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By: Martyn Coppack
(((o))): Where did the songs on Here In The Deep come from, what was the genesis of this album?
Dave: They’ve all come from different places, but song by song, they’ve just come from feelings that I’ve felt. Like I took a nap one day after I was stressing out about some argument I’d had, and when I woke up, there was this little melody in my head saying “go to sleep…”. The final lyrics had nothing to do with how I was feeling on that particular day, and even the initial idea was, at best, only tangentially related to it. That’s how it is with songs. I can’t always articulate why I’m drawn to certain ideas; I just am. Later I may be able to put some connections together about why I wrote what I did, but never in that moment. It’s just something that needs to be done without stopping to ask why.
(((o))): There’s a much lighter feel to these songs but also some dark depths to them. Is this something you like to explore? If you look at the old folk songs, they always have a sense of light and dark.
Dave: I think it’s just that ideas without at least a bit of darkness in them will never even rise to the surface enough to where I’ll recognize them as good ideas. While I was writing a lot of the material for this record, I’d meant it to have some lightness to it, to mostly not take itself too seriously. But that means something different to me than it does for some other people. These songs have some darkness too, or at least some melancholy, just because it’s me writing them and that’s kind of what I do. Part of what I do, at least.
(((o))): What was it like to work with a different set of musicians? Hans Chew springs to mind as someone not fitting the “Arbouretum” mould yet makes perfect sense for this bunch of songs?
Dave: Hans was the perfect guy to ask to play on “Greenwood Side” . I kept hearing a piano part in it, and it had to be the kind of energetic, rollicking, piano part that he does so well. Hans is the only person I know who can really rock the piano like that, and he did it so beautifully on that tune. Arbouretum has the feel that it has because of the players involved and what the sound is when we all come together. It’s a really great, potent vibe when we’re at our best, and quite distinctive regardless of the stylistic approach to a given song. For me though, as a singer and guitarist, it’s not the only context I can do something worthwhile in. So with this record, I wanted to explore putting myself in some different surroundings with musicians who by nature aren’t going to play like the Arbouretum guys.
(((o))): How does the writing process differ from writing for Arbouretum? Is it a much more free process or do you find yourself trying not to write a typical Arbouretum song?
Dave: It wasn’t so much that I set out trying to do things that were different from Arbouretum, but more that a lot of these song ideas I’d initially had concurrent with Arbouretum being in an active period, but I couldn’t imagine doing them with the band. It Take “Ides of Summer”, for instance. It never really could have been an Arbouretum song because it’s a bit outside of our identity as a band. It would be like a business executive going into a board meeting wearing brightly-colored neon running shoes. You wouldn’t be able to take him seriously after that.
(((o))): A running theme in your music is man’s place in the world, or more specifically, environment. Do you see music and environment linked or is it a product of something else?
Dave: I think music is intrinsically linked with the environment surrounding it, and it doesn’t even need to be a natural environment. That’s why early blues music had the sounds of freight trains that made their way into it, and why Kraftwerk weren’t a bunch of guys from rural Pennsylvania who lived among the Amish. My music has a lot of allusions to nature in it, but that’s what I’m into. Some people, when they’re in a new place, want to go to bars and record shops. Not me, I’d rather find a nice hiking spot and spend my time there.
(((o))): Are there plans for more solo albums now or is it back to the day job, so to speak? Can you see both running side by side in the future?
Dave: The next thing I want to do is get another Arbouretum record finished. We have a bunch of songs we’re working on that are really exciting to us, and feel larger than life in ways that are new to us without sounding like we’ve abandoned Arbouretum principles.. I definitely am not ruling out another Dave Heumann record, or even a slew of them, but it won’t be the very next thing.
(((o))): You’re heading over to Europe for a few dates in November, what can we expect from the shows?
Dave: I’m not sure, it might be total chaos! On a more realistic level, it will be a lot of these songs from the new record. And folk songs. Probably some instrumental explorations of some sort too. You won’t be hearing us trying to do Arbouretum songs, because it would be silly trying to replicate that. I’m excited to find out what kind of music we sound good making together.
(((o))): And finally (we ask everyone this)…what’s your favourite biscuit?
Dave: I’m going to go with something that has chocolate in it. That, and toffee. Curious substance, toffee. I don’t know anything about what’s in it or how it’s made. It was only recently that I found out caramel is in fact just a form of burnt sugar, so I imagine unraveling the mystery of toffee could be next. They should have either a PBS or BBC special devoted to this – I would definitely watch it.
(((o))): Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions
Dave: Thank you!
