Dave Shurr Interview
Dave Shurr’s impressively emotive ‘Mysterious Waves’ is out on 6th March 2020, along with a music video, “I filmed the music video in a laundrette to accentuate the symbiotic relationship between the inner, peaceful feeling that the song gave me and the mundane nature of everyday life”. The latest in a long line of well-crafted tracks, I was lucky enough to interview Shurr before the release.
Q: How did ‘Mysterious Waves’ come to be? Did it start with a lyric, chord, idea etc?
A: This tune started in the best way! I played the guitar pattern one morning, just fooling around and tryna think of the most quintessentially bluesy chord pattern. It’s got the plodding bass notes with the accompanying hook so you can play it on just one guitar… I guess I knew straight away what I had got myself into. It has such a mellow, loping pace to it… Wrote the 4 verses then and there… They all resolve with the same turnaround which I love in folk songs… the familiarity is pleasing to me.
Q: You mention the symbiotic relationship between the peaceful feeling the song gave you (which could also apply to any form of media) to mundane everyday life, what do you think it is about songs like yours in particular that listeners are able to momentarily leave behind their mundaneness?
A: Good question! I know some people struggle to tune out… I really do! Especially with a non visual form like music… So I made a whole video to accompany the song, as is often my style… It premieres on March 6th when the track comes out.
I feel like it really breathes life into the song, too. It’s got that lazy Sunday feeling and has some really comedic moments. My little sis helped me film it and we were just fooling around a lot in my flat and in my studio where I recorded the song, making it look funny.
Q: How would you say the song differs from previous releases?
A: This song isn’t so dissimilar from my early songwriting: stripped back and honest. The past couple songs I put out have all been crafted within the recording software with lots of layers… I think I have actually been trying to appeal to what I hear other artists’ doing… Trying to make my own style of pop music, essentially. But some reviews I got kinda said they were bored by my music! Which really bummed me out… So this time I decided not to please anybody else and just recorded exactly what I was doing at the time, without filtering it.
(cont.)
I actually recorded this in a really weird way: I did the Vocals and Guitar first and added all the Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Solos afterwards! Weird to work in that way but kinda refreshing… and I didn’t have to spend hours on the singing. It was just done… from the get go. Which I think serves the song in a much better light. It’s not pitch perfect but the pace and sincerity is in there.
Crazy note: I didn’t use a metronome or anything but this song pretty much follows the tick of a clock perfectly. Like second for second. Weird………
Q: Describe the song in one sentence
A: This song is for yourself and deciding on contentment over contempt.
Q: Do you have any more releases planned for this year or are you just taking it as it comes?
A: Yes! This is the first of many late night sessions in the studio to see the light of day. I am living at the recording location right now… Which has landed me with 7 brand new songs so far. There’s everything in there: a really stripped back and lyrical song next to a full blown world-music/orchestral track with hare-krishna bells and big rolling timpany crescendos. It’s crazy! Sometimes I go in there to mix an old recording and end up writing and producing an entire track then and there. It’s great having a facility to follow that creative muse. So expect a few more singles and eventually it’ll all land on an album. Most likely this summer. Thanks!
Listen here:
Other releases:
“The Thread Connecting Us”
“Forever & a Day”
“Black Magic”
“Golden Soul” – The Album
More Links: More Links
Words Emma Stevens
