Dave Burn releases new EP 'Medium Dave'. The new five-track collection is available to stream now. After originally breaking through with his highly-praised debut album 'Arizona' back in 2017, London-based singer-songwriter Dave Burn has now made his long-awaited return with his captivating new EP 'Medium Dave'. Bringing back more of that soft and effervescent folk-pop energy he has been showcasing since his early infancy, 'Medium Dave' makes for a wonderfully sweet and alluring listen. Filled with broad and vibrant textures, a soaring atmosphere, and his own mesmerising vocals at the helm, he has returned with a truly heart-warming collection here.
By Kamil Bobin
Discovered via Musosoup
Kamil) Hey Dave Burn, super nice to have the chance to chat with you. What first got you into music?
Apparently I was a Massive ZZ top fan from the age of 2 but my first conscious memory of music blowing my mind was when I was around 8 or 9, my dad bought a bootleg Jimi Hendrix cd from Camden Market and it had a live version of Voodoo Chile on it, I thought space rockets we’re landing in the garden, it made me cry it was so beautiful.
How do you balance your time in the studio with other commitments such as a part-time job, family, admin?
I must confess to being dreadfully inconsistent with remembering to make music in my spare time but when I don’t make music I get depressed, which is usually a pretty good alarm bell for me to start making music again.
Though it’s much easier to binge watch countless episodes of Star Trek next generation and mong out, it ultimately will never make me as happy as I am when I’m recording.
Your latest release is 'Medium Dave'. Can you tell us more about the making of it and if there were any unusual things happening during the process?
I originally recorded the EP with a live band straight to tape but on listening I felt that it sounded to jubilant so I took the vocals down by two tones and re recorded it with no bass or drums.
While I was tracking, Joe the co producer played back the two takes I’d done simultaneously and we both decided it was a good sound so we based the whole production of the EP round those double tracked takes.
Where did you get the inspiration for this EP?
I work as a sound recordist, usually with different crews every day and one day there were three Daves on set, I was called “medium Dave” that day and I remember thinking it would make a good ep title,so it stuck.
The EP itself is a celebration of mediocrity, I know it’s not a very exciting topic to celebrate but I find everything in life to be so extreme all the time that there’s a certain charm to picking magic from mundanity, that’s the common thread I was hoping to convey.
How long did you work on the 'Medium Dave'? Was it an easy process for you?
The actual recording process in total took about 7 days but I must confess that I did faff a little with the actual act of releasing it.
Putting your music out to the world is scary, people you know/work with suddenly know that you have a dream beyond your day to day existence and that’s always made me feel a little self conscious.
The actual recording was a joy, I recorded it at karma studios in Stoke Newington with Joe Harvey Whyte co producing/engineering and my long term musical partner and producer Fred abbot who also mixed, played piano and made things very easy on me.
How do you know when a work is finished?
When I know in my heart that I’d chose to listen to it myself, I know it’s done.
Can you write what was your best performance in your career? How do you remember it?
My favourite performance was with a band called ahab, it was in a packed bar named Tootsie’s,on a sweaty Saturday afternoon in Nashville back in 2009.
A massive American football player dude threw a roll of dollar bills in my face while I was singing my lungs out, and the guitarist was ripping out a mountain topper, I remember laughing to myself knowing id remember that moment forever.
How do you find yourself in the music business? When you started out in music, did you know it would be like this?
My first experience of the music industry was getting signed to a label aged 16 (1997)with my secondary school band for quite a large amount of money.
It was an exciting, dream like experience which unfortunately ended with us not quite reaching our potential.
Being an artist now is harder, primarily because you have to do everything yourself, the plus side however is that artists have a lot more control over their own destiny but I do feel that the decline of the recording industry has sadly caused a lot of potentially great artists to go by un noticed and give up.
Who is your favourite musician?
It’s obvious but it’s Neil Young, he just seems to have every ingredient, he rocks, he souls, he paints pictures with his words, his music gets me every time.
What are your plans for the future?
I miss playing live, the freedom of throwing a guitar in the back of a shit car and driving to Peterborough to play a village hall or something, I love it :)
In terms of my message, I guess for this ep it would be that I’m pretty sure magic exists and it sometimes hides In seemingly boring places.