Interview With Daniel Martin Moore

Story by Casey Welsch 

| Published Oct 25, 2008

ER: Now, you just recently signed to Subpop and put out your new album, and Subpop’s a pretty iconic, symbolic indie label. You’re from Kentucky, and that seems to me to be an area that’s a bit removed from any sort of indie music scene. How does this affect your music?

Daniel: It’s interesting, because In Kentucky, we have an even more independent music scene. We don’t have like an indie rock scene, but we’ve got all kinds of folk music and bluegrass and country that is completely off the charts of the mainstream, and that might make it more indie. It’s true that we don’t have a scene like Seattle has a scene or like L.A. has a scene, but um, we have a lot of music here to, and I’m sure it’s the same way where you are.

ER: Pretty much. Now, in your subpop profile, you’re called a drifter, and you’ve worked in Costa Rica and in the peace corps in Camaroon. Has your music in any way been affected by the cultures in these areas?

Daniel: Yeah, I think so. I always kind of travel, but when I hear myself called a drifter, it’s kind of funny. I would say definitely. When you spend a lot of time in a place that is culturally different than where you were brought up, you absorb some of it, and you kind of put some of it away as well. I find it a lot easier to take a step back and see my own culture and my own vices from a separate point of view, if that makes any sense.

ER: Works for me. On your debut album, “Stray Ages,” you worked with some people who have worked with some pretty big artists such as Beck, U2, the White Stripes, all that. What sort of effect did this have on your record?

Daniel: The main collaborator that I had on this one was Joe Chiccarelli and he’s got a very impressive resume. We had some long conversations before we even started. He’s the kind of guy who chooses artists based on material and not what he can do to the material. We had long talks about how I wanted it to sound, and things that we could add to the songs to really bring out what I wanted to see. The reason that his resume is what it is is because he’s able to work with a pretty wide range of musicians. Not everything he does is rock and roll. Just this last year Kurt Elling was nominated for the jazz Grammy, and Joe produced that. He’s pretty flexible and that’s kind of how everybody was.

ER: What are some of your inspirations? What or who or where does your music come from?

Daniel: I really enjoy writing letters, and I think that a lot of my songs could very well be taken that way. As letters to someone or about something. I think that has a really strong influence on the way I write. Also, I really love to read, so I find it hard to write a lot if I’m not reading anything. Some famous author said something like, “If I’m not reading then I’m not writing.” I feel that way too. I really love to read Tang Dynasty Chinese poetry. It’s full of all kinds of wonderful descriptions of nature and man’s place in it. I see that cropping up in my writing a lot. And as far as specific artists go, I absolutely love people like Johnny Cash. He’s got some great catchy songs and stuff, but if you look at the songs that he wrote through the late sixties through the seventies, and even his resurgence with like the “American Recording” albums and stuff, those songs are incredible. They’re kind of like, they remind me a lot of Tang Dynastsy, Chinese, Daoist poetry.

ER: Really?

Daniel: Absolutely! So much of Appalacia is in the culture, or maybe not so much Appalacia but country. Rural culture has that same connection to the landscape and that same…You also find it in the gypsies and their music. It’s sort of melancholy, but sort of upbeat at the same time. You know, you hear this bluegrass song and it’s just at a blistering pace, but it’s about being heartbroken. I think you find some similarities that are really interesting, and all his stuff is ultra simple, but I think that’s what all great art is. It has to have a simple truth to it.

ER: I’ve heard Johnny Cash compared to a lot of things, but never a gypsy or a Chinese poet. That was great! Alright now, um, what’s in your iPod or your CD player or your turntable right now?

Daniel: I have been listening to quite a lot of Billy Holiday, and, let’s see, let me go look at my stack of records. I just picked up this record that’s this guy singing in Spanish, I really like it a lot. My friend of mine gave me this other record that’s called Pab lo ra. It’s very beautiful stuff. It’s very haunting and sweeping.

ER: Now what’s it like listening to music as a musician? Do you ever listen for pure enjoyment, or do you find yourself always analyzing and breaking it down, looking for similarities between your music and theirs?

Daniel: I don’t ever listen to music that way.

ER: Really?

Daniel: I never break it down. I actually can’t read music. It’s all by ear. It’s all by feel. After having made the album and seeing and being in a recording studio and dealing with all those things, it’s not like you just plug it in and record, it goes through all these things like the board and the condenser. There’s a lot of different steps that can really change the sound of the same guitar or the same microphone. You can plug a lot of things into a lot of different places. So then, after that I started to appreciate production quality and all. Kind of how things sound. You kind of realize that things were a conscious choice. Now I kind of hear the recording in the mix. I don’t dwell on stuff like that too much. I prefer to have a more gut reaction to it.

ER: Alright, moving off music for just a little bit, what’s your take on the politics of this year.

Daniel: Wow, no one’s ever asked me about politics.

ER: Really?

Daniel: Nationally, I’m on the line that we need more than two political parties, because they have a stranglehold on our government. I mean, George Washington warned against political parties in his farewell address. He didn’t waste any words at all. He said they were dangerous, and that we should guard against them. And then we all know how closely we followed that advice. I think anytime that kind of power falls into one or two hands, I think that’s a bad idea. I think we need a few more legitimate, not radical by any means, but more legitimate parties that actually reflect how people feel about things. That would be great.