David Karsten Daniels

Quicksmartly following last year's Sharp Teeth, Texan-born David Karsten Daniels released the equally fine Fear of Flying last month and over the dodgiest of Transatlantic phone lines, answered a few questions

Fear of Flying has arrived just a year after Sharp Teeth whereas there was a three year gap between albums 3 (Angles) and 4 (Sharp Teeth), how come there was such a quick turnaround this time?

For one thing the time between Sharp Teeth being done and the time it came out was much longer that Fear of Flying being done and coming out so it’s a little misleading. Some of the songs from Sharp Teeth were written, gosh, almost three and a half years ago. But yeah everything was recorded in the space of four months or so, so it was relatively quick. Once I got together with Fat Cat I committed myself to putting out a record every year and I don’t know how that’s going to last but I’m going try.”

Has your approach changed much since your albums have begun to reach a bigger audience through the relationship with Fat Cat?

“When I was younger I felt like to write songs, you had to sit around and wait to get inspired but as I got older the frequency of that feeling was becoming less and less so I go to the point where, I said ‘you know what, I think this is more like a craft, more like a job.’ You have to sit down and work at it rather than wait for some theoretical muse to strike. My approach has changed a bit; it’s become a little bit more cerebral. Largely, I feel pretty good a bit this one. It’s in the same ballpark as Sharp Teeth, obviously it’s very different but it’s about as good.”

With that in mind, was Fear of Flying an easier record to make than Sharp Teeth?

“Easier… Hmm, let me think about that. I think it was harder actually because I’ve written a lot of songs about romantic love in the past and I really set out to make a record that had nothing to do with that subject matter so I was already starting from a place that I wasn’t very comfortable with, a less familiar place. With this record, I did a lot more research, reading books on death and grieving. It was a little bit more of a craft, a viewing sort of thing, if that makes sense.”

It does, but does that mean it is a less personal record?

“I wouldn’t say it’s less personal, I just had to write in a way… well, hmmm. On both records I tried not to be too specific with the details. I’ve put out five records under my own name and on the earlier ones, some of the songs even started out as diary entries but as there weren’t many people hearing those recordings, it didn’t really seem to matter. On the more recent records, I’ve tried to weave the details out, not only to make them more universal but to protect me and those close to me, because all that stuff isn’t everyone’s business. So I wouldn’t say Fear Of Flying is a less personal record, it’s just inspired by a different part of my life.

At times it sounds like a more raw record, you specifically used your father’s old nylon string guitar, right?

“Yeah well I’ve had that nylon string guitar for many, many years and its not a very nice instrument and for years and years I thought ‘that’s crap, I’ve no use for it’ but when I first started working on the record, I just fell in love with it and thought I’m going make it work no matter how limited it is and that did kind of push the songs in a certain direction. But there’s also a very high production value on this record, it’s very slick. Like the song Martha Ann, it’s a two minute song but I probably spent 200 hours just recording and mixing it. These songs, even the one’s that sound like one take, there’s generally not. Yeah, it’s a rawer record but it’s also a slicker record.

That was actually my next point that there is still a lot going on – lots of instruments. The album’s quite varied but subtly woven together.

Yeah, I don’t know, it’s kind of confusing but I don’t know how to put it. One song might suggest it needs to be really tight, not sloppy while another one might suggest sloppy, rougher is exactly the way this should go. We spent a lot of time on the order of the record to provide an arc both lyrically and musically for anyone who’d listen to it in one sitting - it’s kind of like putting together a film score. I realise in this age, that (listening in one sitting) mightn’t happen. I think next time around I might make an album of singles, a Justin Timberlake kind of thing. A record of songs that aren’t meant to be together just to do something different, we’ll see.”

You’ve recently moved from West Carolina to Seattle, how has that effected your music?

“I’d already turned in the record before I moved so this is a new chapter. I haven’t written anything new since I moved out here but I do expect the new album to be different – I got married last week so there’s been a lot of change in my life. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of babysitting of friends kids and they all have these kids’ songs, little fun things and I’m kind of thinking about making a record that seems like a record of kids’ songs on the surface but can work on two levels and everything could have a double meaning. At the moment though I have to put on the business hat and figure when I’m going to go out on the road, where I’m going to stay etc. I’ll tour this one for the next couple of months and then sit down and probably do something very different.”

You’ve recorded all your records with you friends in the Bu Hanan Collective, does the move mean this will no longer be the case?

“I don’t know how that’s going to play out. Until recently, all of us were based in the Chapel Hill/ Durham/ Raleigh/ West Carolina area. One thing that’s cool about the world we live in is that being in different places doesn’t mean we can’t collaborate on a record. A lot of the talks about this record, a lot of the listening will happen over instant messaging and email. There’s a very easy way for that to continue. But at the same time, the main producer of the collective Alex Lazara is moving up to Minneapolis and Daniel Hart, who plays with John Vanderslice, The Physics of Meaning and St. Vincent, he’s on tour a tonne right now so I don’t know, maybe he’ll be able to play violin on the next one or maybe I’ll say record some violin and send it to me. I imagine it’ll be a lot of me recording myself again but I’m sure there’ll be guests again.”

Before I let you go, do you hope to get back over to the UK and Europe soon?

“I may be over at the beginning of June but more definitely at the end of the summer, August or September time and hopefully to Europe too. Tentatively, yes but I just don’t know for sure. There are plans in the works, wheels are turning etc.”