Post by LS on Jul 11, 2006 16:33:59 GMT -5
Dean Miller: Living, Learning And Doing Things His Way
Dean Miller was born in LA and raised in New Mexico. After graduating high school, he moved back to LA to pursue a career in acting. In the background, he’d always written songs, but never pursued his music until a few years later, when he finally met a couple of guys in LA who shared his love of country music and they formed a band that played locally as The Sarcastic Hillbillies. It was at this point that he began feeling unfulfilled with acting and drawn more and more towards music. However, the more serious he became in pursuing music, the less interested his bandmates became and they eventually parted ways. Dean then decided to give Nashville a try. It turned out to be a decision that seemed easier said than done for Dean. He first came to Nashville 15 years ago and it’s been a rough and rocky road ever since, a fact that surprises many people considering he’s the son of one of country music’s most beloved icons, Roger Miller. However, Dean was determined to make it on his own terms- not because of his pedigree. During his first several years in Nashville, he plugged away at working on his songwriting. He was finally signed to Capitol Records, and in 1997 he put out his critically well-received self-titled debut album. Unfortunately, just as the album was released, Capitol went through a major upheaval and ultimately Dean and his album wound up not only lost in the fallout, but he was dropped from the label. A few years later, he was signed to Universal South and recorded another project that the label decided not to release, and Dean parted ways with them. He was approached by Koch Nashville (formerly Audium) to record an album for them, and finally 8 years after his debut album, Dean released his long awaited sophomore album “Platinum” on September 6.
Besides being a talented singer and songwriter, Dean Miller is a down-to earth, easygoing guy who possesses a charming and good-natured sense of self-depreciating humor. He talked with me about his new album, the bumps in the road he’s encountered on his career path, and how his outlook and goals have changed along the way.
TCB: How about if we start off by talking about your new album, Platinum? This one seems to be edgier and grittier than your first one.
Dean: Ok, well…I’ve been making several albums since then, it’s just the first time a label’s chosen to release it, but I’m just doing what I do. I don’t know; it may be grittier than the previous album…I’m just being myself and just may have just grown into that.
TCB: How did this one finally happen, did you shop it around or did somebody approach you…
Dean: No I was approached by Koch Records and they said, “Do you want to make a record?” and I said “Yes!” and they said “here’s the money” and they gave me 100% freedom, and I just went in and made the record I saw fit. And I don’t think they really had any ‘plan’ for it, and when I made it and brought it to them, they really liked it and thought they could do something with it.
TCB: So how was making this one different from the others?
Dean: I had total creative control without having to run my ideas through a hundred other people first. [Laughs] Before, I’d have to have songs approved, the musicians approved, I’d go into the studio and there were people hired that I didn’t even know…You know, when you have a record deal on a major label, it’s always their choice what they want to do, and the artist’s comes second usually…and this time I was allowed total control.
TCB: For your debut album on Capitol, you’d wanted Gregg Brown to produce it because you really liked his work and respected him, and you got him to produce it. You’ve said in various other interviews that in making a record, there are a lot of compromises. What kind of compromises?
Dean: Well, like I said, when you sign with a major label…they want to have hits- they want to have hit songs and make money. So you’ll bring them songs and tell them a certain direction you want to go in, and if they don’t think it’s going to cause huge out-of-the-box monster hits and platinum selling albums, then they don’t want to do that, and they’ll let you know in no uncertain terms…“No, we’re going to be doing it this way” or “no, we’re going to be doing it that way”…Luckily, this time they didn’t do that and I had my own freedom to do what I wanted.
TCB: And part of that freedom was producing yourself. How was that experience?
Dean: Oh it was great. I did it exactly how I wanted it to be, I had a whole plan in my head- and did that. [Laughter]
TCB: There are two different camps when it comes to self-producing. Some people know exactly what they want to achieve and how to get there. Then there are some people who say, no they can’t do that because they’re too close to it, or are too much of a perfectionist and would rather someone else handle it…
[/b]Dean: No, I don’t agree with that. I’ve been fighting for many years to be allowed to do this and I had the chance to do it…finally somebody gave me the chance to do it, so that’s what I did! [/b]
TCB: And the title Platinum…
Dean: [Laughs] I came to Nashville 15 years ago looking to be a big “star.” Since things haven’t quite worked out the way I was expecting, [Laughs] I thought this might be my only chance to say I had recorded a “platinum” album. [Laughter]
TCB: I thought your debut album was pretty terrific myself. If I remember right, they released 3 singles off it that never got any higher than the mid-50s on the charts, and the album just faded off. What do you think happened there?
Dean: Well, thanks. On the Capitol record in particular, there were a lot of things going on at my record label …people getting fired and whatever. When my record came out there was really nobody left to promote it. They were more concerned with things going on with the label and I was a very low priority at the time.
TCB: I’m not asking you to ‘badmouth’ anyone or anything, but there were a lot of complaints from other artists signed to Capitol at the time, that all the label’s money and resources were going towards one artist in particular- and that they and their releases were being ignored. Because of that, they weren’t getting the promotion and exposure they needed, so their albums weren’t producing hits or sales and a lot of them wound up either getting dropped by or leaving the label on their own. Do you think that’s true and had some bearing on your own experience there?
Dean: Right…well, I think there were certain people at the label who said certain people had to be fired and certain people had to be hired and you know, everybody was afraid of one particular person and trying to please one particular person, and they weren’t going to please that one particular person by helping my album do well…so I wasn’t a priority.
TCB: Since Garth-mania and then merger-mania, that seems to be the way the major labels have been operating ever since. They have a couple of performers they throw all their money and promotion at, while they leave the rest of their rosters floundering. That way of doing business leaves us with only a small handful of performers that get over-exposed and that lack of diversity gets old real fast, don’t you think?
Dean: I think what happens is that you make several projects at a label, and one starts to get the ‘buzz’ or one starts to show it’s the one that’s going to catch on fire and then they all just get behind that. Until someone brings in a record, you don’t know what you’ve got…so you don’t know whether it’s worthy of promoting or not worthy of promoting until somebody brings in that album. So you’ve got to roll the dice with a bunch of money, and once the album’s turned in, if you don’t feel it’s something you can get a hit from, why would you dump more money into it?
TCB: And a lot of that has to do with radio too?
Dean: That’s a whole different animal. Once you’ve made your album and 100 people in Nashville like it, then you’ve got to start over to get somebody else to like it. You take it to radio, and you have to line up 100 people there to like it before it becomes a hit…there’s just so many factors, you know?
TCB: Yeah, they have to test it here and retest it there, and then test it 100 more times with all their little demographics groups before they make a decision, instead of just putting it out there and playing it to see if it sinks or swims on it’s own merits…
Dean: Well just ‘putting it out there’ doesn’t do any good, because there’s a lot more to getting a song on the radio than just having it heard…[Chuckles] There’s a lot of shady stuff that goes on and so there’s just so many factors along the way. You know I was telling someone just this morning, the answer is always “no,” and “yes” is the exception. [Laughs] It’s phenomenal if you get a “yes” and a miracle if you get a hit…because the answer is always “no.” You have to really beat them over the head and make them think there’s no way they can say “no,” before they’re going to let you through the gate usually.
TCB: Ok, that brings me back to the new album. I live in New York, so let’s just say there isn’t much I haven’t seen or heard, and so I guess you could say I’m an extremely jaded and cynical person. I’m listening to the album and when I got to the track “Music Executive”...Man, what a riot! I fell off my chair laughing myself silly…talk about totally hitting that ball out of the park. I took it and played it for everybody I know and it had them rolling too, because- through various and collective experiences- everything you said in that song is just so true!
Dean: [Laughter] And you know, people say, “oh, that must be an exaggeration of the truth,” but no, it’s not at all. Everything in that song is an absolutely true thing from a true experience in my life. And in Nashville especially, that’s everyday of my life right there. [Laughter]
TCB: It’s the truth…believe me, there are [/i]plenty[/i] of them up here too. [Laughter] And I’ve got plenty of friends that can attest to that. There was one, he got a deal and when the album was released we were all like, “man, who is that? It doesn’t even sound like you!” And then after things didn’t meet the label’s expectations, he got dropped and signed to another label. He spent something like 3 years working on it- every time he finished a song the label execs were sending him back to change this and change that. He said by time they got through changing everything- he didn’t even recognize his own songs anymore. And then they never even released it.
Dean: Yeah that’s it exactly, and you have no idea the pressure until somebody sits you in a room and says, “if you want to keep your deal, you’ll do ‘this’”…and then you sit there and say, “hmmm, do I want to go wait tables or do I want to take a chance and be in the music business?” So you compromise or you get out.
TCB: I’ll talk to people who aren’t in the business and when I tell them this stuff, they really have no clue and they think I’m making this stuff up, and I’m like no- I’m not. You hear a lot of people saying that this one or that one ‘sold out,’ and I tell them it’s not necessarily that they’ve ‘sold out,’ the cold, hard truth is, most of the time it comes down to a matter of do they want to keep their deal or do they not want to keep their deal…and, like you said, go wait tables.
Dean: Oh yeah, literally there’s that much pressure. If you sell a million albums, then you might have a little leverage to say, ok I know what I’m doing so let me have some freedom…but that’s the exception, for sure.
TCB: Plus in the past 10 years, we’re down to 4 major labels. With all the mergers, consolidation meant cutting rosters, so you have thousands of performers vying for a handful of roster spots- fighting and scrambling for that one little open slot.
Dean: You wouldn’t even imagine, but it’s down to the songwriters and even the guys who haul the equipment in and out of the studios; it affects everyone in music. So trying to be in music is a very daunting thing right now. But the thing that keeps us all going is that miracle happens, it’s like winning the lottery- so we all keep playing. And I’ve had so many good things happen in my life; it’s been worth it to keep on going.
TCB: Ok, I remember reading an interview you’d given after your debut album came out. Of course your dad usually comes up in the course of a conversation. [Laughter] You had said that while you’d love to see a tribute album done in his honor, that you wouldn’t be singing any of his songs. So now here we are, you have a new album out- and you went and covered one of his songs (“I’ve Been A Long Time Leaving”). So what changed?
Dean: [Laughter] Well, it’s been 8 years since that statement and now…and I’ve come to terms with it. I’m more comfortable with it, and I realized at some point, when I was telling people to please, just listen to my songs…that it came off as sounding disrespectful to my father. I didn’t like that; I didn’t want anyone thinking I was disrespecting my father. And also, I just loved the song in and of itself, and I had this whole concept for reinventing it.
TCB: I just think it’s great. I mean my jaw dropped…
Dean: Well thanks…
TCB: But I have to ask, can you hit that real high note he hit?
Dean: [Laughs] Yeah. But you know, I thought it sounded dated, that it really dated the record, what he was doing on the original record. I didn’t want it to sound dated, so I tried to make it sound more contemporary.
TCB: That you did, it really kicks, there’s a lot of muscle to it. I was just curious, because you hear artists that do a song and hit a certain note in the studio, but then later they wind up regretting it because it’s a note they can’t hit every time when they’re out doing it live.
Dean: [Laughs] That’s true. This has always been one of my favorites of my father’s songs, but he rarely performed it; he used to tell me it was too hard to sing. [Laughs] But like I said, I thought the way the original was done sounded dated and I wanted to reinvent it, make it sound more contemporary.
TCB: Do you find your name is a hindrance…a kind of ‘lose-lose’ proposition, because some people will look at you and think you should be a carbon copy of your dad, and others who’ll think you’re trying to build your own success by riding on the coattails of his name?
Dean: No, I just feel like I have to be 10 times further along than the average guy, because they’ll give the average guy some slack and a break, where with me it’s like- well you better be damned good. [Laughs] I accept it and I’m proud of it, but I just go on and do my thing- you know, you want it or you don’t want it. That’s kind of how I approach it.
TCB: There are so many offspring of legends coming up now and trying to find their place, but it seems like there’s something of a Catch-22 situation. You have some people who hear them and say, “he/she is nothing like their father or mother,” and write them off, kind of not allowing them to be who they are, expecting them to be a duplicate or extension of their parents.
Dean: Right…I just do my thing and you can just buy it or not buy it. I don’t try to define it; I don’t know how to define it…you can’t make everybody happy, if you like it, you like it. But you know, I just do what I can do and I do the best I can do.[/b]
TCB: The thing I like about your albums is that they have a nice balance to them. You can do the hardcore honky tonk, a few, like “Hard Love” off the new one, that has that Waylon groove to it, and more contemporary songs- ballads…that definitely aren’t the candy-coated sugar overdose kind. [Laughter] The balance and diversity reminds me of Travis Tritt’s albums.
Dean: I think it’s like Travis Tritt…with better hair. [Laughter] Other than that…I don’t know what I’m doing, honestly, half the time. I’m just going in there with some vague instincts and a kind of an idea of a plan, and some songs I wrote, and then I go, “well this sounds good.” [Laughs] That’s pretty much what I’m doing. I intentionally try to write to that Waylon groove, because I idolize Waylon and I think he’s really under-appreciated for having invented a whole kind of music. I mean obviously if you listened to it and said, “that’s got a Waylon groove,” well you can’t get more definitive than that.
TCB: Oh definitely. There are just some people who are associated with a certain sound- Buck Owens has his groove, Haggard has his trademark licks…
Dean: Oh yeah. And that’s what I was going for with that song in particular.
TCB: You were born in LA and grew up in New Mexico. Gary Allan comes to mind because he’s from California too, and I do hear a certain similarity in some of your songs. There’s something uniquely different that sets it apart from the usual Nashville sound. What are some of the influences that sets that sound apart? It’s still very country, but there’s also something very seductive and almost retro sounding to it.
Dean: Well again, I’ve got better hair than Gary Allan. [Laughter] Here’s what I’d say about it, there’s two kinds of country music. There are people who wear round-toed boots and people who wear pointy-toed boots. Dwight Yoakam, Waylon, Willie- it’s more figurative than literal- but those people to me, West Coast, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens…those are pointy toe people. George Strait, Clay Walker, Tracy Lawrence, Blake Shelton…these are all round toe people in my mind. Wranglers as opposed to Levis. I just think I’m more of a West Coast influenced person; much more influenced by Merle, Buck Owens, Texas country like Willie and Waylon…I’m much more influenced by that than I am by sort of middle of the road country music.
TCB: You’ve said that Kristofferson is one of your major songwriting influences.
Dean: As far as his words, he’s a brilliant poet…his words are amazing. But even the way he speaks when you talk to him, he’s just so eloquent and articulate, and I just admire him as a person. If I could live any life, it would be his life…I mean he’s been a helicopter pilot, a Rhodes scholar, worked on oilrigs, as a janitor, singer, songwriter, movie star…and now the father of beautiful kids, living in Hawaii. What a life, you know? I look up to him in a thousand different ways, and he’s done personal things for my family that I’ll always remember…and I just idolize him.
TCB: Who are some of your other influences?
Dean: Dwight Yoakam for sure, Steve Earle…I was very influenced by that whole era of country music when Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, Roseanne Cash, they were all coming up during that same era in the 80s…that era just blew my mind. So that little chunk of time, which Tony Brown was mostly involved with many of those projects…that ‘Guitar Town’ period really opened me up.
TCB: As far as your own songwriting, I’m sure you had to pick something up from your dad, but how do you approach it?
Dean: I would say my father was the most brilliant writer I knew…and he influenced me more than everybody else combined, so I should’ve said him first, but yeah, he’s the one who I learned how to write a song from for sure.
TCB: To varying degrees, depending on the point in time, there’s always been an element in country music about ‘traditional’ vs. ‘pop,’ but guys like your dad and Kristofferson, who are considered brilliant songwriters, they seemed unconcerned by that and just wrote what they wrote and their songs went both ways.
Dean: Right, exactly. I just do what I do too, I mean I don’t know…obviously if I were to try to fit in or whatever, it probably would’ve happened by now…but I just have some weird inner voice that I follow, [Laughs] and that either works or it doesn’t.
TCB: When you sit down to approach writing, how does that work for you? You hear about people setting up writing appointments…you know, we’re going to meet in so and so’s office at 10am on Wednesday…
Dean: Oh I can do that. And I’ve written some of my more successful songs or I’ve gotten really good cuts by doing that. But they don’t mean as much to me personally as the songs that strike me at 2 in the morning. [Laughs] It’s all different; sometimes I’ll show up for an appointment and have an incredible inspiration, and sometimes I’ll show up for an appointment and I can’t think of a thing…every day’s different.
Dean Miller was born in LA and raised in New Mexico. After graduating high school, he moved back to LA to pursue a career in acting. In the background, he’d always written songs, but never pursued his music until a few years later, when he finally met a couple of guys in LA who shared his love of country music and they formed a band that played locally as The Sarcastic Hillbillies. It was at this point that he began feeling unfulfilled with acting and drawn more and more towards music. However, the more serious he became in pursuing music, the less interested his bandmates became and they eventually parted ways. Dean then decided to give Nashville a try. It turned out to be a decision that seemed easier said than done for Dean. He first came to Nashville 15 years ago and it’s been a rough and rocky road ever since, a fact that surprises many people considering he’s the son of one of country music’s most beloved icons, Roger Miller. However, Dean was determined to make it on his own terms- not because of his pedigree. During his first several years in Nashville, he plugged away at working on his songwriting. He was finally signed to Capitol Records, and in 1997 he put out his critically well-received self-titled debut album. Unfortunately, just as the album was released, Capitol went through a major upheaval and ultimately Dean and his album wound up not only lost in the fallout, but he was dropped from the label. A few years later, he was signed to Universal South and recorded another project that the label decided not to release, and Dean parted ways with them. He was approached by Koch Nashville (formerly Audium) to record an album for them, and finally 8 years after his debut album, Dean released his long awaited sophomore album “Platinum” on September 6.
Besides being a talented singer and songwriter, Dean Miller is a down-to earth, easygoing guy who possesses a charming and good-natured sense of self-depreciating humor. He talked with me about his new album, the bumps in the road he’s encountered on his career path, and how his outlook and goals have changed along the way.
TCB: How about if we start off by talking about your new album, Platinum? This one seems to be edgier and grittier than your first one.
Dean: Ok, well…I’ve been making several albums since then, it’s just the first time a label’s chosen to release it, but I’m just doing what I do. I don’t know; it may be grittier than the previous album…I’m just being myself and just may have just grown into that.
TCB: How did this one finally happen, did you shop it around or did somebody approach you…
Dean: No I was approached by Koch Records and they said, “Do you want to make a record?” and I said “Yes!” and they said “here’s the money” and they gave me 100% freedom, and I just went in and made the record I saw fit. And I don’t think they really had any ‘plan’ for it, and when I made it and brought it to them, they really liked it and thought they could do something with it.
TCB: So how was making this one different from the others?
Dean: I had total creative control without having to run my ideas through a hundred other people first. [Laughs] Before, I’d have to have songs approved, the musicians approved, I’d go into the studio and there were people hired that I didn’t even know…You know, when you have a record deal on a major label, it’s always their choice what they want to do, and the artist’s comes second usually…and this time I was allowed total control.
TCB: For your debut album on Capitol, you’d wanted Gregg Brown to produce it because you really liked his work and respected him, and you got him to produce it. You’ve said in various other interviews that in making a record, there are a lot of compromises. What kind of compromises?
Dean: Well, like I said, when you sign with a major label…they want to have hits- they want to have hit songs and make money. So you’ll bring them songs and tell them a certain direction you want to go in, and if they don’t think it’s going to cause huge out-of-the-box monster hits and platinum selling albums, then they don’t want to do that, and they’ll let you know in no uncertain terms…“No, we’re going to be doing it this way” or “no, we’re going to be doing it that way”…Luckily, this time they didn’t do that and I had my own freedom to do what I wanted.
TCB: And part of that freedom was producing yourself. How was that experience?
Dean: Oh it was great. I did it exactly how I wanted it to be, I had a whole plan in my head- and did that. [Laughter]
TCB: There are two different camps when it comes to self-producing. Some people know exactly what they want to achieve and how to get there. Then there are some people who say, no they can’t do that because they’re too close to it, or are too much of a perfectionist and would rather someone else handle it…
[/b]Dean: No, I don’t agree with that. I’ve been fighting for many years to be allowed to do this and I had the chance to do it…finally somebody gave me the chance to do it, so that’s what I did! [/b]
TCB: And the title Platinum…
Dean: [Laughs] I came to Nashville 15 years ago looking to be a big “star.” Since things haven’t quite worked out the way I was expecting, [Laughs] I thought this might be my only chance to say I had recorded a “platinum” album. [Laughter]
TCB: I thought your debut album was pretty terrific myself. If I remember right, they released 3 singles off it that never got any higher than the mid-50s on the charts, and the album just faded off. What do you think happened there?
Dean: Well, thanks. On the Capitol record in particular, there were a lot of things going on at my record label …people getting fired and whatever. When my record came out there was really nobody left to promote it. They were more concerned with things going on with the label and I was a very low priority at the time.
TCB: I’m not asking you to ‘badmouth’ anyone or anything, but there were a lot of complaints from other artists signed to Capitol at the time, that all the label’s money and resources were going towards one artist in particular- and that they and their releases were being ignored. Because of that, they weren’t getting the promotion and exposure they needed, so their albums weren’t producing hits or sales and a lot of them wound up either getting dropped by or leaving the label on their own. Do you think that’s true and had some bearing on your own experience there?
Dean: Right…well, I think there were certain people at the label who said certain people had to be fired and certain people had to be hired and you know, everybody was afraid of one particular person and trying to please one particular person, and they weren’t going to please that one particular person by helping my album do well…so I wasn’t a priority.
TCB: Since Garth-mania and then merger-mania, that seems to be the way the major labels have been operating ever since. They have a couple of performers they throw all their money and promotion at, while they leave the rest of their rosters floundering. That way of doing business leaves us with only a small handful of performers that get over-exposed and that lack of diversity gets old real fast, don’t you think?
Dean: I think what happens is that you make several projects at a label, and one starts to get the ‘buzz’ or one starts to show it’s the one that’s going to catch on fire and then they all just get behind that. Until someone brings in a record, you don’t know what you’ve got…so you don’t know whether it’s worthy of promoting or not worthy of promoting until somebody brings in that album. So you’ve got to roll the dice with a bunch of money, and once the album’s turned in, if you don’t feel it’s something you can get a hit from, why would you dump more money into it?
TCB: And a lot of that has to do with radio too?
Dean: That’s a whole different animal. Once you’ve made your album and 100 people in Nashville like it, then you’ve got to start over to get somebody else to like it. You take it to radio, and you have to line up 100 people there to like it before it becomes a hit…there’s just so many factors, you know?
TCB: Yeah, they have to test it here and retest it there, and then test it 100 more times with all their little demographics groups before they make a decision, instead of just putting it out there and playing it to see if it sinks or swims on it’s own merits…
Dean: Well just ‘putting it out there’ doesn’t do any good, because there’s a lot more to getting a song on the radio than just having it heard…[Chuckles] There’s a lot of shady stuff that goes on and so there’s just so many factors along the way. You know I was telling someone just this morning, the answer is always “no,” and “yes” is the exception. [Laughs] It’s phenomenal if you get a “yes” and a miracle if you get a hit…because the answer is always “no.” You have to really beat them over the head and make them think there’s no way they can say “no,” before they’re going to let you through the gate usually.
TCB: Ok, that brings me back to the new album. I live in New York, so let’s just say there isn’t much I haven’t seen or heard, and so I guess you could say I’m an extremely jaded and cynical person. I’m listening to the album and when I got to the track “Music Executive”...Man, what a riot! I fell off my chair laughing myself silly…talk about totally hitting that ball out of the park. I took it and played it for everybody I know and it had them rolling too, because- through various and collective experiences- everything you said in that song is just so true!
Dean: [Laughter] And you know, people say, “oh, that must be an exaggeration of the truth,” but no, it’s not at all. Everything in that song is an absolutely true thing from a true experience in my life. And in Nashville especially, that’s everyday of my life right there. [Laughter]
TCB: It’s the truth…believe me, there are [/i]plenty[/i] of them up here too. [Laughter] And I’ve got plenty of friends that can attest to that. There was one, he got a deal and when the album was released we were all like, “man, who is that? It doesn’t even sound like you!” And then after things didn’t meet the label’s expectations, he got dropped and signed to another label. He spent something like 3 years working on it- every time he finished a song the label execs were sending him back to change this and change that. He said by time they got through changing everything- he didn’t even recognize his own songs anymore. And then they never even released it.
Dean: Yeah that’s it exactly, and you have no idea the pressure until somebody sits you in a room and says, “if you want to keep your deal, you’ll do ‘this’”…and then you sit there and say, “hmmm, do I want to go wait tables or do I want to take a chance and be in the music business?” So you compromise or you get out.
TCB: I’ll talk to people who aren’t in the business and when I tell them this stuff, they really have no clue and they think I’m making this stuff up, and I’m like no- I’m not. You hear a lot of people saying that this one or that one ‘sold out,’ and I tell them it’s not necessarily that they’ve ‘sold out,’ the cold, hard truth is, most of the time it comes down to a matter of do they want to keep their deal or do they not want to keep their deal…and, like you said, go wait tables.
Dean: Oh yeah, literally there’s that much pressure. If you sell a million albums, then you might have a little leverage to say, ok I know what I’m doing so let me have some freedom…but that’s the exception, for sure.
TCB: Plus in the past 10 years, we’re down to 4 major labels. With all the mergers, consolidation meant cutting rosters, so you have thousands of performers vying for a handful of roster spots- fighting and scrambling for that one little open slot.
Dean: You wouldn’t even imagine, but it’s down to the songwriters and even the guys who haul the equipment in and out of the studios; it affects everyone in music. So trying to be in music is a very daunting thing right now. But the thing that keeps us all going is that miracle happens, it’s like winning the lottery- so we all keep playing. And I’ve had so many good things happen in my life; it’s been worth it to keep on going.
TCB: Ok, I remember reading an interview you’d given after your debut album came out. Of course your dad usually comes up in the course of a conversation. [Laughter] You had said that while you’d love to see a tribute album done in his honor, that you wouldn’t be singing any of his songs. So now here we are, you have a new album out- and you went and covered one of his songs (“I’ve Been A Long Time Leaving”). So what changed?
Dean: [Laughter] Well, it’s been 8 years since that statement and now…and I’ve come to terms with it. I’m more comfortable with it, and I realized at some point, when I was telling people to please, just listen to my songs…that it came off as sounding disrespectful to my father. I didn’t like that; I didn’t want anyone thinking I was disrespecting my father. And also, I just loved the song in and of itself, and I had this whole concept for reinventing it.
TCB: I just think it’s great. I mean my jaw dropped…
Dean: Well thanks…
TCB: But I have to ask, can you hit that real high note he hit?
Dean: [Laughs] Yeah. But you know, I thought it sounded dated, that it really dated the record, what he was doing on the original record. I didn’t want it to sound dated, so I tried to make it sound more contemporary.
TCB: That you did, it really kicks, there’s a lot of muscle to it. I was just curious, because you hear artists that do a song and hit a certain note in the studio, but then later they wind up regretting it because it’s a note they can’t hit every time when they’re out doing it live.
Dean: [Laughs] That’s true. This has always been one of my favorites of my father’s songs, but he rarely performed it; he used to tell me it was too hard to sing. [Laughs] But like I said, I thought the way the original was done sounded dated and I wanted to reinvent it, make it sound more contemporary.
TCB: Do you find your name is a hindrance…a kind of ‘lose-lose’ proposition, because some people will look at you and think you should be a carbon copy of your dad, and others who’ll think you’re trying to build your own success by riding on the coattails of his name?
Dean: No, I just feel like I have to be 10 times further along than the average guy, because they’ll give the average guy some slack and a break, where with me it’s like- well you better be damned good. [Laughs] I accept it and I’m proud of it, but I just go on and do my thing- you know, you want it or you don’t want it. That’s kind of how I approach it.
TCB: There are so many offspring of legends coming up now and trying to find their place, but it seems like there’s something of a Catch-22 situation. You have some people who hear them and say, “he/she is nothing like their father or mother,” and write them off, kind of not allowing them to be who they are, expecting them to be a duplicate or extension of their parents.
Dean: Right…I just do my thing and you can just buy it or not buy it. I don’t try to define it; I don’t know how to define it…you can’t make everybody happy, if you like it, you like it. But you know, I just do what I can do and I do the best I can do.[/b]
TCB: The thing I like about your albums is that they have a nice balance to them. You can do the hardcore honky tonk, a few, like “Hard Love” off the new one, that has that Waylon groove to it, and more contemporary songs- ballads…that definitely aren’t the candy-coated sugar overdose kind. [Laughter] The balance and diversity reminds me of Travis Tritt’s albums.
Dean: I think it’s like Travis Tritt…with better hair. [Laughter] Other than that…I don’t know what I’m doing, honestly, half the time. I’m just going in there with some vague instincts and a kind of an idea of a plan, and some songs I wrote, and then I go, “well this sounds good.” [Laughs] That’s pretty much what I’m doing. I intentionally try to write to that Waylon groove, because I idolize Waylon and I think he’s really under-appreciated for having invented a whole kind of music. I mean obviously if you listened to it and said, “that’s got a Waylon groove,” well you can’t get more definitive than that.
TCB: Oh definitely. There are just some people who are associated with a certain sound- Buck Owens has his groove, Haggard has his trademark licks…
Dean: Oh yeah. And that’s what I was going for with that song in particular.
TCB: You were born in LA and grew up in New Mexico. Gary Allan comes to mind because he’s from California too, and I do hear a certain similarity in some of your songs. There’s something uniquely different that sets it apart from the usual Nashville sound. What are some of the influences that sets that sound apart? It’s still very country, but there’s also something very seductive and almost retro sounding to it.
Dean: Well again, I’ve got better hair than Gary Allan. [Laughter] Here’s what I’d say about it, there’s two kinds of country music. There are people who wear round-toed boots and people who wear pointy-toed boots. Dwight Yoakam, Waylon, Willie- it’s more figurative than literal- but those people to me, West Coast, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens…those are pointy toe people. George Strait, Clay Walker, Tracy Lawrence, Blake Shelton…these are all round toe people in my mind. Wranglers as opposed to Levis. I just think I’m more of a West Coast influenced person; much more influenced by Merle, Buck Owens, Texas country like Willie and Waylon…I’m much more influenced by that than I am by sort of middle of the road country music.
TCB: You’ve said that Kristofferson is one of your major songwriting influences.
Dean: As far as his words, he’s a brilliant poet…his words are amazing. But even the way he speaks when you talk to him, he’s just so eloquent and articulate, and I just admire him as a person. If I could live any life, it would be his life…I mean he’s been a helicopter pilot, a Rhodes scholar, worked on oilrigs, as a janitor, singer, songwriter, movie star…and now the father of beautiful kids, living in Hawaii. What a life, you know? I look up to him in a thousand different ways, and he’s done personal things for my family that I’ll always remember…and I just idolize him.
TCB: Who are some of your other influences?
Dean: Dwight Yoakam for sure, Steve Earle…I was very influenced by that whole era of country music when Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Rodney Crowell, Nanci Griffith, Roseanne Cash, they were all coming up during that same era in the 80s…that era just blew my mind. So that little chunk of time, which Tony Brown was mostly involved with many of those projects…that ‘Guitar Town’ period really opened me up.
TCB: As far as your own songwriting, I’m sure you had to pick something up from your dad, but how do you approach it?
Dean: I would say my father was the most brilliant writer I knew…and he influenced me more than everybody else combined, so I should’ve said him first, but yeah, he’s the one who I learned how to write a song from for sure.
TCB: To varying degrees, depending on the point in time, there’s always been an element in country music about ‘traditional’ vs. ‘pop,’ but guys like your dad and Kristofferson, who are considered brilliant songwriters, they seemed unconcerned by that and just wrote what they wrote and their songs went both ways.
Dean: Right, exactly. I just do what I do too, I mean I don’t know…obviously if I were to try to fit in or whatever, it probably would’ve happened by now…but I just have some weird inner voice that I follow, [Laughs] and that either works or it doesn’t.
TCB: When you sit down to approach writing, how does that work for you? You hear about people setting up writing appointments…you know, we’re going to meet in so and so’s office at 10am on Wednesday…
Dean: Oh I can do that. And I’ve written some of my more successful songs or I’ve gotten really good cuts by doing that. But they don’t mean as much to me personally as the songs that strike me at 2 in the morning. [Laughs] It’s all different; sometimes I’ll show up for an appointment and have an incredible inspiration, and sometimes I’ll show up for an appointment and I can’t think of a thing…every day’s different.