TALK: Howie Day matures in music

Singer/songwriter Howie Day has gone through broken relationships; he sings about them on his… Singer/songwriter Howie Day has gone through broken relationships; he sings about them on his first album, Australia. He has also had to learn from mistakes and misdemeanor charges that the media spurred him on this past March. Through it all, he has matured in his musical abilities, and has garnered the love of fans, new and old. He is currently on tour with Nickel Creek, which is exposing an even more diverse crowd to his music. The Pitt News got a chance to sit down with him when he was in Pittsburgh this week.

Australia has a sound that is very similar to your solo sound, whereas Stop All the World Now has a full band sound. Which one did you prefer doing? And why?

Well, the last album was a lot less stressful to record than Australia because Australia was on my dime. The new one was a lot less stressful in that kind of a respect because we had three months to record it. It was a little more festive. More like “I have arrived, and I’m making an album.” The first one was more like “I’ve got something to prove, I’m making an album.” They have their pluses and minuses to both.

So which do you prefer on tour, playing solo or with the band?

I like both. I like switching back and forth. I think the solo thing, I’ve been doing it a long time, so it’s kind of polished. When I first started with the band, it was sort of uncomfortable for me. You come to know a certain vibe on stage. When it was just me and the audience, it was very intimate. Then when you add the band, it becomes more like a rock show. So it took me a while to get used to it. But now it’s like I have these two different shows that I can just switch back and forth.

When you play solo, you use a lot of effects pedals and loop recorders. Do you get people saying that’s not you doing all of it, that it’s all pre-recorded and pumped through the speakers?

Yes.

What do you say to those people?

There’s always that drunk guy in the back that’s like “Yeah whatever.” Usually they just go to my sound engineer and ask him “Where’s all that music coming from?” and he’ll be like “He’s doing it, he’s doing it.” Usually the people who get to the point where they are accusing you of not being legit and not live are the people who aren’t going to believe it anyway. I think the majority of the audience gets it.

I saw you play a few years ago, before Australia hit stores, and there weren’t many people in the audience who knew who you were. Now you have two records and videos aired on television. Is it surreal to see all of your hard work pay off?

Yeah, it is surreal, especially if I’m in a remote place. If I’m sitting outside of the club or I’m playing somewhere and someone comes up and asks for an autograph or says “It’s nice to meet you” it’s not that surprising, you kind of expect that. But if I’m on vacation in Mexico and I’m on the beach, and someone comes up to me and goes “Hey, Howie Day, I love your music man,” it’s a little more odd. For the most part I think it’s like any job where you’re not really satisfied where you are — you’re always looking to the next level. I sort of just seize the moment and am thankful but am always trying to push to the next level. You get into the place where you are so focused that you don’t really get that surreal feeling — unless you’re on a beach in Mexico.

I know a lot of people who were exposed to your music through the process of music sharing. Where do you stand on the issue of downloading and music sharing? Because even though it should be old news, people are still making a big deal out of it.

Yeah it is old news. I think the greatest thing lately is iTunes and Sony where you can go online and download songs for a buck. I do it all the time. Especially if you have a high-speed connection like so many people do now. You can look around for the songs you want; it’s like having a record store in your house. Downloading somebody’s album for free is not good, it can’t be good, because where do you think the money comes from to make an album. I have an open-taping policy — people can record my shows, and I think that downloading live shows is fine and trading tapes is kind of like free promotion, but I think as far as when I put an album out people should have to pay for it.

When you recorded Stop All the World Now, you had a couple of songs that used an orchestra. Did you sit in the studio with them or did they record separately?

No, they came in one day, a 25-piece orchestra and they all filed in and sat down in the studio. I was in the control room when they recorded. We had the tracks finished; we didn’t have the vocals yet because we did those last, but the band had already finished recording. Then the orchestra came in and recorded their parts. I was like “Wow” because there’s something about an orchestra anyway, the way they move, kind of a smooth movement, and the sound of strings is kind of emotional anyway. It was a trip to get to watch that happen.

When you did Australia there were a lot of heartbreak relationship type songs on there. And with Stop All the World Now, there are a few of those but it seems that the music has matured a bit. How do you see your music going through a maturing process?

I got to a point with Australia where it was two or three years old and I was still touring on it. It wasn’t that I was ashamed of it, but there were things like, oh every song is about a relationship, every song is in 4/4 time, there are a bunch of songs in C and I didn’t even notice until a couple years later. I think lyrically I matured a lot, I think when I went to do the album I kept that in the back of my head.

Where’s the next album going to go?

Well, the next album, that’s an interesting question. My biggest theory on the next album is that I overthought this last album. So I’m not going to think too much on the next album. So I don’t even know. I think when I go to write the songs I will write songs with different tempos, but how it’s going to sound I’m not going to overthink that too much until we get into the studio. Just let the magic moment happen in the studio while we are recording rather than have it all figured out before we go in and try to do something that we already did.

So are you writing for it now or is that something you wait to get into the studio to do?

No, I always have a batch of songs, and I have a batch of songs now, and I’ll continue to write a little bit on this tour and when I get home at the end of the year I’ll sit down and write another batch of songs. I want to go in with a lot of songs but I don’t want them to be too complete. I want to leave some holes here and there and fill them in. A big criticism that I get is that my live show is a lot better than my studio stuff. I guess that’s because when I tour I’m playing a show every night and I only do an album every two years. And obviously you’re going to do better in a live show and I’m going to try and work some of that in on the next album.

So, you’re a bit of a road warrior.

A bit (laughs).

What’s life like on the road for you?

It’s pretty mellow. When we’re out with the band, it’s 10 of us on a bus; when we’re out solo, there are four. So the vibe right now is more laid-back, and I play a show just about every night. We hang out after the show, watch a few movies, drink a few beers, stay up late usually, sleep in, wake up the next day, and do it all over again. It’s a bit of a robotic lifestyle. You end up with all of these rituals and things you have to do before you go on stage. Have to have a cigarette, have a beer, make sure my shoes are tied tight, and then your days become the same way. Wake up, go to the coffee maker, get a cup of coffee, have the same conversations. It becomes a bit mundane. Sometimes being cooped up on the bus all the time is too much. I miss the early days of driving yourself.

This may be a touchy subject.

Probably.

The incident in March in Wisconsin — what did you take from that and learn from it?

I think the biggest thing that I learned is how quickly the press can explode on you. But in the end it didn’t turn out to be anything; it wasn’t too big of a deal for me to be life changing, it was just one of those things.

Is there anything else that you want to add that we didn’t touch?

I like dogs (laugh).

So do we.