Dawes

posted in: Features • Rock

Dawes is a band that won’t be neatly defined in a bio. They’re storytellers that make soulful Americana music reminiscent of Neil Young yet as contemporary as Fleet Foxes. They let their music speak for itself while sharing photos, blog entries and short films for anyone interested in getting to know them better. Case in point, the “Dawes EPK” below:

Jay Sweet spoke with the band’s frontman and principal lyricist, Taylor Goldsmith, and asked him what he’s learned about the music business after a whirlwind year that included signing to ATO, releasing their debut LP North Hills and a feature in Rolling Stone.

JS: Tell us a little bit about how Dawes came to be.

TG: Wylie and I were playing music together before Dawes.  By the time our previous band ended, Griffin was just about to graduate high school, and we were introduced to Tay Strathairn who played piano with us on our record and our first few tours.  His first band (and dear friends of ours) Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes ended up getting real busy this year and through other bands around LA, we were lucky to meet Alex Casnoff, who is our piano player now.

JS:  Your career is just starting to blossom; do you believe in letting a career path progress organically?  Obviously a band needs to be proactive but hyping anything rarely help build something that can stand the test of time. Do you agree?

TG: I definitely agree. It seems to me that the fans that show up immediately are also the quickest ones to leave. But the listeners that really consider something before forming an opinion, due to that sort of investment, tend to be willing to check out those following records and grow with a band.

JS: Your label seems like a good home for your music. A lot of labels get a bad rap, what makes for a good label?

TG: Well, we’re not trying to fool anyone into believing that we’re any sort of Top 40 band.  If we have any sort of shot at making a career for ourselves, it’s going to be over time and ATO has been so amazingly aware and supportive of that.  And also, thanks to a label with the taste that ATO has, we’ve had a lot of people come to our music for no other reason than the fact that we were on ATO. They hadn’t heard a note but bought the record due to their faith in the label.

JS: Do you still “buy” music?  Do you think that playing live is really the only way to make a living in today’s music industry?

TG: It’s seeming to be the case.  Live and licensing, I guess.  Although within this kind of music that we’re playing at least, there’s an affection for the aesthetic.  People are buying vinyl even after owning the record.  I don’t know if you can say that about the club bangers.  And yes, I buy music.  To be honest, I buy all of the new records I want.  I’d feel guilty if I wasn’t supporting the new guys.  When it comes to getting the older records from guys like Tom Petty and the Grateful Dead, I don’t feel so guilty about getting it for free.  They seem to be well off enough and I need it for research.  Sorry guys!

JS: What is the most surprising thing you have learned about the music business in the whirlwind of the year?

TG: How much strategy is involved with breaking a band.  When you think about how even just 50,000 records sold for a band in this independent culture means the band is getting to be very well known and yet there are almost 10 million people in Los Angeles county alone and 304 million in the country.  It seems like within huge numbers like that there should be at least 50,000 people that like any given band, and yet it’s still hard to sell those kinds of numbers.  With the little bit that I’ve been learning in this last year, it seems to me that it’s all about how a band is presented.  After looking at the material, it becomes about things like who the band is touring with, where people have first heard the band, and even down to how heavily the band is marketed, etc.  Sometimes I’ve come across bands that could seemingly be huge if they just embraced the fact that they sound more like the Foo Fighters and less like the French Kicks, if that makes any sense.  I like to believe that there are more than enough potential fans for just about all bands and that the challenge for the musicians has less to do with being accessible enough to everyone, but just effectively reaching the people that you are already accessible too.

JS: What is the best way to spread the music to new ears?

TG: If I knew a good answer to that, we’d be selling a lot more records.  It seems like all the most obvious answers are still the most applicable.  Like word-of-mouth, live shows and getting your song in a movie or a TV show or something.  Beyond that, I’m not really aware of any big secrets.

JS: When you started did you set out a list of goals you’d like to achieve as a band?  If so can you name some?

TG: There wasn’t really a list of them.  Just a general idea.  Obviously, the dream is to end up reaching people on the same level as Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty, and like them, maintain a unique perspective and your credibility.  As time has gone on and that main goal remains the same, others have found their way into my hopes as a musician.  Like getting as close as I can to writing the perfect song.  Obviously an unattainable goal, but one that forces me to keep my eyes open and always reassessing what I need to do to be a good, well-rounded person.  Another is just playing music.  These days I wanna be on stage with every band of the night and extend our set exponentially.  The longer I’m singing songs and holding my guitar, the happier I am.

JS: Where do you discover new artists?

TG: When you’re on tour where everyone involved in your life for those 4-6 weeks is either a musician or a huge music fan, what everyone’s been listening to is one of, if not the, most popular topic of conversation.  John McCauley of Deer Tick reminded me why I love Tom Petty so much, Jonathan Wilson got me into Warren Zevon and Delaney and Bonnie, Christopher Denny got me into certain Bob Seger and Willie Nelson records, Wylie from Dawes showed me Little Feat, Travis Graves from Mt. Egypt turned me onto that Emmylou Harris record Wrecking Ball, Blake Mills got me into Cass McCombs and strangely, of all bands, Low vs. Diamond got me listening to the Grateful Dead.