A Conversation with Dan Zanes – HuffPost 9.19.11

Mike Ragogna: Dan, how are you?

Dan Zanes: Alright, glad to be here, Mike.

MR: Dan, you work on various projects with different themes, but isn’t Little Nut Tree the first Dan Zanes and Friends album since 2007?

DZ: Yeah, that’s right. We’ve done three records since then, but we haven’t done our classic “all ages” format where it’s a mixed bag of tunes from different places with a different range of guests. We’ve done some theme albums, but this is the kind of record that got us going and it’s what we’re best known for. We won a Grammy in 2007 with Catch That Train, but we haven’t done one like this since then. It was pretty exciting to get back to this, this is kind of what we do best.

MR: Can you tell us about some of the fun guests you had on this record?

DZ: Yeah, that’s something that we’ve always tried to do. The first CD that we did wasRocket Ship Beach and we had Suzanne Vega, Sheryl Crow, G.E. Smith and, you know, whoever was around. We’ve been doing that ever since. On this one, we’ve got the Sierra Leone Refugee Allstars, Sharon Jones, Andrew Bird, and Joan Osbourne… just some old friends. It’s a good mixed bag, and the guest part is fun. We’ve had everyone from Phillip Glass to The Blind Boys, to Angelique Kidjo, Matthew Broderick, and Carol Channing. It’s just a pretty great thing to be able to bring these people in.

MR: It must also be great to be able to educate and introduce people to a lot of these artists.

DZ: Yeah. For me, because I’m such a fan of everybody, it’s also a chance to hang out with people that I love. It’s always recorded fairly quickly, and we always say it’s gonna sound like Lou Reed came over for dinner and afterward, we pushed back the chairs and sang a tune. That’s sort of our concept, and that’s not the way that most people are making their records, so it’s a chance for them to be heard in a more natural setting.

MR: When you’re approaching a project like this one, are you doing it with a specific concept in mind or do you think of it as more of a collection of songs?

DZ: Well, I think of it more as a collection of songs. Everything, from the beginning, is made to sound like it’s something from the neighborhood. I live in Brooklyn, and that’s its own world. I grew up in the white mono-culture of New Hampshire, so it’s taken me my entire life to learn about the big world, that’s the exciting thing. In music, there is so much integration, there’s so much exciting music and information swirling around that it’s a very different climate musically than where I grew up. It’s actually hard these days to find a white mono-culture and I think we’re all the better for it. As a musician, I think it’s really exciting, so that’s what we try to keep in tune with. On this CD there’s a Haitian song that a friend of ours taught us, and he taught us a lot about Haitian music. We even play an Arabic song with a Palestinian friend of ours, so it’s a natural music sharing between friends.

I also think of this as all ages music — I don’t think of it as children’s music, although that’s how it is oftentimes seen because children are such a big part of the audience. I’m okay with it being referred to as children’s music, but that’s really not the intention. The intention has been to try and make “all ages” music that can be a shared experience between young people together. That’s also pretty exciting. I don’t think kids need to understand every lyric of every song, and it’s not about their experiences anyway. It’s really about experiences that are universal to all of us. Children’s music, for example, is specific to the experiences of children, but on the other end of the spectrum are the rock songs that are about partying and staying up all night drinking. So, we try to live between those two ends of the spectrum. The challenge is to write songs that work on a few different levels.

MR: Right. Your song “Wake Up” is a great example of that. Another song that I particularly enjoy on this album is “Summer Trains,” where you share your experience of seeing your daughter grow up. Can you tell us about that?

DZ: Yeah, I couldn’t help it. At that point, she was 16 and she was four when I started doing this. It all went really fast. One of the best pieces of parenting advice that was given to me that really meant something was to enjoy it because it’s so fleeting. I think we all feel that way. You think you’re going to be changing diapers for the rest of your life and then all of a sudden, your daughter asks to walk to school alone. (laughs) There are some crazy changes that you have to grapple with. That song is just me reflecting on some of the great things that we’ve done together, including going to Lollapalooza together last year. (laughs) It’s all fun stuff, every stage of the way and that’s what I’m trying to get across.

MR: The way that you A&R records is related to your daughter, isn’t it?

DZ: Yeah. I get a much different response from her now that she’s 16, though. (laughs) First and foremost, I have to like a record because I’m going to be the one singing in it and I have to be able to relate to everything. But then I also go to her for her opinion, and a lot of times, she’ll shut things down and tell me that it’s not going to be an interesting song to anybody. She’s very blunt, you know? (laughs) I think she actually enjoys telling me when I vere off track. But she’s been really great lately… it’s really been amazing to have her as a part of this.

MR: One of my favorite songs on the record is “In The Basement,” because, as you say, you really don’t need a ticket to get in there, right? (laughs)

DZ: (laughs) That’s right, Mike. It’s the old fashioned way — it’s homespun fun. That’s what we’re all about. That’s also been the underlying message of what I’ve done since the beginning. I’ve always wanted to get across that music-making and enjoying music is something you can do in your homes with each other — it’s not something that was just meant for professionals. I mean, I like my job and I wanna keep it, but everybody could be doing this is one way or another. And the point of this is that we should all participate. I think that song captures the essence of that — it reminds people that you could be playing music and having a party in your own basement.

MR: That’s a great message, especially with all of the technological distractions.

DZ: Right, electronic media has given us a lot, but it’s diverted our attention from some very simple and fundamental things. That’s why I also refer to my music as “social music.” That’s always a reminder for me that that’s what I want my music to be about — having a social experience. I’m happy if people are listening to this music on their iPods, but if they’re listening together, even better. If they’re singing and dancing, even better. And if people are going to the website and finding the chords and playing them themselves and they’ve never played a note of my records, even better. (laughs)

MR: Can you describe what a live Dan Zanes concert is like?

DZ: Well, we wanted it to be as much like a little Grateful Dead concert as possible. In other words, we don’t expect anyone to sit quietly in their seats. There’s a lot of dancing, usually right from the first song. There’s also a lot of singing along — it’s a very communal experience. I like to think of it as more of a party than a concert, and my band is so amazing — men and women, all from different backgrounds — so everybody brings something new to the table. There are lots of spirited and talented players working with me. So, there’s good stuff going on onstage and some great stuff happening offstage as well. Every show is different, because the audience is such a big part of it. It really depends on who is in the audience because that’s what steers the emotions of the whole evening.

MR: Do friends come to you and ask that you write songs for their kids or families?

DZ: I really don’t get much of that, no. (laughs) My dentist is always telling me that I need to write songs about going to the dentist. (laughs) He brings that up every time I’m there. He even, at one point, stopped in the middle of a procedure to go to my website and check my tour dates. (laughs) He’s very vocal about it.

MR: Very scary, I’m now traumatized of dentists by extension. (laughs) Are there certain subjects that you enjoy writing about? more often than not?

DZ: Yeah. I think friendship is a great subject for me, because it’s so wide and expansive. And if you’re listening without a kid, I think you may find that the songs can be kind of romantic in some ways, which I think is always nice. I mean, if I’m by myself, I like listening to songs about romance. But, I think it can be sort of open-ended. The natural world is another great subject for me because there’s so much to it. It sounds kind of dry talking about it, but I love singing about it. Then, I think, trains symbolize so much. On planes, you’re all buckled-in and you can’t even walk up and down the aisles, but on a train, you can wonder around and eat and watch things pass you by. I think trains have been a big part of American mythology since they were built, and I’m just as caught up in that as anyone else.

MR: Nice. And, of course, I have to ask, have you ever thought of doing a Dan Zanes music meets the Del Fuegos music album?

DZ: (laughs) That’s a terrible idea. But I did actually get back together with the Del Fuegos for the first time in a while this Summer. We did some benefit shows up in Boston, and it was probably the most fun I’ve ever had with those guys, so I think we’re going to do some more shows. And it was really kind of emotional playing loud and jumping around — digging in to rock ‘n’ roll was kind of fun. I think we’ll be doing that more, so that takes pressure off of me doing our old songs in my shows. (laughs)

MR: Now, about that Del Fuegos reunion album… see where I’m going here?

DZ: Well, I don’t know. We might kill each other. (laughs) Playing shows is kind of easy because we have the material, but I think if we went further, it might get ugly. (laughs) But you never know, I love these guys. I never thought we’d play together again, and here we are thinking about a Northeast tour so I guess anything’s possible.

MR: You’ll have to keep me updated and come back for an interview if it ever happens.

DZ: I sure will.

MR: Great. Dan, do you have any advice for new artists?

DZ: I think now more than ever the important thing, besides learning how to or interpret write songs, is, really, to learn how to play live, only because the chances of making money off of record sales are less and less every year. But, I think if you can become an interesting, exciting, and engaging performer, that’s something that people are always gonna want. Nothing can replace an exciting performance, so learn to play live. Play as much as you can and don’t think about money, think about your future as a performer.

MR: Nice. Do you have anything coming up in the future that we should be looking out for?

DZ: Right now, I’m in the process of putting together one, maybe two festivals for next year. The first one will take place at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art in Western Massachusetts — that’s where Wilco does their Solid Sound Festival. That’ll be a family festival, and it’ll look like it looks when I walk onto the streets of New York — looking out into the audience and wondering where everyone is from and how they came to be here. The big challenge is to make sure that everyone in the audience feels like they’re a part of the party. This whole thing is sort of the dream of a lifetime to me. I’ve also recently met with someone who works extensively with African refugee resettlement, mostly in New England, because I know there are a lot of musicians that have settled in the New England area who would be incredible guests to have at the festival. But ultimately, doing these festivals opens up all of the possibilities that I’ve been thinking of over the years. I’m really grateful to get the chance to do this, so I’m trying to seize the moments as they come.

MR: Do you feel like as a society, we are making decent strides towards creating an atmosphere where it feels like everyone is “invited to the party”?

DZ: You know, I don’t know that we are. I think it’s really up to white people to begin to wake up and look around. We have to realize that we were the dominant group for so long. I’ll still do really eclectic shows where a number of different artists from different genres come in and play. I have done shows where the entire line up is white and it still makes me think, “How could that be?” And as white people we don’t notice that, a lot of times. But I know that everyone else does. So, it’s a matter of gaining awareness. If you look at everything from TV to magazines, you can see it, so I think a really important step is for white people to realize that. Times are changing anyway — pretty soon white people won’t be the majority anymore. That will happen in our lifetime, and it’ll be a huge, huge shift. But it’ll be a great one. It’s time for things to change.

MR: Nicely put, Dan. Thank you so much for your time, it was great, as usual.

DZ: It was my pleasure, Mike. Thank you so much.

Transcribed by Evan Martin