Daniel Martin Moore - It's just a song and it (can't) change the world

“There are moments in a tennis match where the ball hits the top of the net and for a split second it can either go forward or fall back. With a little luck it goes forward, and you win.” Although the quote comes from a film by the cerebral, thoroughly New York filmmaker Woody Allen, had we read it to Daniel Martin Moore, the shy, lanky young singer-songwriter from Kentucky, he could only have agreed, and would very likely have found striking parallels with his own life — his artistic life, at least.

Reading your biography, across magazines and the web, it seems like your life so far has really been full of events and important changes. How did you start writing music? Before signing with Sub Pop, had you ever thought about becoming a professional musician?

Starting to write music must have been a fairly slow process, one that took many years to develop. It almost feels like I've always whistled my own melodies or hummed some tune, for as long as I can remember. But it must have been when I started learning to play guitar, about ten years ago, that I began adding lyrics and actually remembering the tunes for longer than it took me to whistle them.

Before Sub Pop, I think I thought about being a musician in a very vague way, never seriously. I sent some recordings to the folks at Sub Pop, but honestly, it's only now that I'm starting to understand what it really means to do this job as a musician.

Where does your inspiration come from? What sparks your songs? Do you start by writing a melody on guitar, or do the words come first?

Inspiration is a mystery, most of the time. Usually I start out whistling or humming, or a single phrase comes to mind, just a few words. It happens both ways - sometimes the words come first and then the music, sometimes it's the other way around. And I have to say both ways happen just as often as the other.

You're still young, but your music carries a lot of references to artists of the past - and not just American folk singers, but also English bands from the Sixties. We don't think it's a coincidence that you decided to include a cover of Fairport Convention on your debut album. Which artists influenced you the most?

I love Sandy Denny, especially her song "Who Knows Where The Time Goes?". It felt like it was really in line with the sound of the album, and everyone agreed with my idea. The artists who've influenced me are too many to count, but just to name a few: Jean Ritchie, Johnny Cash, Lightnin' Hopkins, Wendell Berry, Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Li Po, Charles Mingus.

What were you feeling during the final recording sessions for the songs that made up your first album, "Stray Age", knowing you were making something definitive, something you could no longer change? And what was it like the first time in a professional recording studio?

The very notion of making something definitive is hard to wrap your head around. It can be paralyzing, and I tried very hard not to think about what I was doing in those terms - I keep trying to approach recording as nothing more than the documentation of a certain moment and a certain period of my life (my artistic life). That mindset is something Joe Chiccarelli helped me develop. My first experience in the studio was a bit intimidating, but also pretty exciting. And working with Joe was the best.

Are you completely satisfied with the results of those recordings? Were you and Joe Chiccarelli (the producer) on the same wavelength? If you could go back, would you make any changes? We think your debut album is simply perfect, with very careful arrangements and great attention to detail, but what's your take on it?

I'm very happy with "Stray Age" (and very happy that you liked it). Joe and I were completely in sync. We spent many, many hours talking about our hopes for the album, comparing notes on what kind of instrumentation I was looking for. He helped me bring the songs to life in ways I wouldn't have been able to on my own, at home, fumbling around with my guitar. The album is a snapshot of where I was as a musician at the time of those recording sessions, and I wouldn't change a single note.

When everyone was expecting the dreaded "difficult second album", you released "Dear Companion" instead, a project where you share the spotlight with another young musician, Ben Sollee. That was a fairly unconventional move for a young songwriter just launching his career. How did this collaboration come about? And where did you two meet?

Ben emailed me at the end of 2008, right after he heard the song "Flyrock Blues" that I'd posted online. He was already thinking about "mountaintop removal" (MTR) and had started writing something about it, just like me, so he suggested we meet up the next time I was in Lexington, KY, where he lived. We grabbed coffee together a few weeks later and started talking about the idea of recording something together. Over time the idea took shape, and we ended up making this album. It's funny how things work out sometimes.

Your debut album and Sollee's are quite different from each other. How did you manage to combine your different musical approaches and backgrounds? Even though you only co-wrote a few of the songs on "Dear Companion", the whole album feels very cohesive...

Once we decided to work together, honestly, it was really just a matter of fine-tuning and defining our shared common ground and roots, which mostly lay in our shared love for the musical traditions of Kentucky. Everything else just fell into place on its own.

What criteria did you and Ben use to choose the songs for the album? And how did the songs you wrote together come about? Who wrote the music and who wrote the lyrics?

The songs are simply the ones we wrote specifically for the album, or the ones we already had in mind when the idea for the album started coming together. For "Sweet Marie" Ben already had the music pretty much finished, and we worked together on the words. For the title track "Dear Companion" we wrote everything together, words and music, in one afternoon, after rehearsals.

How did Jim James (My Morning Jackets, Yim Yames, Monsters Of Folk) get involved in the project? Had you ever met before? And what was it like working with him?

I actually got to know Jim through this very project. Working with him was great: he's a truly thoughtful producer, and he brought meticulous attention to everything we worked on together.

Daniel Martin Moore, Ben Sollee and Jim James: everyone involved in this project is from home among the mountains of Kentucky, and "Dear Companion" was born precisely as a protest against the greedy, short-sighted coal companies that are destroying these mountains. Obviously, this is something not many people outside the Appalachian states have heard about. Do you think "Dear Companion" can bring some visibility to this cause? Part of the proceeds from this album will go to "Appalachian Voices". Can you tell us something about this organization?

All of us, without a doubt, hope the album can raise some awareness about this issue, and that's really the main reason we made this project together. That's exactly why we partnered with "Appalachian Voices". They're a group, responsible for the website ilovemountains.org, that does extraordinary work in raising awareness about the MTR issue. They also focus their attention on finding alternatives, building more responsible communities, and preserving the rich cultural heritage of the Appalachian region.

Do you believe that, in a world that's increasingly cynical and dominated by business, there's still room for the cultural legacy of the protest song that comes down from the Sixties?

Maybe. Business is business, so as long as something is popular and sells, a big record label will happily go along with it and support it - quality and message aren't factors in that equation, it's purely a matter of money. It's not like labels in the Sixties were trying to make some kind of political statement. They were simply selling millions of records, and I doubt they cared much whether it was Bob Dylan or the Monkees doing the selling. And I wouldn't say the world is all that cynical, either. There are still plenty of people out there who care, who have scruples and attentiveness, and who want to get involved and work toward higher ideals.

Right now you're touring the United States with Ben Sollee. Tell us about this experience. Have you planned to come to Europe? And how important are live performances to you?

Our tour has truly been a rewarding experience. I've managed to visit a lot of places I'd never been to before and play for kind-hearted people, and of course I've had the chance to talk about MTR in places where it probably would never have come up otherwise.

We'd love to come to Europe and we're trying to make it happen, but we're still a small "operation", so I'm not too sure we could afford the trip, but we're working on it.

I think live performances are the best way to experience music, and the smaller and more intimate the venues, the better that experience can be.

The inevitable last question: what are your plans for the future? When will you write a new solo album?

Well, I already have a new album ready and finished! We recorded it in August 2009, but we're still not sure when it'll come out, maybe early next year. In the meantime, I'm planning to spend a lot of time with my family this summer, and I think I'm going to buy a new bike.

Thank you so much for your questions, and I hope to meet you in Italy very soon.

We really hope so too, maybe in some intimate, cozy venue.

(07/04/2010)

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This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Alessandra Trirè, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.

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