking a new direction in some way, ‘Country Heart’ was typical of this – at the end of the previous album it had gotten deep, singing in the shade, now I wanted to come back out into the Sun, with something more upbeat and light. Well, that was the intention. ‘Country Heart’ was a paradoxical album I guess – the idea had been to strip everything back to a simple sound, vocal, guitar, bass and drums, like Dylan had done with ‘Nashville Skyline’, simple songs. Maybe I failed at this; there was still a darkness with ‘Country Heart’, but at least I was looking to better times, and something lighter with that album.
“Waitin’ on Your Love” is a standout track from your latest album. What inspired the song and its lyrics?
‘Waitin’ on Your Love’ is a typical style for me, something that’s often familiar in my music – for instance, the narrator is walking, thinking, and looking around at the world around, the song comes from that. This situation has a lot in the background – the narrator is thinking about a love interest, maybe real or imagined, with thoughts and feelings passing by, such as the lyrics. I also wanted a feeling of movement – the narrator of the song is waiting but he has to keep moving. As I’ve mentioned about a landscape, I kind of create a world in a song, and that’s where my inspiration and imagination comes from. Even this simple song, this simple situation intimates towards something beyond, something beyond the narrator’s mind and also the landscape which surrounds the narrator. I think with this song, like many of my songs, I’m combining both simple abstract themes and ideas with variance on the top. Basically I repeat a lot of things in my songs, but mostly reinvent these same motifs and ideas, changing it to whatever song I’m writing. Maybe my songs are always the same thing, but looking at something from different angles.
Can you take us through the creative process of producing “Waitin’ on Your Love”?
My ideal way of recording would be to capture a live band and then clean it up a bit in post production, however, without knowing any professional session players, or having the funds to hire a producer or studio, it just isn’t possible yet. However, that would be my ideal method of recording. However, ‘Country Heart’ as with other albums from around that period, was the best I could produce with my limited abilities. I’m not a producer, although I can act as a sound engineer, recording instruments and getting the sound and levels right etc. The album, such as ‘Waitin’ on Your Love’ was a stripped down sound, just vocal, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, bass and drums. I had wanted to create sleeker songs, with a stripped down sound, something I would strip down even further in the years ahead, eventually just recording vocal and acoustic guitar.
I had been criticised that the tracks were demo-like and not produced properly, but I’m not a professional producer, I did my best with little money and circumstances. Besides, to me it was just the songs as I wrote them with a bit of accompaniment, it wasn’t anything commercial sounding or mainstream, it wasn’t supposed to be overly produced, I was ok it was under produced. As with a lot of my albums, I had an overall theme and sound in mind, with ‘Country Heart’ it was more an emotional landscape, expressing feelings and thoughts at that time, such as ‘Waitin’ on Your Love’.
Are there any memorable moments from collaborative efforts, particularly in the creation of “Waitin’ on Your Love”?
With ‘Waitin’ on Your Love’ and it’s album ‘Country Heart’ I was using overdubs to record, I recorded my vocal and guitar and then sent the Wav files to a drummer I hired, Eric Puente who lived in New York. Eric then recorded his drums as an overdub. I had a good working relationship with Eric for some years, I think from 2015 to 2018. I also asked a friend of mine, Guy Cuthbert, who had played bass in local bands for many years, I asked him to add some bass, just to give it a bit of life. I then added two electric guitar parts to fill out the sound a bit. It was a simple sound, but it was the best I could capture at the time. It was really just the three of us that put that album together, I had some variety in mind with a few songs, so they all didn’t sound the same, but overall it was a collaborative effort, which was typical of my albums from 2010 until 2019. If there was anything good on those albums, I would usually owe it to other musicians and players who brought something out, as I couldn’t always do that on my own.
How do you cultivate a connection with your audience, and what role do your fans play in shaping your artistic journey?
Obviously I’m not a well known or famous singer, I must admit my whole thing is more niche and obscure, you’d have to look for my music and find it, discover it really. I’m very disciplined with what I release in that I always try and remain true to the work, and my vision for the work, even if I fail at times. I don’t do social media, obviously I’ve been told I should do, to get my music out there, but I have mixed feelings about it. I know that on one hand it’s a great tool to use, but I was never sure about it. I’m not anti social media, I just feel, for me personally I don’t feel that comfortable selling myself online, or promoting myself – I tried this once with a record label, to get out there, I did it for a year signed to an independent record label – I found the whole thing kind of bemusing, clicks and numbers on a screen to represent value to someone’s work, I had mixed feelings about it. Maybe I’m too old school, but I sometimes feel maybe there should be some mystique with an artist anyway, not regular posts on a social media platform. Of course, I’m not against it, I understand it, I may one day feel differently about it, but for the time being I’m not worried about it.
Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for your musical career, and how do you envision your sound evolving in the future?
Although I am currently focusing on a rough schedule to release my back catalogue over the next two or three years, after this I have had a few ideas of what I would like to go onto do. For me, releasing my work, finally, would be the foundation which I could then build on. For instance, I have had an idea to record a discography from scratch – I had the idea to take my ‘official’ albums, about 50 of them, and then record them properly, how I’d ideally like to record them – I’d organise all of the songs in chronological order with each album, including outtakes and alternate takes, and re-record each set of songs as albums. I may do this in the future, at some point in my fifties, although at the moment I don’t have the circumstances to do this – I’d ideally want to record with a live band, possibly with a producer and session musicians – oh well, it may stay an idea, but I guess you never know. Another idea I have is once I’ve released ‘Chronology’ is to write my autobiography in the form of liner notes to the albums – from 1993’s ‘The Nunthorpe Tapes’ until present – that seemed like an interesting idea to me, as it would give me more things to play with – I could write about my music, the background to the albums, my life, situations and events, etc, and wrap it altogether in the form of a series of chronological album liner notes. I like the idea of putting the music first, and then later, as a footnote, my life, after all, it was about the music and not me. Of course, the only other idea I’ve had, is an obvious one, if I am able to, to get back into live performances. Ironically, even with such a bewildering amount of material, my best work is maybe live, my work is possibly better live, which may be something I’ll think about, producing less albums, and performing more. I may also record new material more professionally, maybe with a producer. It’s crossed my mind I could have a contrast and comparison with ‘Chronology’, the first recordings, and then the new recordings, which are more professional. However, I digress, and I dream! As they say, life happens when you’re busy making plans. I touch wood; as long as I’m still alive then maybe I can do something.
