Singer-songwriter David Dondero talks about his new album, getting older and living on the lam. by Brian Tucker
photo: Josephine Heidepriem
You’re an inspired songwriter, regardless of location or environment. What’s been a more peculiar place or situation that’s lent itself to a song?
Any place you go has certain peculiarities and unique qualities. In the latest album ( # Zero With a Bullet) I condensed a lot of them into one song called "Wherever you go". Like finding the frog on the skull on the wall in Salamanca, Spain or hearing the javelina's foraging through the brush at night in the Gila Wilderness out in New Mexico. I remember when I was out in Hawaii and a fella said "choke food broke da mouth" meaning there was a great big feast. Or hearing another guy in Australia say "wrap your laughing gear around this one mate." meaning, take a bite of this sandwich.. these moments have all crept into the songs. Fragments of detail.
You’re 40. Do you look back on your early 20’s with a particular fondness or nostalgically?
Actually, I turn 41 on June 24th. Man, I wish I had the energy to jump around and scream like I used to. I used to dive into the audience and bite people’s ankles. Pour beer all over myself. Go nuts. I do it a little more thoughtfully now but I do miss the days of being 20. My body hurts a lot more now and the recovery time is a bit longer but the heart breaks a little more softly.
I miss punk rock before Nirvana and I miss alternative music when it was truly alternative. I miss indie rock and most of all I miss music before computers, the days of sending cassette tapes in the mail. On the other hand it's a hell of a lot easier to put music out and promote. It no longer costs hundreds of dollars in long distance phone calls and sending out packages to book tours. It's a free click away.
You describe travelling, the road, as a “holy unforgiving blacktop sanctuary that’s become wife and family”. How long have you been touring and could you see life without it?
I first started touring in 1993 and have been doing it on and off since then. It hasn't been non-stop though. I spent a good part of last year installing solar systems out in San Francisco and the last three months landscaping in Austin, TX. I've done almost every shitty job imaginable through the years to make ends meet. I like to work but...I got that travelling itch again last summer when I saw some sticker on a garbage can in the Mission. It said "Don't forget your Dreams" with an arrow pointing down into the trash. I knew it was time to hit the road again. I don't really want to install solar panels forever or do landscaping forever or bartend forever. But I do want to keep learning the guitar and writing down words and songs so I prefer to tour around and sing songs to people who want to hear them. Touring a lot has taken away many other possibilities that go along with settling down which I sometimes wish I had, seeing friends in nice homes with their kids and safety nets. Then again that life can suffocate and take the spirit. Watching TV and living vicariously through others makes you fat and lazy. So can drinking in bars every night. This living out on the fly can be pretty frightening though...knowing that I'm one step away from being homeless but then again I'm trying to look at the entire world as my home. Luckily I've got a lot of friends in many places who help me out. I am thankful to them and feel I owe them a great debt. Fred Champion (owner of CD Alley, Wilmington, NC) has helped me tremendously through the years, letting me stay in the back room in the loft. Thank you Fred. People like him have provided lifelines to me. I know sometimes I overstay my welcome and I regret that but I do want to reiterate my thanks and appreciation for these places of refuge for the downtime stretches.
The title track of the new album seems like a state of the union address in terms of the world and your place in it. What’s your philosophy / thinking on where you’re going given the state of music now?
Well, music has pretty much been hijacked and given away, devalued by the internet. It has a direct impact on me and people I know who do write and perform music. People don't sell records anymore. It's getting harder and harder to make a living at it if it's given away. It's a shame to see landmarks like CD Alley close. It seems that people no longer have the patience to listen to an entire album. Attention spans have diminished. They just buy one song on iTunes and listen to part of it, shuffle through; many don't even know the title, just a track number. The flavor of the week is now the flavor of a moment. On one hand the internet has been great for promoting and booking. On the other hand it's not because it has flooded the system with excessive info and mediocrity. Maybe it's coming full circle. I think it was Woody Guthrie who said that the jukebox was the death of live music. Perhaps the internet is the rebirth of live music because people are going to want something real eventually and those that have the chops will rise up.
Do you think performers are not themselves enough now on records or are they just afraid to be?
Maybe they really are themselves. Maybe they have been Auto-tuned since they were babies. Maybe they are the TV shows they have watched their whole lives. Maybe they are a Hollywood writer’s rendition of what they should be, therefore, they are copying what they see as themselves on the TV and taking that to the stage. So that really is who they are as they see themselves in their mind.
Actor John Hawkes described to me his years moving about as a gypsy lifestyle. Would you agree and what influenced you to live more freely than your peers as a musician?
Jack Kerouac influenced me in a huge way... and Henry Miller, EddyJoe Cotten, Woody Guthrie's "Bound for Glory"...DIY Punk Rock...friends like Rymodee and Terry Johnson from This Bike is a Pipe Bomb...Chris Clavin from Plan-it-x records. People like that showed me the way into the possibilities of creating something out of thin air and taking it around the world, doing what you want, finding a way to live freely using your own gumption. The main thing is not to be scared of being an unemployed transient. Don’t be afraid of being broke because "Money comes and goes and rolls and flows through the holes in the pockets of your jeans..." like Bob Dylan says.
Where do you call home these days? What is comforting about not having permanent ties to traditional anchors – mortgage, apartments, jobs, etc?
I call Austin, TX,,, San Francisco, CA, New Orleans, LA, Pensacola, FL, Omaha, NE,,Duluth, MN, Anchorage, AK, Fort Mill, SC, Asheville, NC and Wilmington, NC my homes these days. The most recent place I paid rent for three months this spring was Austin but now I've moved into the Honda Hotel on wheels, a rolling bubble of steal, glass and plastic. It's an efficiency apartment and it only costs $250 a month plus insurance. What's comforting about it is I have this amazing ever changing view from my living room. I find comfort in not knowing what's going to happen next.
What do you hope to leave behind for anyone finds you, listens to you?
An interesting picture.
Any place you go has certain peculiarities and unique qualities. In the latest album ( # Zero With a Bullet) I condensed a lot of them into one song called "Wherever you go". Like finding the frog on the skull on the wall in Salamanca, Spain or hearing the javelina's foraging through the brush at night in the Gila Wilderness out in New Mexico. I remember when I was out in Hawaii and a fella said "choke food broke da mouth" meaning there was a great big feast. Or hearing another guy in Australia say "wrap your laughing gear around this one mate." meaning, take a bite of this sandwich.. these moments have all crept into the songs. Fragments of detail.
You’re 40. Do you look back on your early 20’s with a particular fondness or nostalgically?
Actually, I turn 41 on June 24th. Man, I wish I had the energy to jump around and scream like I used to. I used to dive into the audience and bite people’s ankles. Pour beer all over myself. Go nuts. I do it a little more thoughtfully now but I do miss the days of being 20. My body hurts a lot more now and the recovery time is a bit longer but the heart breaks a little more softly.
I miss punk rock before Nirvana and I miss alternative music when it was truly alternative. I miss indie rock and most of all I miss music before computers, the days of sending cassette tapes in the mail. On the other hand it's a hell of a lot easier to put music out and promote. It no longer costs hundreds of dollars in long distance phone calls and sending out packages to book tours. It's a free click away.
You describe travelling, the road, as a “holy unforgiving blacktop sanctuary that’s become wife and family”. How long have you been touring and could you see life without it?
I first started touring in 1993 and have been doing it on and off since then. It hasn't been non-stop though. I spent a good part of last year installing solar systems out in San Francisco and the last three months landscaping in Austin, TX. I've done almost every shitty job imaginable through the years to make ends meet. I like to work but...I got that travelling itch again last summer when I saw some sticker on a garbage can in the Mission. It said "Don't forget your Dreams" with an arrow pointing down into the trash. I knew it was time to hit the road again. I don't really want to install solar panels forever or do landscaping forever or bartend forever. But I do want to keep learning the guitar and writing down words and songs so I prefer to tour around and sing songs to people who want to hear them. Touring a lot has taken away many other possibilities that go along with settling down which I sometimes wish I had, seeing friends in nice homes with their kids and safety nets. Then again that life can suffocate and take the spirit. Watching TV and living vicariously through others makes you fat and lazy. So can drinking in bars every night. This living out on the fly can be pretty frightening though...knowing that I'm one step away from being homeless but then again I'm trying to look at the entire world as my home. Luckily I've got a lot of friends in many places who help me out. I am thankful to them and feel I owe them a great debt. Fred Champion (owner of CD Alley, Wilmington, NC) has helped me tremendously through the years, letting me stay in the back room in the loft. Thank you Fred. People like him have provided lifelines to me. I know sometimes I overstay my welcome and I regret that but I do want to reiterate my thanks and appreciation for these places of refuge for the downtime stretches.
The title track of the new album seems like a state of the union address in terms of the world and your place in it. What’s your philosophy / thinking on where you’re going given the state of music now?
Well, music has pretty much been hijacked and given away, devalued by the internet. It has a direct impact on me and people I know who do write and perform music. People don't sell records anymore. It's getting harder and harder to make a living at it if it's given away. It's a shame to see landmarks like CD Alley close. It seems that people no longer have the patience to listen to an entire album. Attention spans have diminished. They just buy one song on iTunes and listen to part of it, shuffle through; many don't even know the title, just a track number. The flavor of the week is now the flavor of a moment. On one hand the internet has been great for promoting and booking. On the other hand it's not because it has flooded the system with excessive info and mediocrity. Maybe it's coming full circle. I think it was Woody Guthrie who said that the jukebox was the death of live music. Perhaps the internet is the rebirth of live music because people are going to want something real eventually and those that have the chops will rise up.
Do you think performers are not themselves enough now on records or are they just afraid to be?
Maybe they really are themselves. Maybe they have been Auto-tuned since they were babies. Maybe they are the TV shows they have watched their whole lives. Maybe they are a Hollywood writer’s rendition of what they should be, therefore, they are copying what they see as themselves on the TV and taking that to the stage. So that really is who they are as they see themselves in their mind.
Actor John Hawkes described to me his years moving about as a gypsy lifestyle. Would you agree and what influenced you to live more freely than your peers as a musician?
Jack Kerouac influenced me in a huge way... and Henry Miller, EddyJoe Cotten, Woody Guthrie's "Bound for Glory"...DIY Punk Rock...friends like Rymodee and Terry Johnson from This Bike is a Pipe Bomb...Chris Clavin from Plan-it-x records. People like that showed me the way into the possibilities of creating something out of thin air and taking it around the world, doing what you want, finding a way to live freely using your own gumption. The main thing is not to be scared of being an unemployed transient. Don’t be afraid of being broke because "Money comes and goes and rolls and flows through the holes in the pockets of your jeans..." like Bob Dylan says.
Where do you call home these days? What is comforting about not having permanent ties to traditional anchors – mortgage, apartments, jobs, etc?
I call Austin, TX,,, San Francisco, CA, New Orleans, LA, Pensacola, FL, Omaha, NE,,Duluth, MN, Anchorage, AK, Fort Mill, SC, Asheville, NC and Wilmington, NC my homes these days. The most recent place I paid rent for three months this spring was Austin but now I've moved into the Honda Hotel on wheels, a rolling bubble of steal, glass and plastic. It's an efficiency apartment and it only costs $250 a month plus insurance. What's comforting about it is I have this amazing ever changing view from my living room. I find comfort in not knowing what's going to happen next.
What do you hope to leave behind for anyone finds you, listens to you?
An interesting picture.
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