DANNY SCHMIDT —on tour soon! Maurice Hope finds out all you need to know before you go (Media)

[Maurice Hope]

Texas-raised singer-songwriter Danny Schmidt is one of the most talented writers to emerge on the Americana scene this decade and counting. After him winning Kerrville’s New Folk Award in 2007 and critical acclaim of Little Grey Sheep the following year, 2009 saw him debut on Red House with Instead The Forest Rose To Sing.
Schmidt’ s rise to the position he now commands hasn’t as you are about to read been an easy one. Far from it as he has had to battle with sorting out how he could make the music business fit his needs and there was the little matter of mounting debt. A debt incurred due to medical bills was the spark that fuelled him to return to music after his sabbatical and for him to eventually join St. Paul, Minnesota’s 26 years old and counting award winning record label Red House.
Previously he had worked in a sawmill and lived in a commune for several years prior to heading to Charlottesville in Virginia and help found a musician’s co-op called Acoustic Charlottesville and make his first album Live At The Prism Coffeehouse and there is more, both music and talk —plus, if you get off your butt live shows coming soon.




"Where do your influences come from? I noticed some Mississippi John Hurt in your style of guitar playing especially on the opening song"?


Mississippi John Hurt was the reason I bought my first acoustic guitar, and for the first couple of years I did a lot of country blues stuff and it keeps sneaking back in. It is fun to play ‘Better Off Broke’ that bounces along (and opens his current album) a bit and it is nice to have a song like that since a lot of my songs tend to be dark and slow". As the album edges along it becomes more and more mellow until the final song. When you put the sequence of an album together you tend to try different things and see which way the energy level flows best. Sometimes they start slow and then pick up or visa versa —it depends on the songs and the moods of the songs".


"What have been the greatest things you have learnt most since starting regards making a record, what things have you absorbed that now paying dividends"?


"Most of all write what you like writing about. Don’t worry about the response so much, for everyone who likes songs that are simple, there are those who think they are too simple and like complicated songs. It goes with the dark songs too and so on. Mostly, you have to ignore what everyone tells you and do what you think is best.

Some of the songs on the record and other ones you have done tend to get better the more you hear them, which is the case with many outstanding songwriters. They are the songs that tend to stick in people’s minds longest?

Yeah, Neil Young songs are that way with me. Usually, the ones that hit me first time aren’t the ones that stick through it with me, it is the ones where I tend to skip through the first couple of times that have more depth to them. Those that are more difficult to access at the beginning with more depth to them are those with more staying power. I hope there is enough bounce at the beginning to get people hooked on the record and enough on the record that five years on people will be getting more stuff on it".


"There is a song called ‘Grandpa Built Bridges’ what is the story behind it —that assesses how the world is going today"?


"I had some conversations with my friend who was spending time with her grandpa who is 97; her grandma had just passed away as had mine quite recently. Seeing them go through the process and how we don’t do a very good job integrating death into the rest of out lives and how in this fast culture we are discontented with life. When we were farmers we were I feel more connected with things on a daily bases, blossom and the spiritual factor of nature and that is why we don’t handle things too good".


"It didn’t take too long after Red House spotted you for the album to be put out"?


I already had half of it made when they talked with me and soon afterwards we had it finished and ready for release.


"Why did you move away from Austin"?


"Actually, when I moved away and back again it had nothing to do with music. It was because I was born here and grew up here. I moved away to live on a co-operative farm and that is where I started to play music and moved back to be closer to my family. I am just kind of real lucky Austin is a good place for music".


"What decided you to make music your life"?


"I have never decided that (laughs). It is going well and I am enjoying it right now. When I find something else I like or do better I will do that"!


"When you had your health problems you must have thought where do I go from here"?


"It was a crazy time in my life in general. I had just moved back to Texas and the job I had line-up two weeks before I moved here and got sick about four weeks later. So, I was at the in between juncture between jobs and careers it left lots of things in limbo".


"What gave you the inspiration to record Home Recordings"?


"With me in between jobs and no health plan I had huge medical bills and had a bunch of songs that I had not recorded yet. When I finished a song I would record it at home and realised the best way to pay the doctors back was to release Home Recordings and told people that when I got healthy again I was going to do some house concerts to raise the rest of the money I owed. It took me almost a year to get back into music".


"Your record Little Green Sheep I understand was made in fellow musician Paul Curreri’s house"?


"Yeah, do you know him? His wife Devon Sproule was over in the UK this summer playing. I knew Paul from when I lived in Charlottesville, Virginia at the co-operative and played music at the same time and got to meet and become friends with them. I go up there every now and then and made the record in his living room".


"It must be handy for you to be able to leave Texas when you want and go someplace different like their home to record when you feel you are ready"?


The way technology is I know lots of people who will take their hard drive with them and start record while they are on the road. We have got friends all around and will meet at conferences, festivals and stuff. So it is real easy to record in one place and then maybe go to another and have them add a violin or something. Add a part at their house and do another part somewhere else. With Devon and Paul such good friends I am very comfortable and relaxed when I record there."


"Mark Hallman who produced the Instead The Forest Rose To Sing plays a great many instruments to it"?


"Yes, Mark played about half of the extra instruments on the album. He had the ideals and what we envisioned when we handed him the tapes. Across the board we had similar vision of what was needed so it was easy for him to add stuff to it".


"When you were growing up who were the musicians that you listened to and were most influenced by apart from Mississippi John Hurt and Neil Young who you have already mentioned"?


"Bob Dylan, obviously. I liked heavy metal, southern rock. As far as writing goes, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, John Prine, Townes Van Zandt and more recently Dave Carter and friends I play with".


"Have you any songs already written for the next album"?


"I have a few. I haven’t had much chance to write having been on the road so long this last year, but I have a few chick songs that have been lying around for a few years. I have actually just had a meeting this morning about trying to sort out a little more time at home to write, this last year the most I have had off the road at any one time has been 7-10 days. I need quite a chuck of time to write my songs and get away from the day-to-day stuff —the computer and mobile phones".


"It is good to hear you are due back in the UK soon, how did you find the audiences last time"?


"My music isn’t categorised so much there. It doesn’t need to fit in a niche, folk, Americana or indie rock they are just as open to your music. I love playing there. Carrie Elkin is going to be on tour with me, and she will sing on my stuff and likewise I will sing on her stuff. It will be fun having someone with me and I am really looking forward to getting back over and I just can’t wait to get out there"!


Maurice Hope


Danny is on tour with Carrie Elkin in November and December, information and dates here http://flyinshoes.ning.com/profiles/blogs/carrie-elkin-amp-danny-sc...
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