Early Day Miners - Western Myths
Early Day Miners' debut album Placer Found is an aural slideshow of
summers spent visiting and experiencing the Southwestern United States.
The band has a revolving door membership whose current core members are
Joe Brumley, Daniel Burton, and Rory Leitch (the latter two formerly of
Ativin). The songs they create are complex, evocative soundscapes that,
with both words and music, conjure intricate images of desolate plains
and forgotten places. The band is currently working on their second full
length which should be available in December and also preparing to tour
in the early fall. I asked Daniel of Early Day Miners about their music,
how the band was formed, and the great influence the Southwest has on
the band's music.
Related links:
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| fakejazz:How did Early Day Miners form? How soon after Ativin died did this project start? How did that happen? |
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Photo by Chris Bennet |
daniel:EDM formed during the last 2 years of Ativin's career. At that time much
more attention was paid to Ativin as we were touring, recording albums, etc.
I considered Ativin to be a minimalist band and in many ways that had a hand
in it's ultimate demise creatively. It's borders were very defined and I
knew that the next band I would be in would be open to more directions
musically. |
| fakejazz:How is the writing & recording for your next release going? Will it be a full length? Will it also be on Western Vinyl? |
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daniel:Our next release will be a full-length. We've done a number of demo versions for the songs, I'd say about half of the album has been written so far. I'm not sure what label it will be on.
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| fakejazz:When will you be touring in support of Placer Found? What area will you be touring? Will you be touring with other bands or alone? How many musicians will be touring with the band?
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daniel:We will be touring in some capacity in September of this year, most likely
with a band from chicago called The Race (ed: ex-ChiselDrillHammer). More than likely the members of
The Race will be playing in the Early Day Miners band. The line-up for live shows has
always varied in the past from 1 to 6 members; the tour line-up is yet to be
determined, but I'm leaning towards the largest band we can possibly have.
Shows will occur in the northeast, southeast, midwest, and deep south for
the September tour.
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| fakejazz:You coyly don't make any reference in the liner notes as to who plays what instruments on the album... |
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daniel:Instrument credits and thank yous can make album artwork text-heavy and
visually unpleasing. I don't think that anyone really cares that I played
tambourine on the first song or that Joe played harmonica on the last one.
There are a lot of instruments played on the record, and we would have had a
difficult time fitting all of their names into a clean and concise design.
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| fakejazz:Where are the locations on the front and back cover of the album? What is your relationship to the photographer, Chris Bennet? |
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Photo by Chris Bennet |
daniel:Chris Bennet is a good friend of ours that has been living the past year or
so in Santa Fe, NM. we met him when he was a photography student at Indiana,
Rory knows him all the way back to his high school days. Chris took all of
the photos out of his van window while driving around Santa Fe, which gives
them a nice unsteady, unpremeditated look.
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| fakejazz:When I think of soundscape music, I often associate each bands' music with a certain place. When you are writing a song, do you ever picture a place? Where? How much does it vary?
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daniel:Certainly. Most of the Placer Found songs were inspired by the visual
whether it be film, photography, or memories from traveling. Joe and I have
spent a lot of time on extended visits in the west, and both of us have
contemplated moving out there. More and more I have personally come to terms
with my minor obsession with the west, realizing that I'm more attracted to
the western myths created by advertising companies and movies than the
actual place itself.
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| fakejazz:Several of the songs, both the titles and the music, imply they are about Texas and the southwest. Indiana is not in the southwest. What is the connection between the band and Texas and the southwest?
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daniel:As I said before, we've spent summers living out there. "Texas Cinema" is about Texan
movies that I like, ranging from Paris, Texas to The Last Picture Show.
"Desert Cantos" is an aural reflection on the photo collection by Richard
Misrach which details man 's influence on the west and more specifically,
the desert.
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| fakejazz:To what degree are you interested in and inspired by country/western and southwestern music?
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daniel:I think I'm more interested in experimental interpretations of roots /
country / southwestern music than the actual authentic stuff. For example,
Loren Mazzacane Connors and Daniel Lanois do much more interesting takes on
the 'blues' to me than say 'muddy waters' because they're putting a uniquely
new and fresh spin on it instead of keeping the blues a museum piece like,
say, Eric Clapton. Not to say that Muddy Waters didn't contribute to the
sound of the blues, it just wasn't as fucked up as weird geniuses like
Hendrix, Lanois, or Loren.
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| fakejazz:What bands and artists do you see as the biggest influence to Early Day Miners' sound?
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daniel:
- Eno & Lanois
- Mark Hollis & Talk Talk
- Arvo Part & Gorecki
- Thin Red Line soundtrack and film music
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| fakejazz:Where does the name Early Day Miners come from? After a couple listens to your CD, I made a connection between "Early Day Miners" and ghosttowns, since most ghosttowns are just the towns that goldrushers lived in and then abandoned once the mines went dry. The whole ghosttown motif seems to fit your music well, especially "Desert Cantos." Do you think that is a valid inference?
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daniel:If that's the image that comes into your head when listening to "Desert
Cantos," than I don't want to change a thing; the visual image influenced
through sound is something we're after. The name itself came from a pamphlet
for Silvergate, Montana, that I picked up while working in yellowstone a few
years ago. There was a photo on the front of some old miners and the heading
underneath stated "Early Day Miners." The whole thing looked like an album
cover to me.
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| fakejazz:How do you view the lyrics in your music? Is the meaning of what is being said at all important compared to invoking images through words? Or is what is being said not at all important and they simply a vehicle through which to add voice as another instrument?
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daniel:A little of both. Vocals are such a wonderful part of music because not only
do you get to add a melody to a piece, but also get to create an image - a
world full of color, mystery, darkness, light.
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| fakejazz:The music of Placer Found was recorded by the band at home. How was the music recorded? Was it done digital or analog? Is much/any of it live takes, or is there a lot of overdubbing? Will you continue to record yourself at home for future releases?
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daniel:We did it all digitally, using hi-8 tape. We formatted a number of tapes and did our best to forget that we were recording. Just sort of hit record
and play and let the tape go. We're increasingly working that way now,
using the approach that you don't even know what your going to get in the
end. It's like, here - play a drum beat along with this digital sample
pedal for 5 or six minutes and we'll write a song over it. I'm increasingly
wanting to work in ways that aren't so premeditated... it sort of frees the
creative process and makes the whole thing a bit more interesting because
you're not trying to obtain a goal with a song necessarily. The song develops
the way it wants and you can just sit back and enjoy it.
Most of the record was recorded live in a room, which is important for
getting a performance feel I think. I don't really like studios - they're
convenient but also usually really sterile and more like hospitals. Music
comes out sounding polished but contrived. Especially when your spending a
thousand dollars a day and the engineer is on the phone and you have to
settle with whatever your best take is within a window of two hours of
performance. Home recording is putting studios out of business. Analog is a
waste of money and stifles the creative process because your having to pay
180 dollars for 15 minutes and you end up being like, gee i'd like to record
a little more but I don't have another 200 dollars and I don't want to
record over what we've got - what if we mess the takes up more. Studios can
be a real nightmare.
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| fakejazz:You've mentioned that it took you two years to record Placer Found, and your next release is due in the December timeframe. Has the process gotten easier? Were there a lot of songs remaining from the Placer Found sessions that will be continued to be iterated on for the December release?
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daniel:We are more efficient, but we didn't necessarily spend two years recording.
There were some down months where we didn't think about the band at all. We
ended up rewriting most of our material. With this band we didn't want to
rush the material, we didn't want to put out a record that we would hate 2
years later. We took some time to develop and figure out what kind of band
we were. We matured as a band - it can take years for musicians to develop
that unmentioned musical chemistry that occurs when the talking stops and
the music begins.
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| fakejazz:Thanks for taking time out to talk to us. |
