Steve Dawson has been an integral part of the Chicago music scene for many years, culminating in an Esteemed Artist Award, in 2020. The city of Chicago wanted to recognize his body of work and to support his creative muse. Whether working as an engineer/producer from his home studio or pioneering new music with his various projects; solo work / Dolly Varden / Funeral Bonsai Wedding; Steve Dawson has always been an innovator, searching for new artistic expression in music. His Dolly Varden band and albums have always received wide critical acclaim and with his new solo album, AT THE BOTTOM OF A CANYON IN THE BRANCHES OF A TREE, he arrives at a very interesting phase in his musical development. It is certainly one of the albums of the year and, like many truly inspiring works, it incorporates great individuality and rich expression. We were delighted to catch up with Steve recently and take a look back at his fascinating career, while learning much about what constitutes a successful life in music in these changing times.
Can we go back to 1993 and the debut release from your band, Dolly Varden. What was the Chicago music scene like at that time?
Diane and I had a band called Stump The Host in the late 80’s / early 90’s that did really well. We had a great local following and were getting looked at by a bunch of labels. It was an exciting time. The band broke up in early ‘93. Right around that same time Chicago became a music business hot spot based on a few artists (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins) getting national attention and doing well. Diane and I wanted to keep singing together and so we put together an early version of Dolly Varden and tried out a lot of different musical personalities. The national music biz attention in ‘93 was actually pretty detrimental to the scene here. It became really competitive and not about music. It affected Diane and I pretty badly. We made terrible music to try and fit in. It was a learning experience, though. By 1995 I realized that chasing trends was a fool’s task and a soul crushing waste of energy. So, I started writing acoustic folk-based songs from the heart again and it felt right. Dolly Varden’s debut album, MOUTHFUL OF LIES, came out in 1995 and was made from that place of clarity. It felt really good and people responded to it.
You grew up in Idaho and I wanted to ask about your early music influences?
I moved to Idaho when I was 12. I lived in San Diego, California, before that and listened to the AM radio. At that time – early 70’s – AM radio was a goldmine of great pop, R&B, novelty songs, rock n’ roll and even country. I loved it. My first favourite band was the Beatles and I’d sit on the floor in front of our giant console record player and listen and stare at the album covers. I was pretty obsessed. When we moved to Idaho, I got a guitar and started lessons and began obsessing over acoustic singer / songwriters like Neil Young, Paul Simon, Jackson Brown, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan. I really loved Rickie Lee Jones’ debut album. At some point I found my step mother’s Stevie Wonder LP’s and obsessed over those. I recognized the hits from the AM radio, so that was great, but the context and depth of the albums was almost too much. When I read the liner notes and saw that he played nearly every instrument I was stunned and so inspired. Getting into Stevie Wonder led me to a lifelong love of all soul, gospel, R&B and blues. My dad was a jazz fan and I absorbed a lot of it and in high school started taking jazz guitar lessons. My favourite player was Kenny Burrell. His album with John Coltrane is one of my all-time faves.
The music scene in 1990s was rife with record labels offering big incentives to sign. However, you seemed to opt for a more independent approach with a self-released debut and then two releases on Evil Teen, the small NYC label. Was this decision taken in order to maintain creative control of your career?
Well, it would be nice to say we “opted” to be on indie labels but the truth is we tried very hard to get signed to major labels and several times got very close. The issue also boiled down to the marketing department not knowing how to pitch us. We weren’t fitting into a genre and we had two lead singers. The marketing departments ran the labels in the 90’s. Evil Teen signed us because they thought we were going to get snapped up by a major eventually and they wanted a piece of that. That being said, they did a great job promoting The Dumbest Magnets and that album project remains a wonderful memory. I am by nature pretty contrary and don’t take kindly to being told what to do so I think it all worked out for the best. Who knows? I do maintain pretty tight creative control of my recordings and I would have definitely not reacted well to business people dictating creative decisions.
You changed to Undertow records for the fourth album and were busy touring outside America. Bob Harris was a fan and helped your UK profile in the early 2000s. Was it hard to try and break new territories while still maintaining a home fan-base?
No, that whole period was pretty wonderful and I was able to take in the joy of traveling to new places and singing to new people. It was awesome and so surprising. We played in Paris and in London for the first time right when Dumbest Magnets came out and we really felt like we had to pinch ourselves to make sure it was actually happening. When I first met Bob Harris, I had no idea what a big deal he was. He was so warm and encouraging. The record was doing very well in Chicago, too, so it was the best of both worlds. That was a peak time for Dolly Varden, for sure.
Spreading the band too thin may have led to your decision to take a break in 2003. Was this just a case of increasing personal commitments, less energy to tour and time to prioritise other creative projects?
Honestly it was the aftermath of 9/11 and us, and everyone, re-taking stock of their lives and realizing time is limited. Dolly Varden was on a very good upward trajectory in 2000 and 2001. Undertow had a fantastic team of people, including a great booking agent, the UK team was also great and motivated. We were getting amazing press and people were showing up for shows and we got on a few good tours. We recorded FORGIVEN NOW with Brad Jones in Nashville in August, 2001. While we were down there our house was broken into in Chicago and a bunch of gear was stolen, including a few beloved guitars. That was tough. Then in September the World Trade Centre attacks happened just as we were scheduled to fly to London for our first full band tour of the UK. We decided to go but it was really challenging. At the time people were expecting follow-up attacks and weren’t going out, really, even in the UK. Diane and I felt awful leaving our daughter at home and just wanted to be with her. There was lots of tears and anxiety and tempers. Our last night of the tour was in Edinburgh as the first missiles were launched into Kabul. It was eerie. We played well, though, and aimed to come back at some point. We continued touring the US into 2002 and building momentum. Both Mike Bradburn, our bassist, and Matt Thobe, our drummer, announced that they were going to be new dads just as the new album came out. Things were changing and we could feel it. It was never burn out of the music, though. It was life and changing perspectives on priorities. Diane and I wanted to keep things going. We put together the Duets album and the two of us went on tour with Jay Bennett and Edward Burch in early 2003. At the last show of the tour, in Dayton, OH, I got the call that my mom was dying in California. It wasn’t a surprise because after a lifetime of alcohol and cigarette abuse, she was in terrible shape. We drove through the night to Chicago and I flew out to San Diego the next day and was there when she passed. I thought I was doing fine with it all until I came down with pneumonia that summer and was sick for over a month. Then I knew I had to slow down and recalibrate. I started doing therapy. I quit the job at the record store with the abusive boss and took a job teaching guitar and I started really digging into digital home recording.
Your wife, Diane Christiansen, is an accomplished painter and has received media recognition for her gallery shows. Do you draw inspiration from her work when it comes to writing music?
What a cool question. When I met Diane, she was the first person who was as committed and serious about making art as I was about making music. There was the sense that it was a spiritual pursuit or a path of discovery. It was a real connection. That is an underpinning of our life together and we definitely bounce creatively back and forth. Always have. She did an installation with another artist named Jeanne Dunning called, “Birth Death Breath: An Inflatable Opera” in 2016
https://www.christiansenstudio.com/section/birth-death-breath/
I did the music for it and that is probably the piece of hers that’s had the most lasting impact on my writing. A few of the songs since 2016 have been a reaction to the installation, particularly the song, “However Long It Takes,” which was on the LAST FLIGHT OUT album and was a bonus track on the CD version of the new album
In 2005 you released your first solo album, SWEET IS THE ANCHOR. What are your memories of that release?
Wow, so many memories of making that one. I had a little room under the stairs in our house that I set up in to record. There was a piano, an organ, guitars and recording gear all stuffed into that tiny room. I was learning how to use pro tools and so it took a long time. But I loved it. The songs were written in the aftermath of my mom’s death and 9/11 and the outrage of the W Bush administration, but also about watching our kid grow up. Angel would have been around 12 then and I loved being a dad. It was the first time I gathered the courage to ask the jazz guys to play with me. I had worked alongside some of the most incredible and acclaimed musicians in Chicago at the record store and always wanted to see what would happen if I played with them. They were so enthusiastic. That would be vibraphonist Jason Adasiewicz, drummer Frank Rosaly, bassist Jason Roebke, and cornetist Josh Berman. I went to Denton, TX, to have the album mixed by Matt Pence and learned a ton watching him work. He’s so good. I did a short US tour with a cool band that included Adasiewicz, bassist Casey McDonough (who’s now in NRBQ and the Flat Five) and Joel Paterson, and I did a solo UK tour on that album. Those are great memories.
Five years later and solo album number two, I WILL MISS THE TRUMPETS AND THE DRUMS. How did your perspective change in regard to song-writing over these two albums?
I think it’s just life experience and learning. I am always trying to push myself to get better as a singer, guitarist and writer and to find new ways to keep myself engaged and slightly uncomfortable. I would add “recording engineer” to that list, too. I love doing that as much as any of the other things. My biggest problem is that I love too many things about music and I want to do them all. I want to be a great drummer, I want to be a great engineer, I want to be a great bassist, etc. I love so many styles of music. I could never pick a favourite. So, if I get an idea like, “I’m gonna make an Al Green song,” I’ll follow it down, never thinking about how it might or might not fit in with other things that I do. Just what the marketing folks at the big labels were afraid of! And I can get as obsessive about capturing the sound of the snare drum as I do about writing lyrics or singing. By 2007 or so I’d invaded Diane’s art studio and set up my recording gear in the corner. I was recording clients as a side job, too, and learning more and more about recording. The songs, I think, overall are about embracing change and the passing of time. I was in the beginning stages of making peace with the past and there was an actual sense of hope in the air with Obama running and eventually winning the presidency. At the time that was a huge deal. Looking back now from what we’ve just been through it all seems tragic. I’m not a political writer but I am deeply affected by politics and how people get along and the continuing struggle between progress and the stagnated power in the USA. I worked more in depth with the jazz guys on that album and this was the first incarnation of Funeral Bonsai Wedding. On the song, Mastodons, I had Frank Rosaly, Jason Roebke and Jason Adasiewicz all play together with me in the home studio. https://youtu.be/IICiNTILKO8 This was the first album I recorded and mixed all myself, too.
Dolly Varden never really ended and in 2007 and 2013 you released new music. The original line-up has never changed and has the bond remained close over all the years?
Yeah, definitely. We are all really close friends. I love those guys. We just played a show two weeks ago after not seeing each other for 18 months due to COVID. It was really celebratory and we all fell right in. Matt is such a great drummer. It always feels just right playing music with him keeping the groove. Lots of gratitude all around in the band.
Over the last two years you have had to come to terms with the Covid virus. The lockdown impacted all of the music industry. However, you used the time well and decided to focus on a new album which has just been released. Can you tell me a little about the motivation behind the new album and the process of writing the songs?
After the last album came out – the self-titled debut by FUNERAL BONSAI WEDDING – I was kind of spent artistically. I was writing things but nothing was connecting. It was forced. After spending time with my father in late 2014 I finally realized that a relationship with him is not possible. I made the decision to say to him that unless he could take responsibility for his actions, even on a basic level, that I could no longer talk to him. He couldn’t do it. (He had walked out on my sister, mother and I when I was 9, at the height of my mother’s alcoholism and depression. It set off a downward spiral of events that ended with her attempting suicide and us having to go live with him. That’s how I ended up in Idaho.) I started playing as a sideman more often and I worked on a book with Mark Caro about song writing (Take It To The Bridge: Unlocking the Great Songs Inside You)
https://www.giamusic.com/store/resource/take-it-to-the-bridge-book-g9234
When Trump got elected, I bottomed out, honestly. My faith in humanity was crushed and I was stunned that so many people would fall for his con. But they did. Then, in late 2017, Diane’s father died very suddenly. Her family, and especially her mother, have been like the family I never had growing up. We expected her mom to be around for quite a while longer but she had a stroke in December of 2017 and died in early 2018. I stopped doing pretty much everything but teaching and doing basic stuff like eating and sleeping. No gigs, no song writing, nothing. On some level I needed to find a way back to what the point of it all was – or if there ever was a point. I did two things that helped very much: My friend Jenny Bienemann and I started a monthly songwriter’s get together with a few trusted talented friends, and I attended a week-long song writing workshop with Richard Thompson and Patty Griffin in upstate New York. Between those two things I re-gained some semblance of purpose and inspiration. Patty Griffin, in particular, inspired me to write straight from a place of truth. “Write the song you are afraid to write,” she said. Once I began writing again, I wrote a lot. That would be late 2018 and 2019.
AT THE BOTTOM OF A CANYON IN THE BRANCHES OF A TREE is an intriguing title. I believe that it is rooted in childhood memories for you?
The thing about my songs is that they feel like dreams to me. The images have that surreal glow to them in my mind even as I sing them each time. The image of my sister and I in the branches of a tree in San Clemente Canyon in San Diego is very real to me but it could be a dream. The memory is of a family photo shoot for some insane reason right when we had to go live with my dad and his new wife. The idea was to present us as a happy little family. It was so fucked up.
Again, you have opted to use a small independent label in Pravda records. Have you ever felt tempted to form your own label?
That seems like too much work to me. I’ve self-released a lot of stuff but the idea of being a label seems like too much. I really don’t like all the busy work on the computer now, so that seems like it would drive me crazy.
The songs appear to be very personal in regard to the lyrics, with some hints at specific moments in your life. Is it difficult to expose real emotions to the music media?
It never occurs to me to think about the media or the audience when I’m writing. When I’m recording, I think about it a little bit but not much. So, when the album is released, I often say to myself, “oh, shit, what have I done?!?” That definitely happened with this one. I wanted to crawl under a rock and hide for a few months. But the album was exactly what I wanted to make and I stand by the songs. I’m an introvert and pretty shy by nature so none of the public presentation stuff comes easily.
Do you always write from a personal perspective?
Not always. Mostly, yes, but not always. I’ve written through character’s voices sometimes. A lot of the songs are a mixture of real memories and stuff that bubbles up in the process of writing. Some of the songs don’t make sense to me at the time they are written but years later I’ll realize, “oh, yeah, I see what you were taking about there.” It’s somewhere between subconscious and dream state and actual memories. The music is the glue and the conjuring device for me.
I have to ask about the song title, 22 Rubber Bands, and the Garden of Johnny Machine?
We live in a Chicago neighbourhood called Wicker Park, just west of downtown. In the late 1940’s Nelson Algren lived here and wrote Man With The Golden Arm with the main character, Frankie Machine. That’s the backstory. There used to be a vegetable garden in a vacant lot a few blocks from our house with a sign that read, “Johnny Machine Garden.” I don’t know if it related to the drummer who called himself that in the 90’s. Angel (our kid) used to go once a week to house near the garden for day care. This would have been in the mid 90’s. On the walk home there was always a search for tiny rubber bands on the sidewalk and Angel would always find handfuls of them. There was a little corner store with a giant hole in the sidewalk along the way. So, it’s really just cataloguing the walk home and how nice it was to just spend time with Angel with nothing really going on other than eventually getting home. A sweet memory. That song’s been kicking around for years in different arrangements. Dolly Varden recorded a rock version of it that was pretty good but never felt exactly right. It took a lot of trial and error to eventually get the right feel for that one.
You play almost every instrument on the album. How challenging was that?
I loved every minute of it. Challenging, yes, but probably my favourite thing to do. I would spend hours and hours working to get the drum parts the way I heard it them my head and the time would fly by. I find so much satisfaction in setting out to do something I can’t really do and eventually figuring out / learning how to do it. Same with bass guitar. What a magical instrument.
How long have you had your home studio, the Kernel Sound Emporium?
I started working with outside clients sometime around 2006. It picked up significantly around 2008 and I was doing 3 sessions a week, pretty much every week, until COVID shut everything down in March, 2020. There’s A LOT of recordings out there with me playing drums, bass, guitars, keys and singing harmonies. I made a Spotify playlist a while back:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1SFgZncEC2EZbLUnwpjnBX?si=57912140672b4e4a
There’s so many talented Chicago singer / songwriters and I aim to help them document their work without breaking the bank and feeling the pressure of the bigger studios. And I love doing it.
How do you see the state of the music industry these days?
Jeez, I don’t know. The best I can hope for personally is to be able to keep making stuff. The entire history of the selling of recorded music is filled with criminals and scoundrels taking advantage of musicians. It’s just the same shit in a new digital world now. I will say that the quality and abundance of great new music is stunning. The art of song writing is very much alive and well!
It is so difficult to forecast a steady income stream. Do your entrepreneurial skills stretch to writing music for film or tv?
No, I’ve never figured out how to go about doing that. I’ve had a few songs licensed for use in films but that’s about it. My income stream comes from teaching, recording clients at Kernel, playing shows and little bits of royalties.
Do you have immediate plans to play live again?
YES! I’m playing the release show for Last Flight Out on October 15th in Chicago. It was originally scheduled for May 8, 2020. It’s a big show with the full string quartet, Jason Adasiewicz on vibes, full rhythm section and a trio of vocalists. I can’t wait! I have one more show in December. Beyond that I’m still balancing the safety of touring. Some friends went out on tours this summer and got COVID despite being vaccinated. So many unknowns.
The City of Chicago granted you an ‘Esteemed Artist Award,’ accompanied by a $10,000 grant, to recognize your talent and to support further efforts. Were you taken by surprise?
Completely and utterly by surprise. Flabbergasted. It was crazy because I got the call just as the world was shutting down in Spring, 2020. Chicago is really making an effort to support the arts lately. It’s fantastic. I’m so grateful.
You studied in Berklee Music College and majored in jazz I believe? Did this come full circle with your project that became FUNERAL BONSAI WEDDING?
In some ways, I suppose. Berklee in the 80’s was pretty different than it is now. There was a prevailing attitude against non-jazz music at the time and I felt like I had to keep my love of pop music to myself. I did have a few very good teachers and I learned a lot about chords and harmony and arranging. It also helped me realize that I was not meant to be a jazz guitarist. I’d end my practice sessions by working on song writing and it always felt like a huge relief. Some of that is why I was slow to ask the Chicago jazz guys I was working with at the Jazz Record Mart if they’d ever consider playing my songs with me. Once I did, though, it was magical. The attitude was the complete opposite of the snobby Berklee jazz cats. Open minded, all-in, enthusiastic.
Can you tell me about the collaboration within FUNERAL BONSAI WEDDING as a project?
I was playing more and more with those guys around 2010 or so and the natural next step seemed to be making a record with them. The process of collaboration with the musicians was not all that different than working with Dolly Varden. I’m not a bandleader who tells people what to play. I like to play the song for them and have them react and come up with a part and to keep trying until it comes together. Frank and the two Jasons have worked together so much that there was a lot of dialogue between them about how to have their parts interact. It was cool to be a part of and I mostly let them do their thing. They are all three great bandleaders themselves with lots of experience arranging. When it worked best, I literally felt like I was flying.
Tell me about the LIVE AT SIMON’S release and what was behind the recording?
I used to do a yearly birthday show at a little bar on the north side of Chicago called Simon’s. We’d stuff the band along the wall and the place would get packed. We wouldn’t rehearse in advance so it was all improvised. They basically knew quite a few of my songs, though, so the structures were in place. I made up a handful of blues / soul instrumentals each time, too, all named after food. It was fun and silly and included a lot of whiskey. A friend used to come and record the shows and at some point, gave me all the audio so I did the best mix I could and put it up on Bandcamp.
Your work with Jason Adasiewicz, Jason Roebke and Frank Rosaly has opened up new ways of playing and I wanted to ask how your approach to song-writing has changed by getting together with jazz musicians?
Some of the songs written for the debut FUNERAL BONSAI WEDDING LP were specifically written with a lot of open space so the band could expand and contract in time. So, for instance, Ezra Pound and the Big Wood River has a lot spots where it lingers on an E chord and the band plays with the time until I start singing again. That was purposeful in the song writing. The Liquor Store Fire does a bit of that, too. I wanted to bring in some of what they do best – improvise over free structures – while maintaining the songs. The new album, LAST FLIGHT OUT, does a bit of that but because of the string arrangements we had to stick to a more-strict form most of the time.
You teach music at the Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago. Does this inspire you in your approach to new composition?
Yes, in so many ways. I think learning all those old folk songs has been a huge deal. Also, just being there in the song writing classes while so many students give their all and write beautiful songs each week. And just being around music constantly with guitar in hand, problem solving and moving my hands on the neck has helped.
Any final thoughts that you want to leave us with?
As I was answering these questions and thinking back all the way to Stump the Host and the late 80’s I was thinking that I really am a tortoise rather than a hare. The stuff I was writing and doing in the 80’s showed some talent and drive but I really wasn’t there. In some ways I feel like I’m only now beginning to get a handle on things. Some people really get it early on, like Phoebe Bridgers or Bob Dylan. They seem to have it all figured out in their 20’s. Amazing, really. It’s taken me 30 years of pretty constant work to get to a place where I feel like I’m writing and playing well. Thanks so much for the great questions and for the interview.
Interview by Paul McGee