From Edinburgh to Nashville | Dean Owens Interview

Dean Owens Interview

Dean Owens at Chapel Arts Centre Interview March 22nd
We spoke in the artists dressing room before Dean and his support treated us to a great evening of fine music.

So you are originally from Edinburgh.
Yes I’m from Leith, which is in Edinburgh. It’s slightly separate from Edinburgh but that’s where I was born and raised.

You started out with this band The Felsons, perhaps you could tell us a bit about them.
We got together for our first album in ’96 I think. Basically it was a bunch of guys who’d been in a pop band called Smile that was going really well. Then as it happens with a young band we broke up and then we got together again, a few years later, as The Felsons. We did three records and we did a stadium tour with a band called The Mavericks. We’ve never really officially broken up and Bob Harris used to play us. Actually, as of a few weeks ago, we decided we’re probably going to get back together again. So it’s still a wee side project.

So how does that link up to today with people like Al Perkins, Will Kimborough and Gen Gunderman [Jayhawks] championing and playing with you?
Well we went to Nashville when as The Felsons we were on tour with The Mavericks and when we were there I met loads of people. Nashville’s a great place, there a real tacky country area but also a lot of really good musicians working there. So I met loads of musicians on trips who said, “If your making a record give us a shout”. So when it came to making Whiskey Hearts I wanted to make it in Nashville because I had such a great pool of musicians there. My previous Album My Town had pulled in all the great Scottish musicians I knew. But this time I really wanted to do something different. I met Will Kimborough at a Steve Earle concert and in fact he came and played on the My Town album.

Your first solo album is the Droma Tapes.
Yeah well Droma is a Loch up in Scotland in the North West. I recorded it in this little cottage there. It’s very much like the campfire tapes. Not really meant to see the light of day, but it did and a lot of people really liked it.

I’ve always felt that the Scottish ballad tradition goes really well with American roots music. Also a lot of Americana bands like Willard Grant Conspiracy have collaborated with Scottish musicians.
Yeah and I obviously went there to make a record and play. What was good was that songs like Raining In Glasgow and The Man From Leith, I knew they had a celtic tinge to them and I didn’t want to do it with local Scottish musicians because I though it was too obvious a way to go. So I thought if I go the Nashville and get people like Al Perkins to play on it then it would bring something else to it. So this album sorta like celtic music with a twang you know.

Yeah that’s the first thing that I noticed that these two elements blended together seamlessly.
That’s good then [laughter]

But essentially I feel it’s the strength of the song that stands out.
That’s right just add a guitar or piano and it’s a good thing.

So what do you feel are your major influences musically?
Well the earliest music I can remember hearing in my house were really basic things like The Beatles, The Stones, Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and The Comets, Andy Stewart. My Granny singing On Ma Kelly’s Doorstep; all these things, Bob Marley. Then when I started getting into music one person was John Lennon, I just thought he wrote really great songs; and there was this Scottish band call Aztec Camera. Roddy Frame was their front man and he was really different from the New Romantic stuff that was around at the time. That made me want to go and write songs, listening to people like Lennon and Frame. Then, of course, I really got into country music. Our manager in Smile gave us some records to listen to like Gram Parsons Grievous Angel/GP, he gave me the Jayhawks Hollywood Town Hall and a Doug Sahm compilation. The another friend who ran a record shop in Edinburgh called Hot Wax gave me a Hank Williams record as well. When I listened to them I was just blown away. I was expecting your average ‘cowboy hat’ country but this was really great song-writing. I mean Al Perkins was playing on the Gram Parsons album and then here he was playing on mine that was an unbelievable thrill.

And Al Perkins really brings a distinctive flavour to the album.
When Al came into the studio I basically said to him “you’ve been around the West Coast you know sunny twangy music can you bring a wee bit of that sunshine into my record?” Then I just let him go with it and we did like three takes and kept everything. His playing on it was so bloody good that, at one point I just wanted to have an instrumental version. I didn’t want to hear my voice on it I just wanted to hear Al Perkins soloing.

Let's face it he is a legend.
He’s certainly a legendary steel player. There’s not that many of them really. He’s played with just about everyone. And Will Kimbrough’s a really fantastic guitar player, very inventive. He just brings so much energy to any room he’s in. He also a great singer and song-writer as well.

As a song-writer are there writers of any type you are drawn to.
Well I really like a lot of American writers which is why, I guess, so inspired by American music and landscape. I love Steinbeck and Richard Yates, Larry McMurty; I mean there’s loads of them. My favourite book of all time is Steinbeck’s East of Eden. I read a lot and also I love movies, old American westerns. So I’ve always been drawn to the American landscape, which is why I’ve travelled there so much. I now have a wee old Airstream trailer because I really fell in love with the desert. My folks are really mystified by this love affair. My mum will “but there’s nothing there” [laughter]. I think that’s the whole point of it. I love being in that landscape, being in the desert. I’m really drawn to the American way, but I’m not drawn to American politics. It’s not so bad now but several years ago I was really embarrassed when they had that arsehole George Bush as President. Now hopefully things will improve.

Irvine Welsh has said some really nice things about you.
Which I’m really grateful for. He’s used some of my stuff in his work. To be honest I was a little surprised, but very pleased [laughs], that he likes my stuff so much.

So what is exciting you musically now?
I’m really enjoying Fleet Foxes and Midlake at the moment. Also a guy called Ben Kweller whose stuff is a real throw back to The Burritos Brothers and Gram Parsons. Also all the great old records like Elvis Costello and all that stuff.
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