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Interview with Bart Davenport
www.bartdavenport.com 

Mark Fisher- How does this album compare to the previous ones?

Bart Davenport- Well, the first album was recorded kind of “piece meal” over the course of about 2 years, and was the result of a lot of collaborations with different types of musicians. It was also made in a number of studios where I could get free studio time from friends. It was like a 2 year process and was more a collection of recordings than a fully realized album. When we compiled everything and mixed and mastered everything, I was pretty happy with the results. On album number 2 I wanted to do something completely different than that, and I had the money so I rented a very mid-priced studio for about a month. I invited a very specific crew of people to play on it. Again, it was a really large cast of characters; 3 drummers, various guitar players, violins, cellos, just very wide in the scope of what we could do sonically because I had a big studio at my fingertips. The way the new one is different is that we did it here at the house on an 8 track ½ inch machine and utilized as few guest musicians as possible. It really was just me and my roommate, Sam Keener, making it together. There are a couple tunes here and there that we invited some friends to help us with it. A lot of it is just me. There is a tremendous difference in album 2 and this one.

MF- Since this is your third solo album, do you feel that you’ve settled in to being a solo artist at this point?

BD- I don’t know that for sure. I’m definitely getting some satisfaction from it finally. The last band that I was in was called the Kinetics. They split up in 1998. Between 98 and 2000 I played bass for a band called The Persephone’s Bees. That’s very much a husband and wife project, and I just played live for them, I never recorded a note for them. I was also stating to write some songs while I was with them and kind of gearing up for a solo act. It took quite a while. The first album came out in January of 2002 I believe. From then on I was just trying to get out there as much as possible. Between 2002 and now it’s been a pretty productive time. Now I’m starting to feel satisfied with the accomplishment. Before, it was more like I had something to prove.

MF- The other thing that really struck me, and you touched on this a little bit, is that you recorded this at home on a 8 track machine. With all the really high tech recording studios for home computers why did you chose to do that?

BD- You know how you do things to follow your instincts about what’s happening? Things just sort of fall into place. It just so happened that I was thinking about doing a third album and I was wondering how, and what, and with who and at that time I moved into another house with Sam Keener who happened to own this tape machine. I made the second album on a 2 inch machine, so I do have an attachment to analog tape as a medium. I am just more inspired by the performance when somebody is rolling tape. The way you have to sing or play your instrument when you’re punching on analog tape is just going to be different than when you have an unlimited number of tracks, and takes. I’ve done lots of recordings on computers for other people’s projects, like DJ Grayboy or Honeycut. It’s like let’s sing verse one 9 times and then cut and paste the best lines from verse one into one vocal take. Then we’ll have you sing the chorus 10 times, pick the best 2 and sync them up and make a double track so it’s flawless like Justin
Timberlake. I know the stuff can be done and can be impressive, but I don’t feel like I sing the same. I don’t feel like a classic singer, I feel like one of the modern guys. I was always inspired by the 60's psych/folk music and the 70's soft rock… the sound of analog. It’s also the sound of the way you perform. I couldn’t do my songs any other way and be as happy.

MF- I think it gives it a warmer, less corporate sounding, feel.

BD- There are still some major label albums that use analog and digital and I want to make it
clear that we didn’t mix with the tape machine. We took the tape machine to a really nice studio up in Sacramento called the Hanger. We took the tapes and dumped the 8 tracks into a pro tool session and mixed using that pro tool session. It is kind of a hybrid. It’s proof that you can utilize both. The beauty of mixing in pro tools is that even if I have the bass line and it’s as good as it can be, if there’s just that one note that sticks out like a sore thumb, using pro tools we can move that note so it’s perfectly in sync with the drums. I’m not going to say that we sat there at the computer and fixed all my bass parts, because we didn’t. The bass parts were performed as if we weren’t going to be able to fix them later. It’s kind of the best of both worlds. If I make a fourth solo album, I’d like to do it much the same as far as production.

MF- Obviously there are going to be people who listen to this album and think that it is a throwback to classic rock, maybe 30 or 40 years ago. What is it about this album that makes it unique, and not just a copycat of one of those classic era albums?

BD- To start with, there are four songs that utilize the MPC drum machine, which did not exist in the 70's. We did use some samples of sounds that do come from classic 70's and 80's drum machine sounds, but it's a machine that can be played live so it's not a sequenced drummed up track that was pre-made. We plugged the machine into a pre amp and then into the tape machine and he hits the pads with his fingers and it plays in real time directly onto a track. This is something that human beings were not doing in the 70's. It's the subtlety. People don't hear that. People listen to it and are like "That's James Taylor." Rock critics need to expand their ideas of
what is what. A man singing with an acoustic guitar is always James Taylor? Nobody has the imagination, or the palates, or maybe the depth of knowledge to listen to album and compare it to more obscure things that it is probably a lot more like. Or is it that the writers are just trying to touch on some iconic names that every reader will understand? Maybe that's it. This whole issue of being compared to classic stuff is just that I'm really a lot more inspired by that stuff. It's not a tribute, or a nostalgia trip. It was just a real fertile time back then, and I draw from that.

MF- I think that rock critics don't give room for "this is just what comes out." Most rock critics tend to think of things as more thought out or planned by a label than they usually are.

BD- I don't think they realize that when we set out it's not like the label says "ok, we're going to give you $1,500 to make a record in your house and we want to really make sure you get that James Taylor feel in there." I'm just a dude that makes music.

MF- One of the songs that really sticks out to me on the album is "Want Some." Can you tell our readers a little of the thoughts or inspirations behind that particular song?

BD- First of all, I think the line "I want some, some of what the singers are singing of. I want love, kind of love you hear about in an oldies tune. Seems like trying to find some kind of life on the moon." is one of the most telling lines in any of my songs. In a nutshell, it pretty much captures what I'm about as an artist. These songs are kind of incantations of crying for love. The problem is, that I don't know if there is a woman out there who is going to love me as much as this music loves me. If you're addicted to pop music like I am, you sort of get let down by life. It's all stuff in the lyrics that's so magical, but completely different than how most people live. That song is how I feel about all that. It was also a total love song to a girl I was hoping to get serious with. Musically, it has this odd sense to it. I wanted to have positive lyrics set to a minor key. The way Curtis Mayfield does. I wanted to sort of use the worldly African/Jamaican/Flamenco melodies and guitars. I wanted to snap on those low E strings the way Tom Moore from the Moore Brothers does. I think he kind of got that from the British folk people. It's kind of punk rock folk. It sounds aggressive even though it's just a little folk song. Most people don't notice it. You put a lot of creative energy and thought into a song and you are really happy with the results, and it's the least one that anyone ever notices or asks about.

MF- Above all else, if you had to pick one or two things that you would like people to take away from this album what would they be?

BD- Number one, I hope that they feel they got their money's worth. I hope they like it enough to not trade it back to their nearest record store. Also, I've been playing music for 20 years. I've spent a lot of that time as a lead singer for some rock groups that were maybe a little outside of the indie rock scene, so when I started to perform as a solo act I got more lumped into the indie pop movement. That's been nice because a lot of the people who come out to the shows are into that and have good tastes in music. It's a connoisseur's music scene. As an artist who doesn't really want to be pigeon holed, it's an interesting sort of ghetto to be a part of. It's like this minor
league indie scene, and there's only so many opportunities professionally. It becomes a bit of a struggle to make your career sustainable. Secondly, my hope would be that this record checks in one notch up so I can continue to make music. You can only shell out so much of your own cash to make a record. At some point you need to have people giving you money. I am at a sort of crossroads in that if this album gets a little more attention then maybe I can tour in areas where I haven't been seen before. I've put some real effort into the west coast, New York City, London,
Spain, and Germany. There are a lot of other places that I can be. My hopes for that are somewhat attached to this record. It's like anything; you just do your best and see what happens.

MF- What kind of touring do you plan to do for this album?

BD- As it stands, I'm still my own booking agent in the US. I have a deal in Europe, and the labels over there will handle the booking deals for me there, which is a luxury because here in the US I'm still doing all my own. In the next few months, while this record is still new, I'll probably only be touring on the West Coast, maybe out to Texas. I don't know if we'll hit the east coast unless something good falls into my lap. I was in this band, The Loved Ones, and we opened for Etta James, John Lee Hooker, and 3 nights at the Fillmore with Bob Skaggs. I've toured all over the world. A rock music career is an interesting place to be. You can be playing for 800 people this month, then next month you'll be playing somewhere where they don't know you and there might be 5 people. The idea is to not let that effect the music. We like the affirmation of people clapping when a song is finished. Plus, sometimes playing for 5 people can be more fun than playing for 500.

MF- You could have 500 people waiting to see the next band.

BD- Right, which can be a dilemma.

MF- Do you have any parting thoughts or anything you wanted to get it that we didn't get in?

BD- I’d just like to stress for the people that see this as a classic sound copycat to really check us out. Live and on record. They hear the song, and they relate it to the 60's and 70's but don't look any deeper. In our live shows in venues that pay well enough to facilitate this, we have all four guys, the live drum machine and a guy playing saxophone through a delay pedal. This is not the same production that they had available back then. Thanks!