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Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Interview with French Davis from Yellow Scene (Boulder)

Q: What led you down this unplugged-lush-strings-and-thick-harmonies path on this latest album?

A: I started thinking about what eventually became Beautiful Empty on a flight to Prague in late November of 2007. I ended up hotel-hopping and walking around by myself in the snow for about three weeks and then came back to Denver and started the process.

I wanted to explore a different direction for me – away from electric guitar-driven, indie/alt/whatever rock and more toward... toward something that breathed more. Something that used orchestral sounds and arrangements, something with a lot more vocal harmonies, less head, more heart than my previous records (Good To Be Born and Why Birds Fly).

I had about 30ish songs written and a pretty concise notion of the sound I wanted to create: I wanted it to sound like musical conversation. I wanted the record to sound like it was patiently recorded in wooden rooms. I wanted it to be the kind of record you could listen to on a snowy Sunday morning or on a late night drive from one town to another or while you cut vegetables in the kitchen… I wanted it to be the kind of record that immediately affects you, but unfolds the more you listen.

So I put together a band of what Miles Davis called “motherfuckers” to make it real. The band includes a bunch of artists and friends of mine from Colorado’s indie music scene. Everyone is ridiculously talented. Here’s the current lineup:

Jess DeNicola – backing vocals
Wes Michaels – cello, saxophone
Adam Revel – piano, Rhodes, organ, samples
Casey Sidwell – bass
Carl Sorensen – drums and hand percussion
John Common – vocals, guitars, piano, songs
Various other friends – various other things

Q: You've picked up the kind of momentum that usually translates into a defection to one Coast or the other. What's keeping you from fleeing the Centennial State?

A: I dunno… If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.

Q: There's a maturity in your sound that shows remarkable restraint--an effective use of space most composers don't start to exhibit until far later in their careers. How did you get there so early?

A: Well… I’m actually 87 years old. But you wouldn’t know it because I exfoliate religiously and use ridiculous amounts of moisturizer.

Honestly, I don’t think I could have made Beautiful Empty if I hadn’t made Good To Be Born and Why Birds Fly first. Those prior two records were very layered and dense… very intellectualized and painstakingly produced. I still love how they sound but there was no need to make them again. I was ready to try a new direction. Isn’t that the whole point – to keep pushing your self into unfamiliar territory?

Q: Musically, there are a number of influences that seep through to me. What stands out to you?

A: Oh man… I’m probably too close to accurately answer that question. What someone hears in a record is often very different from what influenced or inspired the artist who made it. And then you have the issue of how one person’s Wilco is another person’s Bread, or whatever.

I can tell you several records that I used as sonic signposts when we were making Beautiful Empty, each one for different reasons:
Sufjan Stevens, Illinoise; Robert Plant/Allison Kraus, Raising Sand; Calexico, Hot Rail; Nick Drake, Bryter Layter; Mark Kozelek, What’s Next To The Moon.

Q: Same question, lyrically.

A: My lyrics, especially on Beautiful Empty, come from a very, very personal place. I only say that because I have never written lyrics any other way. I just have to trust that the more honest and specific I am, the better chance I have at some sort of universality. I love that paradox of writing… how emotional and psychological specificity actually makes things more relatable. But I digress.

I’m sure that I’m influenced by all kinds of things in my lyrics… including some other songwriters, but, mostly just literary writers and poets that I love. I don’t really want to know what influences my lyrics, actually. I’d rather keep it a secret from myself.

Q: Who's on your iPod these days?

A:
Mambo Sinuendo by Ry Cooder & Manuel Galban
Wilco (The Album) by Wilco.
Permalight by Rogue Wave
Plastic Beach by Gorillaz
And this mix CD of hip hop and 70s soul that Casey (bass player) just made me.

Q: Pick the 5 most important albums in history. Why these particular albums?

A: Damn you, French Davis. I can only tell you the 5 most important albums in MY history:

Rain Dogs by Tom Waits
Songs From A Room / Songs Of… by Leonard Cohen (a tie, I’m cheating)
Acadie by Daniel Lanois
Decade by Neil Young (a double record, I’m still cheating)
Somethin’ Else by Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Hank Jones, Sam Jones, Art Blakey

Q: Who are some of your favorite local bands and why?

A: The Inactivists. Because they take absurdism so seriously and I love them for that.

Q: What are some of your favorite local venues and why?

A:
Bluebird. Because I love curtains.
Fox Theatre. Because their stage and sound are very good.
Walnut Room. Because their green room is really dark. (I wish they’d add a stage door though.)
The Ogden. Because their monitor system sounded like mains.
Soiled Dove. Because their curtains automatically retract and every time we’re there, I think of that automatonic Chuck E. Cheese band.

Q: What's the most frustrating part about what you do?

A: Balancing the art stuff with the business stuff.

Posted By John Common at: 8:05 pm

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Saturday, May 8th, 2010

Interview with French Davis from Yellow Scene (Boulder)

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