liveDaily Interview: Howie Day by Christina Fuoco liveDaily Contributor

August 18, 2004 02:56 PM from www.livedaily.com

If Sarah McLachlan is the self-proclaimed "queen of the depressing love songs," then Howie Day is the king. Take, for example, his song "Trouble in Here" from his major-label debut, "Stop All the World Now": "Take all the love outta me / So I'd never see it again / Lost, where are we / On our plane / Ah yes."

Day explained that it is vulnerability that attracts him to other people's songs, so he strives for the same when penning his own material.

"One of the things that turns me on about lyrics, even if it's a little obscure, is that the artist seems vulnerable. I guess I'm referring more to ballads. If you're writing a ballad, you kind of have to take off your leather jacket and be 'sensitive guy' for just a minute," Day said with a laugh.

"Well, maybe not 'sensitive guy,' but just a little more vulnerable ... kind of admitting things and that sort of thing, rather than trying to hide it underneath this huge blanket of obscurity. I think a lot of bands do that."

Day--who hit the road with Barenaked Ladies earlier this year and is currently touring with O.A.R.--talked to liveDaily about his songwriting habits, his audience and touring in the summertime.

What was it like to tour with the Barenaked Ladies? You seem to have two different types of crowds.

It was good. It was a different audience than I'm used to. I was expecting a little bit of a younger audience, I think. It was maybe a little older than I expected. I always kind of associated them as a college band or something because I used to listen to them in high school. Then we got out there the first night and it was a lot of older people. I was like, "This is kind of different." But it was a good audience.

Were they a little bit more appreciative of your music?

Definitely. I'm always glad to get in front of a different demographic rather than the one that's supposed to be mine. It's good to get in front of other bands' audiences, as well.

How would you describe your audience?

It's pretty funny. I don't feel like I've been grouped into a definite demographic--or maybe I never will. I kind of like it. We'll go out some nights and in the front row you'll have your group of teenaged girls, and then you have a college-aged or mid-'20s-aged couple. And then there'll be, like, a random 50-year-old guy with a baseball hat. It's like, "Wow. It's kind of cool that there's not that boundary." Hopefully that means we're doing something right. I don't know.

What do you think it is about your music that transcends age groups?

I think one of the things I go for--and I'm sure that there's things that people like about me that I don't even know that I'm doing--is try and create a raw musical experience. Like it's a real emotional thing, rather than just going up there and going through the motions. That's what I pride myself on every night.

Are you surprised at the critical success of your album?

I'm the kind of guy that, if I read 20 reviews, I'm only going to think about the two bad ones. I try not to think about that too much because it'll just end up bugging me. I just kind of do it for my own reasons. I enjoy music; music is to be enjoyed. I do it so people that come to the shows and buy the records will enjoy it. I try not to think too much about what critics think of it.

Have you started working on your next album?

Always. Always kind of working on the next one. Thinking about it and that kind of thing. Working on some demos of some new songs.

Are you going to play any of them on the tour this summer?

I bet we will. I think it's good to get out and test them out in front of the audience. If people dig it, then I think when you go in the studio to record it, you have a different confidence about them. You know, "Well, this is already proven that this works. People like this song." It gives everyone in the band--me and the band--a different mindset going into it. I think, also, you figure out certain qualities about the song that really work. When you get in the studio, you can really sort of accentuate those things.

Did you change a lot of the songs for "Stop All the World Now" after you road-tested them?

The funny thing is, half of those songs, I never played in front of people. We kind of kept half of those under wraps, just for fun really. Just to try and make it more exciting when the album came out. Every day we'd get up and look on the Internet and see if it had leaked yet. It never did.

Is that a good thing?

Well, I think sales-wise, I was happy, because if it leaks, less people buy it. I think if there's a little leak, it's good. You get a little buzz going. "Oh, there's two new songs." It gets people talking about it and it gets people revved up.

Do you tend to write more in the studio or on the road?

Sometimes I finish some things in the studio, or you get ideas, go off on a tangent and you're stuck with something you have to finish. But usually I like to have them pretty well planned out, mapped out before I go in the studio. I tend to do a little bit of writing on the road. But most of it at home. When you're on the road, you're sort of in this mindset of work, work, work, very fast-paced kind of lifestyle, always traveling, always being somewhere and doing something, blah, blah, blah. It's kind of hard to take it all in and organize your thoughts into songs on the road. Usually, it's when you get home and slow down that you think, "Wow, that was crazy."

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