Dan Crisp brings folk music back

3 months ago 20th Aug 16:19

One of the hottest and most promising new artist’s from the West Country Dan Crisp brings his acoustic melodies and distinctive vocal harmonies to the public’s attention with the release of his debut album Far From Here.

I caught up with Dan to find out how he feels about trying to crack the modern music scene, what makes him different from all the other musicians out there and who he doesn’t like in pop music.

What have you been up to this week?

I’ve had loads of rehearsals putting the final touches to the live act and making sure we’ve got all our musical moments down to a tee. We’ve played music once together last month to see how we sounded and the feedback as very positive and now we’re putting in that last 10% to make it more of a show and to ensure we’re a lot tighter as a unit and was a result we’re really happy and raring to go.

Your debut album is set for release next week, how do you feel about that?

I’m excited, and I think I’m too excited to be worried to be honest, I don’t know whether that’s a good thing but I’ve got enough good people around me to make sure that everything is going to be alright so I guess I’ve got a bit of a free licence to be very very excited and stuff like rehearsing with the boys and hearing everything sounding good is boosting my confidence and I’m surrounded by such good people that I have no reason to worry so I’m just waiting now to go and do this!

It’s been a long time coming as I started recording the album later last year and it certainly hasn’t taken long to finish but it’s just been a long process working out how to get to the stage we’re at now. Its been a learning process, but it’s been fun all the way!

To anyone who hasn’t heard of you before, how would you describe your sound?

Well it’s definatley along the singer/songwriter route but someone else worded it quite nicely; a lady called Maggie Duffy who I met on the open night scene and on the festival circuit; she described it as the songs all being stories and a very modern version of Folk music and storytelling with a rock edge.

There are American undertones as I listen to a lot of that sort of music but it’s grounded by having this semi-English folk background in a modern setting as the days of the cobbled streets and the coal mine of the classic folk songs aren’t what I understand and what my upbringing has been life…so in all it’s a much more modern and up-to-date telling of how I see the world.

What makes you stand out from all the other musicians trying to make it in the music industry at the moment and why should someone buy your album over that of James Morrison or Paolo Nutini?

Well I’d like to think that the music speaks for itself but perhaps it’s the background of how I started; a year ago I started on the open mic scene and that gave me the encouragement to continue writing and certainly to write about the way I see the world and it’s a very simple and honest interpretation of how I see things and that helps me write the songs.

It’s different because it’s my ability to be stood anywhere with one instrument and I’ll sing you and song but with the album we can go crazy and have as many things as we want playing but it all just boils down to a great melody and a good song and a very real interpretation of things.

I like my songs to have a story and they’re very down to Earth and people can interpret them any way they want and its interesting to play music and hear two different interpretations of the same song.

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