| Page 1 2 3 4 Daniel Smith: Carrying on the Famile Business (Oh, Brother…) by Russell BartholomeeI’m pretty sure God wanted me to do this interview. I know, that probably sounds a little Jerryfallwellian (or is it Patrobertsonesque?), but bear with me here. The thing is that I sent a request to Daniel Smith’s publicist asking if it might be possible to set up an interview in conjunction with the recently released DVD of Danielson: A Family Movie, a documentary about Smith’s music and art. And on the same day I sent the request, there was a screener of the DVD in my mailbox, sent by the self-same publicist with an accompanying note saying that I should contact him if I was interested in an interview. A few weeks went by, and I didn’t hear anything. In the meantime, I ordered a copy of the Danielson Famile’s excellent record Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Chopping Block from Amazon. A couple of days later, I sent a follow-up request for the interview. The same day (I am not making this up) I received in my mailbox yet another copy of the DVD (this one with bonus features). To top it off, a couple of days later, I got the CD from Amazon, and in my email inbox was a message granting my request for an interview. Seriously. I started looking around my yard for possible signs of burning shrubbery. (FYI, There was none). Whether as a result of divine intervention or not, I was very grateful to get to speak with Daniel Smith, who has been on my interview wishlist for some time. The first time I heard one of his songs, I was hooked. It sounded like absolutely nothing I had heard before. With the Danielson Famile, Smith sings (sometimes in a shocking falsetto) and plays guitar, backed by his sisters, brothers, wife, and best friend. When they perform live, they sometimes wear matching uniforms. For a long time, it was matching white nurse’s outfits. When he performs alone, Smith has been known to wear a life-size tree costume, with his head and arms poking out the front and sides, under branches laden with fruit. He is also an accomplished visual artist, whose work sometimes appears in gallery shows (not to mention all his album covers). Moreover, Smith is unique in that his music comes from two very different (in conventional terms, nearly contradictory) places. On one hand, he has plenty of indie credibility. He’s recorded with legendary producer Steve Albini, artists like Deerhoof and Sufjan Stevens have appeared on his records, and he runs a well-respected independent label (Sounds Familyre). And while he has certainly developed a sound and vocal style all his own, he shares some sonic attributes with cred-draped artists like the Pixies and Bob Dylan. On the other hand, he’s unabashedly and overtly spiritual, with the majority of his work exploring themes dealing with the relationship between God and mankind. The fruit on the tree costume referenced above represents the nine fruits of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament. Because of this, Smith’s music is often ignored both by the secular indie crowd (who are sometimes put off by the spiritual nature of the work) and by the Contemporary Christian scene (who are put off by the unconventional vocals and the fact that Smith is perfectly willing to play nightclubs). This is explored in detail in Danielson: A Family Movie, a documentary by J.L. Aronson. The film itself is quite good; Aronson does a nice job of showing Smith’s development as an artist over a period of several years. We see the obvious joy that he and his real-life family members have making music together, as well as the frustration that comes when the members of that family go to college, get married, and generally move on with their lives. Aronson presents the views of fans and critics alike, and interestingly, the fans seem to be about evenly split between people who are mainly attracted to the spiritual content and people who are mainly attracted to the music. In one of the most intriguing segments, we see former Famile band member Sufjan Stevens come into his own as a recording artist while Smith works on his first album without the rest of his family. In terms of filmmaking, the sequence is a little distracting (you have to wonder if Stevens’ sudden popularity convinced Aronson to beef his part up a little), but it’s also inspiring to see Smith creating some of his most compelling work in the face of these challenges (the magnificent Brother : Son, recorded under the Br. Danielson moniker). The film ends with the release party for Ships, which was one of my favorite records of last year, and which should have – by all rights – become a huge hit for Daniel Smith. But what emerges from the film and from my conversation with Smith is a picture of a genuine artist, one who seeks not fame or fortune or broad acceptance from the secular or Christian mainstream, but simply to create satisfying and original work. Being There: First, I just want to say how much I enjoyed Ships. I thought it was one of the best records of 2006. I had heard previous Danielson Famile records, and so I was familiar with what you do, but – and I hate to use a cliché here – I really feel like you brought the whole thing to a new level. It just seems like the most complete record, sonically, that you’ve made. How does it differ from the Danielson Famile or Br. Danielson records? Daniel Smith: In terms of the writing process, I tell you, it’s not too much different. For me, each record is just a season, and they all kind of build on all the records before that. Ships started out with just a bunch of song fragments. In terms of the actual recording and writing, I think the first phase was with Deerhoof. I think there were six songs I had written to present to them, not really knowing what would happen, but I knew it was going to be a new Danielson album. And we had wanted to work together for quite a while; I’ve been a fan of their music for a long time, and vice versa. So I was on the west coast doing some Br. Danielson shows, and we did some shows with Deerhoof, and then we took some days off and went out to Yosemite State Park, to a cabin there, and set up microphones and taught them the songs. And they just brought their sound to the songs. They brought foundations for six songs. And then I came back and wrote some more tunes that I presented to my brothers, who play drums. So then the Famile, the more standard Danielson Famile rhythm section, ended up being on the rest of the album. BT: And a bunch of other friends and colleagues and others people you’ve worked with over the years came in… DS: Yeah. So the foundation was laid for the whole album, and I met with my friend Ted who played bass and some other instruments on the other records – we go way back – and we worked on orchestration and arrangements for eight of the songs. We wrote sheet music out, and that was a new thing, where I actually sat down and worked on arrangements with somebody, and then brought sheet music to a bunch of musicians. So there were all those overdubs and arrangements, and then we continued with vocals and all that. BT: So there were a lot of recording sessions for this record. And if I understand this correctly, most of the stuff you recorded with the Danielson Famile was more live in the studio, right? DS: Some of the albums. Tell Another Joke at the Ol’ Chopping Block was all done live in the studio, recorded and mixed in four days. All the parts were figured out ahead of time and practiced ahead of time and played live and all that. And same with Fetch the Compass Kids. BT: Is that the one you made with Steve Albini? DS: Yeah. BT: Which approach do you like better: doing everything live or recording in pieces? DS: Well, I like doing things live. Even Ships, like I said, the basic tracks were done live. With Deerhoof, that was all done live. With my family, that was all done live. And then the overdubs were put on later because all the arrangements and more intricate parts took more time to get all that together. But for any recordings I’m involved with, I always try to keep the rhythm section and the foundation of the music live. BT: Can you explain the concept behind the title of Ships – especially as it relates to the suffix “-ships” and how that all works on the album? DS: Yeah. It came out of this word, “Danielsonship,” which was a concept I came up with to celebrate family and friends altogether. Basically the idea is this giant conglomerate of people coming in to help carry the song and take it to where it needs to go. I introduced that during the Tri-Danielson album, and it was kind of this conceptual idea of taking a song and showing three sides of it. And that’s always been the basis of Danielson. I have this song that I write mostly on my own on acoustic guitar, so it’s a bare structure, bare bones, and then I bring loved ones in and friends to bring what they have to bring to the song. And the idea is the song being the center of where the music is going, you know, the song itself. So, it’s a two-part process. One is me alone writing, and the other half of the story is the relationships. And following those, we did a Danielson Famile album, which was celebrating having all of my brothers and sisters together. And then there was a Br. Danielson album, which had a more kind of internal approach – I guess a little more intimate, more lyrical I would say. And then the follow-up was Ships, which was this idea that … And I think watching the movie helped me to realize that that’s what it is that I do. I write these songs, and then I gather people around and welcome everybody in to bring what they have to bring. Ships was a celebration of that. It was speaking about that, but also doing that, where we had more people involved than ever before. BT: I wanted to ask you about the film. How did that even come about? Because, it wasn’t your film, right? I mean you didn’t make it; it wasn’t your idea. DS: No, no. The director J.L. Aronson approached me years ago. He used to work at the Knitting Factory, where we would play a lot. And he had made, I think, one film before that, and he said he wanted to maybe do some kind of movie about Danielson Famile. And I wasn’t interested at all at the time. I didn’t know him, and it just wasn’t something I was interested in doing. But he was persistent, and I got to know him a little better. And he came recommended. So, I mean, there’s a lot of trust issues. Page 1 2 3 4 |  |
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