Little Bit Of Everything #4
Three more of your questions answered and an early demo of ‘Telescope’
As always, thank you for the questions.
Here we go…
Do you view old songs akin to a journal of your life? Or more a body of work?
I guess it’s a combination. In the early days the songs were very much a journal. Indiscreetly so. And honestly, a little unfair to whoever else was portrayed in the songs. There I was, having a one sided conversation about my failed romantic endeavors, hopefully conjuring up something for people to relate to, but as far as the reality of it is concerned, I’m certain it was highly inaccurate. The only way to correct the record would have been to have the other people the songs were based on write a few verses themselves. Like, maybe she didn’t want me not because her heart was hardened, but simply because I wasn’t the best hang at the time in my life. (That’s just a hypothetical - I like to believe I’m a pretty good hang).
After some years of writing like that I really got hung up on this idea of - If I’m gonna tell a story about myself, I want there to be a point. Some kind of realization. An offering to the listener. It doesn’t have to be profound, but it can’t simply be me just sharing my heartache and assuming that’s enough to make someone else care. Because, when I’ve been in that listener’s position, it IS enough to make me care, and then I’ll be sad on the writer’s behalf, but if there’s no reason for it at the end, some sort of suggestion on how anyone in the writer’s position could move forward, then I feel like I was manipulated, and while that is sometimes enjoyable in a song, manipulated and sad for their own sakes doesn’t feel great to me. Does that make sense? I have felt brought down and left in the mud by songs. I have also felt edified and uplifted - even from the sad stuff. There’s a difference that is hard to put into words and that’s the kind of song I want to write.
I’ve tried to hold onto that principle when writing about personal experiences, but I’ve also just tried to step away from autobiographical writing. Or to at least hold a more honest position on what it really is - hardly autobiographical. Either now or back then. Now that I feel more intentional about playing with what experiences are truly mine and what are dramatized, I feel like I have more control over the potential impact of a song. I also care much much less about a recorded document of my lived experiences and more concerned with a body of work (to circle back to your question) that represents a point of view.
I feel like it takes an investment in a lot of albums by a particular artist to get a sense of how they see things. This is by no means required from a fan - if you like a song, you listen to that song, and that already is way more than any listener “owes” an artist. But doing the deep dive is how I love getting to know songwriters. To arrive at a place with their songs where certain observations or lines fit with some general impression of them as humans that I’ve started to cultivate. It’s usually hard to describe. You just have these moments of recognition. I think I like this so much because it’s the same way we approach getting to know people. And once that connection has a depth, and you can anticipate how someone else will react to any given situation, it’s like you have them with you forever. Maybe that’s dramatic, but that’s how I feel about my favorite writers. So that’s how I hope a few nerds out there see it someday with Dawes tunes - A body of work reflective of the breadth of a life lived. Along with all the epiphanies, contradictions, and wrong turns inherent to the experience. I still got a long way to go!
What’s your favorite arrangement contribution by another member of the band?
There’s definitely too many to count. But the first thing that comes to mind is the song Telescope. I started it as a very simple fingerpicked, major key, folk song. Similar to the experience I wrote about in the posts about our new song “Surprise!”, I knew that if I left it that way it wouldn’t survive a set list, and maybe not an album track list either. I had to give it a personality that separated it from everything else. Around the time I was having these thoughts about the song I happened to be revisiting the Tom Waits album Rain Dogs for the first time since it had blown my world open in my early twenties. A song that was really getting to me in a new way was Gun Street Girl. I couldn’t stop listening to it. It’s minor key, very few chord changes, the clacking of some metal object for a back beat…it really felt like that could be a nice template for where to take the Telescope lyrics. So I came up with a loose, simple riff for it, explained my thinking to Griffin and then he immediately came up with one of the coolest drum parts of any Dawes songs, in my opinion. Go listen for yourself if you’re not familiar. I love that it never ended up invoking Tom Waits. We didn’t want it to. He just helped open up a direction. If anything, it’s probably got more in common with a certain era of Radiohead or The Cure (particularly in the chorus), but it’s not like we wanted that either. It just came out that way. Anyway, to answer your question - Griff as the MVP on Telescope.
A fun fact for that tune - a lot of people have asked Griff what time signature it’s in. It’s just 4/4. If you just key in to when the chords change, it’s basically a simple blues progression.
One more fun fact - the solo is played on an app on an iPhone. Not gonna tell you which one though. I was sworn to secrecy.
For the paid subscribers I’m gonna attach that early folksy demo of this one so you can see what I was talking about.
How has your relationship with the process changed from the first couple records to now? Do you still find yourself writing and then editing or is the editing process more involved in the writing process now? Or is it something completely different and refreshing?
My writing has changed in a lot of ways…
1 - I try to find words and images that initially feel unlyrical (not a word, I guess) and then make it lyrical in my own way. I don’t want it to feel bold for the sake of itself. Just something that I identify with specifically that is hopefully somehow representative of my take on things. I didn’t do that so much with the first 2 albums, except for A Little Bit Of Everything. That song opened up the door into the next phase for me. But songs like My Way Back Home (“pines”????) or Take Me Out Of The City (“song of the mountain”??) wouldn’t fly for me now. I’m still proud of them and I enjoy playing them, but I just wouldn’t have written them that way at this point.
2 - I think humor plays a role in this as well. I don’t think it had arrived by LP 3 necessarily, but it’s been slowly developing over time so that the album Good Luck With Whatever has songs like Still Feel Like a Kid and None of my Business and our next record is gonna have goofy tunes like House Parties and Mr. Los Angeles. In a way, I’m most proud of songs like that, but it took me a while to feel that way. When I was writing the earliest stuff, I had yet to discover my particular love of Randy Newman, John Prine, Loudon Wainwright or even all of Warren Zevon. I think my perspective changed when my friend Jonny Fritz told me after listening to some of our third record, “You’re a funny person. You’re always making jokes and you’re always in a good mood. But if I didn’t know you and I was just listening to your music I would assume you were a very sad and serious person.” He wasn’t criticizing me. He was just making an observation, but I sort of took it as a failure on my part. I feel like us writers decide to write in an attempt to share the full range of our humanity - to reveal all corners of our personality that we can’t always get to through our more superficial interactions. So if who I was in my songs was only a sliver of who I was in the real world to my friends and loved ones, then there was something I wasn’t doing right. I want that ratio to be flipped! Or at least have that be what I’m shooting for.
Even though I wanted to present this more honest version of myself in my songs, it took time for the idea of me sharing my sillier side to feel comfortable. So many of my heroes like Dylan or Joni or Leonard or Jackson weren’t really “funny” despite it being clear that they all had highly developed senses of humor. I always wanted to be ultra cool like they were in my estimation. But that wasn’t how it came out when I was most myself. I remember reading about George Saunders having a similar experience about his love of Hemingway and his initial inability to embrace his true voice. It’s like that, except on a much smaller scale (and few people are as hilarious as George Saunders). But as time goes on I feel like the albums get a little more honest. I’m not saying I’m a particularly comedic person or that my songs should make you laugh. I’m just trying to get better at showing my authentic self and it turns out that there’s a sillier side than I was initially willing to share.
3 - Lastly, a big way my writing has changed since the early days is that I write faster now. Mainly because my life kind of requires it, but more importantly, I feel like writing faster creates an urgency that comes through in the song. At least I hope that’s what’s happening. There are certain songs on the first records that sound, dare I say it, precious to me at this point. I wasn’t just letting it fly. That’s nothing to say of editing. I still am always editing and if I never had studio time on the books, I would edit and tinker for the rest of time. I’m talking about getting the whole idea and structure down in that initial moment of inspiration. I used to treat it like watching a garden grow - taking my time and making minor adjustments so that it was just right. Now it’s a full on Supermarket Sweep where I take everything I can as fast as possible while the portal is open to me (Bit of a mixed metaphor there, but I’m gonna stand by it).
Alright! There are my answers for this week’s post! Here’s the version of Telescope I promised to all you paying subscribers….