Dan Wilson : Free Life

I'm going to level with you, I’m a huge fan of Trip Shakespeare — a band I stumbled upon at just the right time in my life. I suspect I will always rank their Across The Universe record as one of my all-time favorites. After Trip Shakespeare splintered, guitarist Dan Wilson and bassist John Munson formed Semisonic, a band that will be best remembered for their ubiquitous 1998 single, Closing Time. Eventually Semisonic too called it a day and left us with Dan Wilson, Grammy-winning songwriter and solo artist.

I was initially disappointed with Wilson’s debut solo offering, Free Life (available Oct. 16). It wasn’t that the songs weren’t good, but I was looking for something with the inflated swagger of The Slacks or poignancy of Drummer Like Me. The fact that Free Life was produced by Rick Rubin only added to my discontent; after all, this man was responsible for some truly incredible records. It just didn’t add up for me.

Free Life is a great record, but it’s a slow-burner. It’s an anachronism to be sure; artists don’t make records like this anymore. Free Life should ultimately be compared to Elton John’s Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. The sound you hear is a confident songwriter hitting on all cylinders. The quality of Wilson’s material doesn’t fluctuate from song to song or fade in the homestretch like so many songwriters’ albums. The melodies and hooks are so strong that even a seemingly simple song like Sugar becomes durable and able to withstand repeated listens. As producers, Wilson and Rubin demonstrate sure hands, carefully embellishing melodies and allowing songs to develop slowly. As a result, nothing on Free Life feels forced or trite.

When Free Life’s lead single, Cry, was released, I offhandedly (and somewhat snidely) recommended its inclusion on a Grey’s Anatomy episode. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. There’s an audience for Free Life, but without airplay this record could easily be lost in a deluge of higher-profile releases. It can produce multiple hits or fail to sniff the charts—even the seminal Captain Fantastic yielded only a single minor hit. Time will tell how Free Life is remembered and if Wilson adds to that burgeoning Grammy collection. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and snatch up this record.

Dan Wilson - Breathless
Trip Shakespeare - Drummer Like Me

With the release of Free Life looming, Dan was good enough to share his thoughts on Rick Rubin and The Dixie Chicks as well as crush the hopes of Trip Shakespeare fans everywhere.

MOKB: Will your obituary now read, Grammy-winner Dan Wilson?

Dan Wilson: I’ll be the one guy who will never know the answer to that question. I guess I wouldn’t mind if my obituary said that. (Of course I wouldn’t mind, I’d be dead!) I am getting used to the idea that it’s the first thing people say about me. That will probably wear off, I’ll just be Dan Wilson in a year or two, so I’m trying to enjoy the little Grammy add-on while it lasts. It’s like being Sir Dan Wilson, except it’s not permanent.

MOKB: Where is your Grammy this very moment?

Dan Wilson: I am sorry to say that my Grammy is sitting on the kitchen counter. It used to be on the mantel over the fireplace but I’m having some dusty repairs made to the living room so my ol’ pal Grammy got moved. A friend of mine pointed out that the kitchen is actually where most people spend time. He figured I was trying to put the award in the place where my friends would see it the most.

Eventually, I am going to build a hydraulic column for the statuette in the entryway of my house, with lighting and smoke machines, so I can raise it up out of the floor when people come over. “Oh, look, what do you know! It’s my Grammy, of all things!”

MOKB: How did the Dixie Chicks opportunity come about and what was your first reaction?

Dan Wilson: Rick Rubin told me that he was talking to the Chicks about producing them. We had a little discussion about them, I told him how much I admired them for standing up for what they believed in and not just caving in when the pressure came down on them. He then told me that he’d played them some of the tracks on my album, they loved the songs, and asked if I would be interested in writing with them. I think my first reaction was, something like, “Wow!” Of course I said yes right away.

MOKB: From an outsider’s perspective, you’ve had a charmed career. You started in a much-loved cult band, moved onto a band with a smash single, won a Grammy as a songwriter. What’s left for you to accomplish?

Dan Wilson: That’s a really interesting question. From the outside it looks like a very steady and successful march. And I actually do agree, I’ve had a charmed career. But from my perspective it can feel like a tangled path sometimes. Getting any album finished and out to the public is a pretty dicey proposition – I had at least 2 years of waiting for Free Life to come out while my label, American Recordings, changed parent companies. And I’m like any artist, every time I try to write a song it feels like starting over from scratch. Every time I go into the studio I wonder what gave me the idea that people would want to hear my songs. And in the music business, it’s easy to get the feeling that you’re always auditioning, no matter what you’ve done in the past.

MOKB: Working with Rick Rubin, who is likely one of the 5 most important people in music over the past twenty years. What does he bring to a Dan Wilson record?

Dan Wilson: Rick brought his great judgment in songs and song structure first. He loved a lot of the first batch but he had very strong opinions about which ones were the weakest or didn’t fit. And in several cases, he gave me pretty challenging notes on how to make the songs better. Notes like, “Bridge could be better – it should go somewhere more different.” Or, “Try making the melody of that section go up instead of down, and at the end, go nuts.”

And then in the recording process, I really feel that Rick taught me how to remove what wasn’t necessary from the recordings, and how to add just that right element to make a recording suddenly sound like a record.

Interestingly, I think it’s a gentler, more acoustic album than it would have been without Rick’s influence. I think that side of my music really thrilled him, and I think here and there he might have pushed the music in that direction. I’m glad he did, I think it gives the album a very specific feeling.

MOKB: How many songs did you record for this record?

Dan Wilson: Maybe 30.

MOKB: What criteria did you use to whittle the number down?

Dan Wilson: This is going to sound funny, but the first phase was for me to remove anything that sounded like the Beatles. That took care of about five songs. Anything where the writing had an English-y vibe to it, I set it aside. This was before I met Rick Rubin, who is a huge Beatles fan, and he raised his eyebrows when I told him I’d weeded out all the English influence before he heard the music. He said, “Whatever you did, it sounds good to me.”

The second big whittling down of the list was when the best tracks started to come together – Golden Girl, Sugar, All Kinds were the earliest songs to really sound great. And that started to set up a flavor that the other songs had to coexist with. So even if it was a really good song, if it couldn’t live with that first batch, then it had to go.

MOKB: What do you hope listeners will take away from hearing Free Life?

Dan Wilson: I don’t know if I think of music that way. I want listeners to be taken away by the music, but I’m not sure I need them to take anything away from it. “Gee, that Dan Wilson sure can write a song!” My ego would love them to go away with that thought. Or, “I really want to have his baby!” Something like that. Otherwise, I’m kind of suspicious of music that tries to make you think something specific.

I think I’d be happy if someone told me that they had listened to my music on a bad day and it made them feel better. That would be pretty great.

MOKB: Being from the Twin Cities, I’m naturally interested in the Gary Louris (The Jayhawks) connection. How long have you two known each other and can we expect any future collaboration?

Dan Wilson: I’ve known Gary for a long time but I only actually spent time talking to him or jamming with him in the past 2 or 3 years. He’s such a fantastically talented musician, he’s the king of nailing a solo on the first take. We had a brief session together in 2000, when he played an amazing guitar solo on the Semisonic song, I Wish. I made him do about nine tries and then used the first one, it was completely great. And in the past few years, we’ve been able to hang out at friends’ parties or gigs a lot more. And we played together on some of the Dixie Chicks’ sessions for Taking the Long Way. We started to write a song together last year but it’s not finished yet. I’m guessing we’ll have more chances to do that in the future.

MOKB: What artists/bands are you listening to now?

Dan Wilson: Ben Harper, Ray Lamontagne, Joanna Newsom, Journey, Modern Jazz Quartet, Weezer, Van Morrison, The Owls, James Morrison, Miles Davis, others. There are two songs on the new Bruce Springsteen album that sound just like the Magnetic Fields and I’m listening to them just to be freaked out.

MOKB: Is there a tour in the works to support the record?

Dan Wilson: I’ve got a bunch of things still in the works but it’s pretty certain I’ll be on the road a lot until the spring. Check myspace.com/danwilsonmusic.

MOKB: What can we expect to hear in the live set?

Dan Wilson: Lots of songs from Free Life, usually a couple of covers of songs I happen to be obsessed with at the time, a Semisonic song, maybe a Trip Shakespeare song once in a while.

MOKB: So, when is that Trip Shakespeare reunion going to happen?

Dan Wilson: Hmmmm. Last time I asked Elaine if she wanted to do a reunion show, she very politely said no. “I’m happy now,” she said. That seemed like as good a reason as any not to do it. I plan to ask her again in 10 years.

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