A living thing
Dawes frontman on love for the road, returning to Oklahoma
D on’t see Dawes in concert if you’re afraid of commitment.
Singer-songwriter and frontman Taylor Goldsmith likened his Californiabased band’s opener-less tour to a marathon 15-minute Bob Dylan song.
“Maybe there’s a line here or there that isn’t the best, but by the time you’re through the whole thing, you feel overcome emotionally,” Goldsmith said.
If a weaker line appeared in three-minute song, then it might stick out. That logic extends to Dawes’ upcoming Oklahoma “Evening With” sets, which aim to deliver a mood rather than wrestle with thepressure of delivering a dozensongs and hopping offstage. A longer show means an opportunity to build a deeper connection with an audience, he said.
“I figure it’s sort of a dance between the audience and the band of how to make that work,” Goldsmith said. “Not only do we have to come correct, but people have to be willing to go there with us.”
That “us” he’s referring to includesWylie Gelber (bass), his brother, Griffin Goldsmith (drums, vocals, percussion) and Lee Pardini (keyboards, vocals). Since 2009, the crew’s plaintive, laid-back vibes have garnered more than a few comparisons to the folky Laurel Canyon greats of yesteryear, but that’s more of a testamentto the strength of Dawes’ songwriting rather than adefinition of an overall sound.
The band’s 2016 studio release “We’re All Gonna Die” marked a more upbeat, bubbly sonic departure and became the band’s highest charting record to date. I caught up Taylor Goldsmith to ask about the recent success, Dawes' identity andthe meaning of a jam band.
It really just goes back to playing a bigger venue in acity and selling this many more tickets. That really feels good, but the cool thing is that typically a ticket being bought has more to do with someone being on board with your whole operation and not necessarily your new album or your new single. Maybe a good handful of these people coming out on this next tour are people that just got ahold of the first or second record for the first time and that’s all they know for all I know. To be the kind of fan that’s willing to spend the money on a ticket and give your evening over to going to see live music, that is another level of commitment to an artist. I love so much contemporary music, but I haven’t even seen a lot of it live. So, what it takes for someone to be willing to come to one of our shows is not lost on us in terms of how much they're sacrificing and giving in order to do that.
I love touring so much. Obviously, as you get older and you start to have a better sense of what home is and you end up in a serious relationship, touring is much harder in a personal way. In terms of what it means to be a songwriter and what it means to build a body of work, I’m always thinking about that in terms of what that will mean for the show, what it will mean for the tour, and in that sense I think touring is what inspires me to do this. If it wasn’t for touring, I would have a harder time carving out the joyful experiences. I love making records, but typically it’s for four weeks every one to two years, so it’s really not a whole lot of our time. I think in order for us to want to do this, we would have to love touring. Also, our music is such that I think it lends itself to being fun for the stage . ... We let ourselves be a living, breathing thing for a second and talk to ourselves with our instruments and those are the most fun parts. I know that any band
I think it’s really a misconception because the idea of a jam band is the dream, really. I mean Grateful Dead is one of my favorite bands that ever was, but this is a rule that applies to regular bands just as much as it applies to jam bands. If you don’t have good songs, then I don’t care how cool the music is . ... It’s this cultural association that I understand, but I also think it’s not fair because I think if someone were to say, "Hey, do you want to go see this jam band Dawes with me?" frankly, I’d probably be honored to be described that way. I would also expect someone to get the wrong idea pretty quick.
I can sing along with not only every word of every Steely Dan song but every guitar solo of every Steely Dan song. They are so cool to me. I feel like a lot of people’s fandom of Steely Dan has this sort of tinge of irony and to me it’s not ironic. I’m not being stubborn or making a statement by saying I like Steely Dan. It’s me saying I like Steely Dan is the same as saying I like the Rolling Stones. There’s no kind of rebellion to it. The same way that I feel like a lot of other people have when it comes to artists like Steely Dan or even like The Eagles or
Right now she’s pretty busy, but I’m really hoping that she’s gonna be able to come hang out on tour because we’re touring a lot and I’m gonna miss her so. Hopefully, there’ll be some times where she’s not filming and she can come hang out.