Dan Hartland is a one man band with a little help from his friends

Jul 17 2009 by Andrew Coleman, Birmingham Mail

Name: Dan Hartland.

Age: 26.

Home: Birmingham.

Band: I have imaginatively named my band ‘Dan Hartland’. It took a while to get there!

Other members: Depends who’s free that night! Dan Todd often helps me out with cello, and from time to time there’s slide guitar, piano and double bass, too.

Career history: I’ve been writing songs for years now but the current singer-songwriter phase started only a few years ago. Before that I’d played in duos, bands and other collectives (most notably a band named after a song I still play live, Maryland), without getting the sound quite right. I’ve always liked rootsier sounding records and artists and the solo route gives you the ability to strip the music down to its essentials but colour it in just the right ways. I’ve gigged in this style for a while now, adding a strong performance element which keeps the whole thing interesting to watch.

Type of music: Roots music is the inspiration behind much of my stuff – folk, blues and country, even early rock ‘n’ roll. ‘Americana’ fits best but I try to put in enough British influence to make it a bit more homegrown. Country music has a bad reputation – people think it’s all Kenny Rogers and rhinestones – but mix it with those rawer influences and I think you come close to my sound.

Influences: Everything I like, and some of what I don’t! Ryan Adams is a favourite, but so too are Tom McRae, Ray LaMontagne and Gillian Welch. Older stuff like Hank Williams, Ray Davies and Richard Thompson work their way in, too. Bob Dylan is always in the back of a songwriter’s mind, I think, and in the last 18 months or so Bon Iver has reminded me how many possibilities are still open to one chap and a guitar.

Favourite band: This changes every week, but Drever, McCusker and Woomble are very good right now: excellent indie folk. Noah and the Whale, too.

Favourite album: Recently released, Bill Callahan’s Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle; current favourite classic is Dylan’s Desire – and The Beatles’ White Album never goes out of fashion.

Record deal?: Only with myself...

Current release: Walk The Floor, a six-track EP available via my website and on iTunes.

Musical highlight: Supporting Foy Vance in London was great but very often the best musical moments happen at the local, playing a spot-on version of a song with friends.

Musical lowpoint: Travelling all the way to London to play to my girlfriend, a loyal friend and a barman was a shining moment. I think it’s called ‘paying your dues’...

Ambition: The opportunity to tour modest-sized venues regularly and without the worry that the petrol money will run out would be ideal. So too would be finding someone willing to give the records a wider release. Any musician who tells you global superstardom would be awful is lying, but genuinely most of us just want a few more people to hear our songs. It’s about finding new audiences.

Next Midland gig: July 26 - The Varsity, Stafford Street, Wolverhampton, then August 2 at Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham.

Website: www.danhartland.com