Hi, Christopher, and thanks for agreeing to become my minion…er, be interviewed for my blog.

Christopher Dallman’s first album, RACE THE LIGHT, debuted in 2004. The album was nominated for Best Debut Male in the 2005 Outmusic Awards, and featured the song Over my Head, which was also featured on MTV’s “The Real World”. In 2009, look for Christopher’s next releases!

Five years between albums – that’s a long time. Is it difficult to promote and play the same music for so long without having something new? How do you keep it fresh while performing? Did you continue writing music in the interim?

5 years is a long time, indeed! Sometimes, I look back and think I must not have been working hard enough. But other times everything happening right now feels soright that I think that it just needed to go this way.

You know, it IS difficult to promote and play the same stuff over the course of a few years! Particularly when you are dealing with pretty heavy subject matter, like I was with the songs on Race the Light.

After spending years with those songs living inside of me, 6 months recording the album, and then 2 years devoting every waking moment finding a way to have it reach new ears, I was just done. I was spent and broke and really tired of singing those songs. But once I had decided that I was ‘done’ promoting that album, new songs weren’t really coming out of me. So I basically took a break from music without consciously choosing it. The break chose me.

I am always KINDA writing, even if it’s unfocused and slow moving. I always have some point in my day that I pick up my guitar just to find out what happens. I rarely traditionally ‘rehearse.’ But I’m always goofing around on the guitar.

How do you decide it’s time to commit to another album? Is it a creative decision, financial, spiritual…? Do you write all new songs for it, or revisit music you already wrote?

Well, I’m not actually making another album. I’m making a series of 3 EPs that I will release a few months apart from each other . For those who are unfamiliar with the term, an EP is a shorter album, usually 3-5 songs.

I decided to do it this way for a bunch of reasons. The most important is that, while I suddenly found myself sitting on a big pile of beautiful, unrecorded songs, it didn’t seem like there was a thru-line unifying them all into one album. Race the Light was a journey with an arc and I don’t think the same could be said of the songs I’m recording right now.

Another reason is that releasing less content more often allows the opportunity for each EP to build momentum off the one before it.

The plan right now is to release Anthem, my song for marriage equality– which just came out. Then in the fall release a bunch of songs for free download, all setting the stage for the first EP to be released in December. But the plan is ever evolving. Don’t hold me to it

Do you feel each album should have an overall theme, or is that how your songs feel to you when writing them?

I’m not sure if I need an album to have an overall theme, but there should be something that helps it all hang together properly.

As you work on new songs, do they tend to come in themed groups or is each one separate and a surprise?

Every song is a surprise. It’s exhausting.

How long does it take to write a song?

Sometimes 5 minutes, sometimes 5 years It’s such a mystery.

How do you know when it’s finished? Is it ever?

I think there comes a time in the growth of every song where it is ‘ready,’ but my songs are never finished. And if I’m going to be stuck performing them for the rest of my life, they will for sure change and grow in order to keep them emotionally fresh and true.

When you perform live, do you sing the songs the same each time, or do the words sometimes get mixed up? ☺

Oh, I mess up all the time But I keep it fun.

You grew up in Wisconsin and now live in L.A. – what’s the best part about living in L.A., and the worst? How does it compare to living in Wisconsin?

The best part of LA. Hmmmm. I have a weird journey with this town. While I grew up in WI and now live here, there were 5 years spent in NYC between the two. Adapting to NYC from LA was really difficult for me and for the first few years, I kept dreaming about living anywhere but here. But something in the last year just clicked and now I love it. I hate to be so cliche, but the weather is really just perfect and is probably the best part of LA.

How do you decide which songs to cover, and do you try to honor the original artist or find your own interpretation of the music? How do you take the words of someone else and make them your own?

I never actually pick a song to cover and learn it. I always just stumble upon it accidentally and then be, like, ‘Oh that’s cool, I should do it!.’ The performance and arrangement always needs to strike a balance between honoring the original song and at the same time making it your own. If you aren’t going to actually interpret it, what is the point of doing it?

When you perform live, do people sing along? What’s it like to look out into the audience and hear people singing your own words?

Sometimes people sing along and it’s amazing. Totally thrilling. It’s better than applause.

If you’ve written a song based on experiences with a partner or someone close to you, perhaps a love song or a breakup song, what’s it like to sing that song when that person is no longer in your life? Does it “twinge” each time, do you get past it, does it become just another song…do you retire it?

It’s different for different songs. Even if they are about the same person! RTL is written about the end of one single relationship, and there are some songs on it that I happily perform at every show… others I am just over. I doubt it’s permanent… most likely they just need to rest and then I can revisit them revitalized.

It’s a pretty interesting phenomenon that you can be fully healed from a life experience and still revisit the essential emotion of it when performing.

Do you write every day?

I play and sing and explore every day.

“In the bathroom I comb my face with water” is a lyric from your song Brand New Lover. I can’t adequately describe to you how much I love this song without sounding like a giddy 15 year old girl, so I won’t even try. OMG I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH IT’S LIKE FIYUH!!!
Ahem.
That’s not a question, I guess, I just had to put that in there.

Thank you!

What instruments do you play (aside from the guitar?)

That’s really it! I took piano lessons for 8 years from very mean catholic nuns. I don’t really play anymore. But I’d love to start again.

What’s your favorite song, by any artist?

Amelia by Joni Mitchell.

What’s your favorite song by you?

It’s always the last song I wrote. Right now, it’s a new one called ‘Everything to Everyone.’ I’m also really digging the song I’m recording right now with George Stanford. It’s called ‘Subterranean.’ It’s really dark and vibey. My friend Sean calls it my Vampire love song! We’re almost done with it and then I think I’m going to release it as a free download.

Your new album is in production right now (if that’s not right, please feel free to correct me.) Can you describe a typical day in the studio? Tell me a bit about the album.

Well, I’m working in 2 different recording situations, and they are very different. One producer I work with is George Stanford and we work right in his house. He has his pro-tools computer in his bedroom and I perform in the living room. We work Thursday nights after 6pm, spend 4 or 5 hours and it mostly feels like hanging out. I will lay down my guitar and then a scratch vocal. Then we just dive in an add whatever instruments feel right. He plays most of them. He’s amazing and it’s so incredible to watch him work. When we have rounded out the sound of the song, I add my vocal, then harmonies, then we’re done. With George we move quickly.

The other situation is with a producer named Barrie Maguire and an engineer named Rachel Alina. Rachel was the assistant engineer on my first record years ago, so I walk into that situation with a great deal of comfort. Barrie, Rachel, and I record at a studio in Silverlake called Redstar. It’s a really special place with tons of vintage instruments and gear. Our approach there is different. Rachel and Barrie are very in tune with sounds and we try out lots of different mics to find the one that shapes my voice best for the song. We record the vocal and guitar live and then add the other instruments later. It takes a lot longer for the songs to develop at Redtar.

They are different approaches, both yielding great results, but the two approaches is another reason for separate EPs and not a full album. I don’t think it would do either producer service to smoosh their respective visions together onto one cd.

You’ve just released a new music video OVER MY HEAD, which is one of my favorites! Tell me about the video – was it your first official music video? What’s that like? Is making a music video a milestone for a musician? (I’m a bit older than you, grew up during the height of MTV mania – videos were THE sign a band had made it)

Making the video was really great and the response has been awesome. It has taught me the value of the visual in what I do. It’s given a whole new life to the song.

Growing up with what MTV USED to be, it certainly was a milestone for me. It was very surreal making the video and even more surreal seeing the finished copy. I have to give big props to the director Kevin Thompson. He did a great job of capturing the mood and colors of the song.

What’s your favorite part about what you do?

Performing. It’s relentlessly terrifying, but when you CONNECT it’s like nothing else.

If you weren’t playing/singing/writing music, what would you be doing?

I really don’t know. Sometimes I think I would be a good teacher. I can see myself writing.

When you AREN’T playing/singing/writing, what do you do? Other hobbies? What do you like to read or watch?

I’m a big reader. FIction. I like to run outside in the hot sun. I like red wine. I am heavy into True Blood and am sad there are only 2 episodes left this season. I’m a big fan of TV on DVD.

Rapid-fire!

Front or back front
Up or down Down
Left or right Right
In or out OUT
Black or white Black
East or west East
Chocolate or vanilla Chocolate
Earth or sky Earth
Lake or ocean Lake
Coffee or tea Coffee
Sam or Dean Sam
Kirk or Picard Picard
Kirk or Spock SPOCK!
Trek or Wars Trek
Hero or villain Villain
Oboe or clarinet Oboe
Major or minor Minor

Right now, ‘Anthem’ is available exclusively for download at http://www.christopherdallman.bandcamp.com and half the proceeds of its sale benefit the Human Rights Campaign.

Find out more about Christopher at his website,Twitter, Facebook and Myspace.

Buy his songs!

or from CD BABY, iTunes

Bonus videos!