Headstash

Dangermuffin and Jam

Photo Courtesy of Dangermuffin's Facebook

Fresh off an incredibly busy summer, which included multiple festival appearances and an expansive tour of the Western United States, self-described “sand-blasted roots rockers” Dangermuffin have been making their mark with their unique genre-blending sound.

While many of Dangermuffin’s songs are written in the folk tradition, their distinct sound features thoughtful songwriting coupled with quality musicianship and an undeniable ability to let songs evolve organically in a live setting.

Now on the East Coast, Headstash Magazine caught up with songwriter and guitarist Dan Lotti to discuss the origins of the band, their future plans and their noticeable lack of bass onstage despite having a full, heavy sound.

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Headstash Magazine: Despite your rampant success, Dangermuffin has only been an official entity since around 2008 when you guys started playing together and really started getting serious about it.

Dan Lotti: Yeah, that’s right. Dangermuffin kind of got started with another drummer. We did our first record “Beermuda” with him and we're great friends with him, but we ended up having different goals so we parted ways and then met Steve [Sandifer]. When that happened, we started touring nationally.

HM: You play a lot in the Northeast and were recently in the Northwest and Colorado. Dangermuffin probably plays some markets that are a little more perceptive to your kind of music than others. How would you say it is playing Charleston or the South versus playing in other markets?

DL: I would start by saying that probably our strongest region is the Northeast and [more specifically] New York. We've done a few festivals up that way and it helped out a good bit. It naturally happened for us in a short time.

[FIND tour dates, news and downloads on Dangermuffin's official website.]

Photo Courtesy of Dangermuffin's Facebook

I would say that the South is sometimes a little slow for things. It takes them a little bit longer to come around to things as far as coming out for the shows and being a part of it. It's just the South in general, but Charleston has been very, very good to us. We've been supporting ourselves through music for a number of years now and it kind of enabled this project to grow legs. We play locally and sell out the local rooms on a regular basis.

HM: It's really cool you guys put all your material on your website available for streaming. I genuinely appreciate you putting them out there for fans to listen to. In particular, your most recent album, “Moonscapes.” There are a whole lot of different sounds on there. You've got some roots rock, some folky stuff, some stuff that’s got a reggae vibe. It definitely sounds like there are a lot of influences on the table. Could you shed a little light on where you guys are coming from with your musical backgrounds?

DL: I think it's different for all three of us. I came up playing acoustic guitar and my main influences were John Prine and Steve Earle. I really dug into folk music.

[Guitarist] Mike [Sivilli] is influenced by a lot of lead guitar players like David Gilmour and Trey Anastasio and a little Jerry [Garcia]. He brings that jam element into it. I bring the folk element. And then Stephen, who has spent a lot of his life being trained in music, understands everything about every beat that there ever was. He knows it all. He had all this energy and many ideas for “Moonscapes."

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[We feel the three of us] actually built with the band when Steve was playing drums since we don't have a bass player. I used a Godin acoustic guitar and hold down the low end. It gives this particular fingerprint, so to speak. With that limited instrumentation, we feel like we can get away with playing all the styles of music that we enjoy playing.

HM: The times I've seen you guys I noticed that you don't have a bass player, but when you're listening it sounds like there is a bass up there. Could you talk a little more about the acoustic guitar you play?

Photo Courtesy of Dangermuffin's Facebook

DL: I learned about that particular brand of guitar from a guy named Martin Sexton. He's this fantastic folk musician with amazing voice. He would just get up there by himself – or sometimes him and a drummer – and he would hold it down just with that Godin because it just had such a full sound to it.

I've spent the past three years just trying to harness that and I think we've got a pretty big grip on it these days. Some people don't like it – but they’re usually bass players. [Laughs.]

HM: Seeing Dangermuffin live and listening to your albums, it seems like it made your playing a little bit more dynamic because you weren't stapled down to having to play the bass. You could lay those base notes down while throwing in some chords at the same time thereby creating a fuller sound.

DL: Yeah, definitely. It's a different thing in more acoustic settings and even in some festival settings. When I’m feeling it, I just sit on stage and be a folk musician. We try to bring this strength to us sometimes and I think that is where you can find a lot of space and a lot of room in music if you can learn how to really control what you're playing.

If all three of us are clicking, then we're able to play a dynamic set through restraining ourselves and trying to build up to the louder moments. We take pride that we're able to control ourselves as a band and get this musical ebb and flow.

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We have an advantage because it's just the three of us. If you have a lot of people playing, you don’t have the sonic real estate. If you have six people, they're still sharing that finite amount of space where as with us, there's a little bit more room for each person to explore and retract.

We spend a lot of our time supporting what Mike does. Stephen and I enjoy rocking and grooving and supporting him. That's probably why we’ve been embraced by the jam band community.

HM: How has the jam band community affected the evolution of Dangermuffin?

DL: As far as being involved in the actual community, we're grateful. A lot of people say, “Well, is that a stigma for you? Do you not want to be labeled a jam band?” It's not about that for us. But we're not really technically a jam band either.

But we're getting used to it being embraced by that community because the people are true music lovers. They're independent music fans that will seek and open their ears to new things, and I don't really know of many other communities or sub-cultures that are open to new things. We’re privileged to be a part of that.

HM: Dangermuffin had a pretty crazy summer. You played a whole lot of festivals and then you just had your own tour. How'd that go?

DL: It's been a real busy summer. We took a trip up through the Northwest again, which is a lot of fun. We just did a run through Colorado. We did Taos Music Festival. We started in April really with Wanee in Florida, which is the entire Allman Brothers family. We still have a couple more. We're going to do the Voodoo Experience in New Orleans for Halloween. Our goals are to just keep doing it – keep it balanced and try to maintain home lives.

HM: What are your plans for next year?

DL: We have plans for a record. We weren't in a rush after “Moonscapes,” which just felt right from the business standpoint, as we were just starting to crack outside of the Southeast region. We thought we should just milk it for all it's worth and grow our fan base. We feel like we've accomplished that this year.

[READ reviews of all your favorite festivals including ones Dangermuffin has played via our 2011 Festival Guide.]

It's our plan to slow down a little bit in November and start the pre-production process. We have a very good handful of songs that we plan on recording and have released by the beginning of next season.

As far as we're concerned, this is our time. This is what we're all supposed to do. We're all in our early 30s – we've gone through the struggle with “maybe we should have a real job” or “maybe we should do this or that.” We are all committed to it and we all work toward continuing to create and play. We enjoy it, for sure, and we don't have any plans of stopping anytime soon. What the hell else am I going to do? [Laughs.]

HM: Social media has really changed the way things have worked in the music business. When someone posts something on your Facebook, do you look at those things and take them into consideration or do you not pay quite as much attention to that kind of stuff?

DL: We spend way too much time on there. Now with these tools – this may sound cliché –musicians are empowered and in control of what they’re doing. The three of us, we work very hard to conceptualize and manage the money and the graphic design. Everything that you see that is Dangermuffin ultimately comes down to the three of us. There's no decision that is made without the other people knowing.

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My advice to any other musician is that no one is ever going to care more about your music than you do. If you want to go out and play music and you love it, then you have to wear all the hats and be independent and discover all the ways to do it on your own and don't put it on somebody else to do it for you because they just won't. We learned that lesson.

HM: It was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks for you time, Dan.

DL: Thank you, man.

 

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Dangermuffin’s next show is in Charlestown, WV, Wednesday September 28 at The Empty Glass. For a complete list of tour dates, check out the band's official website.