Danny Evans was a road warrior for many years with his band, Amoramora. Recently he has decided to take a step back from the jam band scene and work on his solo career. Learn about the unique path Danny has taken to send his music into the universe.
Christopher:
You had a number of tracks, gaining dust, so to speak, for your latest solo effort. Did you have a moment in time when you knew you wanted to put the tracks out to the world?
Danny:
The moment was last summer. I didn’t sit down in my home studio or with my recording equipment for a long time. With Amoramora we were playing and touring constantly, so last summer I got to sit down and hone in on what I truly like. What songs I wanted to make, listen to, and the subjects I wanted to write about. It wasn’t one moment but maybe a span of moments over time. It made me put things into perspective. What kind of music and art am I going to leave to the world? I know that’s kind of morbid to think about. I’ve put in so many hours and so many miles, I got a lot of shows under my belt, as a musician and a fan. I have an interesting story, and I want to put it into songs.
Christopher:
You gave the nod to Mike Robinson for your project. How did you originally connect with him?
Danny:
I honestly can’t remember how I met Mike. We became good friends when he sat in with Amoramora (three or four times), and he was with The Jeff Austin Band. After that he did a solo record, and geared up to go out with Railroad Earth. He would come out after a show, or meet him at a bar and just catch up. Mike has been such a good friend to me, and he’s such a talented musician. If there was going to be another ear on this track, one that knew where I was coming from, and understood me as a musician– it was him.
Christopher:
It’s great to get some else’s perspective on your music.
Danny:
I thought Mike was going to edit a few things here and there but it was like a dream. The second or third try we were golden.
To be honest, I’m trying to step out of my lane, one foot in and one foot out, starting with “Dear Daisy”. Mike was a person who could really understand that, even though he was engineering and mixing the tracks. It’s really important that the person understands that. It was a really nice and easy process, which I knew going into it. There’s no wonder he got the call from Railroad Earth to play shows with them.
Christopher:
Here’s a quote from you:
“Nobody really cares if you craft a different set list every night, everyone just wants to hear you play a Grateful Dead song and all the bands are striving to sound like a different version of another band. Being a ‘party band’ can get really old, really fast.”
When did you come to this realization?
Danny:
As a “Post-Jerry Kid” everything that I have been able to see has been wonderful. The Grateful Dead is my favorite band of all-time. Let’s get that straight. Where I came to that realization was playing all these shows every year. Posting your set lists on The Internet whether it be Phantasy Tour, Instagram and trying to keep the covers interesting for YOU. Even if they’re not ready, polished and may need a few more hours in the rehearsal space. When it comes to the live performance it was almost like a scramble. We played this a million times, we’ve played this exact venue before. Are we going to learn a new song in two weeks? We record every show and put it on the Internet. You can’t flub it because every show will be out there. You are transcribing other peoples’ solos and chords, which is great when you are learning. You are not trying to become another person and swallow other peoples’ techniques. You digest it into your playing but I feel like people do not want to see you perform that. The emotions that I invoke when I play music. What is that? Who am I trying to reach? What story do I want to tell?
For instance, I do graphic design in addition to pursuing music. During this pandemic, I really went hard into it and the creative juices just started pouring out of me. It started with putting it on paper or the computer. I was like “Dude! You have all these ideas. I got my hands on a bass.” I started laying down all of these tracks. I got my hands on a midi keyboard. I started laying down all these demos. To the point I was racking up thirty to forty demos by the end of last summer. They can’t just sit on the shelf, and I had a plethora of songs that I thought would be fun to slowly release, over twelve months, we’ll see what happens after that, but that is my goal.
Christopher:
After being on the road for five plus years, sometimes you need a break to hone in on your other passions in life.
Danny:
It’s tough to keep your head in a creative space. I was managing Amoramora, along with booking for the band. It was trying to get to that magic number of “X” amount of shows per year. What’s the art of releasing music? What’s the art of doing shows? Maybe you do one really cool show, or a “pop up” in somewhere where they don’t even have music. How can you spin it to be artistic in every other aspect of your music?
Christopher:
Some people go for different things in the jam band scene. For instance, some go to rise to the top very fast and others would like to work on their other side projects as well.
Danny:
In the jam band scene there are different niche communities. As a small jam band you need to either please them all or pick one. Are you going to be bluegrass? Jamtronica? Jazz/Fusion? Are you going to have a weird instrument in your band along with the backing band?
Then it all becomes about the live experience. What pedal do I really like? I travel around with all these pedals, and which ones do I really use and like. Instead of writing songs using all these pedals, maybe I can corner myself and write with just one pedal, and see what I can get out of that. Maybe it needs a drum machine and drummer on track, instead of one or the other. A lot of things come back into play when you feel like you’re not playing by any rules and you’re improvising every night. In the end you are cornered in, the people want to hear a certain thing.
“Dear Daisy”, it’s a four chord, relatable and it’s got a hook. It’s just kind of different.
Christopher:
I would love to see an artist be able to move from genre to genre over the years and release music in all genres even if it took years to do.
Danny:
A great example of that is King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. It’s crazy to think of a band that’s Australian. Every couple months, we’ll get a band that’s based in North America on tour. Now it’s like, “Dude! My favorite band is from Australia!”
Christopher:
It’s great to latch on and have that personal connection with a band.
Danny:
They allow their fans to bootleg their music. There will be companies that press their own King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard albums, and sell them. Their grassroots marketing plan is getting the music out, which is an interesting new way to think about it. The took a page from The Grateful Dead but could be a more meta version of taping shows.
Christopher:
Going back to The Grateful Dead five decades ago it was the original grassroots movement for a band. I like to think that they didn’t know this would be as big of a “thing” as it is today.
The Grateful Dead is more of a culture. Once you’re hooked in, you’re hooked for life.
Danny:
I can’t get away from it if I try. I tried not to go to Red Rocks to see Bob Weir & Wolf Brothers. Where was I Tuesday night? Red Rocks. The [Grateful Dead] has had such a big influence on people but in quarantine I’ve reconnected with music that I listened to in high school, like punk and indie rock. A lot more music that the hippies are not playing in the campground.
Christopher:
Dead & Company with John Mayer. I’m not ashamed to tell people I got into Mayer about two decades ago when I was in high school. It’s amazing for someone to evolve from being a solo artist to being in a Grateful Dead related group.
Danny:
He does a good job and inspired new Deadheads, and reinvented the culture. Overall, John Mayer is a solid guitar player.
It’s honestly fun to step away from the jam band stuff, it’s a part of my life as a fan, but as an artist I’m trying to expand outside of it these days.
Christopher:
Any musician that may feel “stuck” at being creative hopefully they can feel that way too.
Danny:
My music now is definitely inspired by Mac DeMarco and Ty Segall. A more newer, kind of psychedelic, roots music. “Dear Daisy” is a nice rocker that I want to get stuck in people’s heads. It’s a really good summer vibe song, it’s a tune about how I got dumped while I was on tour. I wrote this dark (and humorous) tune about my experience. Someone coming to terms that they don’t feel adequate enough in their relationship, but the person is constantly reminding them of that, whether it be in a letter or a telephone call. I wanted to get that simple idea across, and I’m really stoked for it to come out and people to hear it.
Christopher:
You’re also taking a unique way of releasing your music by the way of a four part series.
Danny:
Nothing about the music I am creating these days is traditional, so nothing about the releases will be either. I think you, and anyone who hears it, will enjoy putting the puzzle pieces together as they get released. And as for touring… It does say “for now”, doesn’t it?
