Brett Dennen’s rise from San Francisco singer/songwriter to organic pop star has been slow and steady, but in the past year the 29-year old redheaded guitarist has emerged as perhaps the most visible heir to Jack Johnson’s cool, breezy kingdom. His most recent album, 2008’s Hope for the Hopeless, debuted at 41 on the Billboard charts and helped score Dennen a young, vibrant fanbase outside his jam and roots-rock core. The album’s infectious track “San Francisco” is even featured in regular rotation on Taxi TV on the back of every New York cab. After a busy summer playing festivals, touring with O.A.R. and recording with his childhood hero Natalie Merchant, Dennen will spend most of the fall on the road with his new pals Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. Below, the singer/songwriter discussing his upcoming tour with the Nocturnals, his new jam-friendly backing band and why he spends his free time practicing fire dancing.
Let’s start by talking about your upcoming tour with Grace Potter & the Nocturnals. It seems like a perfect fit: you both grew out of the jamband scene, but have managed to capture a wider, roots-rock audience. How did you first meet?
Well, we met briefly back in, oh gosh, 2004 maybe? I think we were both playing High Sierra. We’ve known a lot of people in each others’ bands and so we’ve known of each other, but we’ve never hung out, really. But then we re-met, I think, actually at this year’s Bonnaroo. We got together and said, “Hey” and how excited we are to be touring with each other and kind of reacquainted ourselves a little bit.
Obviously a tour like this one lends itself to collaborations. Do you foresee a lot of sit-ins on your upcoming trek?
Oh, I can’t wait. We’ve got time to figure it out but I’m trying to figure out what songs she might want to do during my set with me and which songs I could do with her during her set—it could be a lot of fun, we could get a big band sound going up onstage. It could be a lot of fun. I mean, I’ve heard her and I’ve seen her show and just been like “Oh my gosh” and just been overwhelmed by the power of her performance—but I don’t have any of her albums, and I’m not a fan of her music yet. So, for me, it’s gonna be a big opportunity to fall in love with the music. It’s one of those things where I’ve heard her at festivals a lot and I’ve seen her, but I don’t own any of her albums—but I still feel really comfortable with her. So now I have the best chance to really get to know her music and just listen to it every night and see her rock out to it.
You also debuted a new backing band earlier this year that features a number of musicians Jambands.com and Relix readers are likely familiar with. Can you walk us through how you put this band together?
I have Ron Johnson on the bass from Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, I have Randy Schwartz—who’s been playing with me for a while—on the drums, I have Ryan Jalbert from The Motet playing guitar and I have Jon Solo playing keyboard.
I just sort of met them over time. The keyboard player I just hired him randomly to do one gig with me in New York a TV show—I think it was Good Morning America, he came recommended by somebody and I liked him so much that I asked him to come back and be on tour with me. Ron Johnson, I got him off a really good recommendation of the ALO guys who I used to play with and then there is Ryan Jalbert—I was just auditioning for a guitar player and Ryan came and auditioned and I liked him and asked him to go on tour. It is good. We have been playing together since January. It is a bigger band, a bigger sound and a bigger vibe.
Speaking of this bigger band vibe, how did you approach the recording of Hope for the Hopeless? Did you write this songs in the studio, road test them or work on them in another fashion?
I wrote 40 or 41 songs and, with the help of my manager and people from my label, narrowed the list down to 20. Then I chose about 15 songs from that list myself. When it came time to record, I chose really exceptional musicians to record with. We didn’t even rehearse at all—we just met in the studio, they listened to the demos and made their own chord charts and I played the song live for them. I also played a few tracks by well known musicians that I felt captured the vibe I was going for. For instance, on “San Francisco” I played Joni Mitchell’s Court & Spark album. We’d do a run through as a band and right around the 3rd or 4th take we’d love it.
In addition to your tour with Grace Potter, your other major collaboration this year is with Natalie Merchant. Can you tell us a bit about that project?
I got to work with Natalie Merchant on a song called “Heaven.” It is from my album Hope from the Hopeless, and we re-recorded a radio version as a duet. For me it was really special because 10,000 Maniacs are one of the first bands that I really got into—along with R.E.M.—so you can imagine, as a songwriter, it was incredible hearing her sing my lyrics—hearing that incredible, unmistakable voice was a pretty trippy experience. It made me feel like the song wasn’t mine, like the song belonged to the world and it also made me feel like I was sort of a genuine, bona fide songwriter, you know? To have someone of that caliber and with a voice like that that’s so recognizable singing my song was really, really powerful-probably one of the best, I mean working with her and with Femi Kuti were easily the two best musical experiences of my life.
Did she record additional vocals over the track or did you re-record the entire song?
No, she and I just went up to a studio near where she lives in the Hudson River Valley. There’s this great studio up there and she was actually in the studio already working on her forthcoming album. I think it’s coming out next year, so we just hung out for a day, ate some country food, went to a berry stand on the side of the road and got some fruit, hung out in the studio all day and she sang the parts and I gave my comments—which were very few. We came up with different ideas and it didn’t really take all that long. I took the train up from New York and was back that night.
I think maybe the very first art tablature book I ever owned was 10,000 Maniacs’ Unplugged album.
The studio version of Hope for the Hopeless also includes a duet with Femi Kuti on “Crazy.” How did that collaboration come about?
Well, I met Femi because he was in the process of signing a U.S. record deal to my label, Downtown. So I asked if they could get in touch with him and if he wanted to sing on my song—which he did. I have been a fan of his for at least ten years, and I thought this might be his first chance really to be on the radio in America. I mean, I am sure he gets played on some stations, but in terms of singer/songwriters who get played on the radio regularly there is no format in America that really plays afro beat.
I think he does this stuff a lot—he has been on a lot of rap records…people like Jay-Z and Talib Kweli. So he just flew over from Legos, Nigaria to do the sessions with me. He flew something like 15 hours to New York to do the sessions with me, went back to his hotel and then flew 15 hours back.
Though not always apparent, your sound is informed by a lot of world music. Who are some of your biggest inspirations from around the globe?
My all time favorites are Fela Kuti, Femi’s father, and a musician from Brazil named Jorge Ben. They are my top two favorite world musicians. Jorge is best known for his mid-70s samba stuff and Fela Kuti is obviously the founder of afro beat.
In addition to some festival, you spent a portion of the summer touring with O.A.R. How has the experience playing arenas and amphitheatres with bands like O.A.R. and John Mayer in-between club gigs shaped your live show?
Yeah, it was really good. To me, the best thing to do in the summer is to mix your own shows with festivals and then try to get on a big, outdoor summer tour—and O.A.R. was a good one. I’ve done a couple different ones here and there—I did the John Mayer tour and Sheryl Crow and stuff like that. But this one was more of a laid back party atmosphere and that was pretty cool. I mean, the crowd is mostly college students and they’re really into partying, so it’s fun to just watch people have a really good time and it just really felt like summer, you know? I felt like I was at a barbecue every day and it was a lot of fun.
O.A.R, those guys are super, super nice and they really, really cared about me and they wanted me to have a really good time and they really wanted me to get along good with them and everybody in their band and crew. They really made an effort to make me feel at home and they really wanted me to reciprocate that and give back to them and embrace them into my world and my band and my fans. They’re really about building a community and I thought that was pretty cool. Most musicians I’ve opened for just kept to themselves and kept up their own thing and maybe at some point in the tour they realize you’re cool and you hang out with them a little bit but from the beginning O.A.R. was adamant about us trying to hang out. It was cool.
Last month you made your debut at Outside Lands. How did you feel that festival ranked in comparison to some of the other events you have played?
It was better than I hoped. I mean, it was typical San Francisco: clouds, foggy weather. I’ve been to a lot of different concerts and festivals in that field area in Golden Gate Park, like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass or Michael Franti’s Power to the Peaceful thing or just other concerts like Dave Matthews.
It was really cool, I mean it was very Bay Area-centric: they had a lot of local businesses, food vendors, wine tastings, oysters, clothing tents and local boutique clothing companies.
They had about four stages with bands playing all the time. It was really fun. It had sort of a laid back, Bonnaroo feel, but it also had a classy, San Francisco edge to it also. It was really nice. I hope I get asked to play again next year or the year after. Last year I heard they had a bunch of technical difficulties but this year it was all smooth.
What festivals did you grow up attending?
Strawberry Music Festival and the High Sierra Music Festival. Strawberry Music Festival is in California— it’s right outside Yosemite National Park. I’ve played High Sierra a bunch of times, but I’ve never been back to Strawberry Music as a performer. Well, actually in high school I worked there, setting the stage, and I know the owners of the festival are really, really picky about their music, but I figure if they haven’t asked me yet, they’re probably never gonna ask me.
You also recently took up blogging. Have you enjoyed that creative outlet?
I think about a week now I’ve been blogging. I just actually blogged, I did a painting today—I actually did two paintings, put up two paintings and I just take pictures of them on my phone and email to the blog. It’s not really a road journal when I’m at home so I just kinda make it the little stuff I do around the house.
Are you an avid painter?
I am when I’m home. I do some watercolor and acrylic painting, and I draw on every acoustic guitar I own. I usually don’t know what to paint, so I end up painting people. I feel like at least with people I can relay some sort of emotion or some sort of thought or feeling. But other stuff like landscapes or abstract things I’m not really ready to do yet—I don’t know how to convey a mood that way. I guess I’m better at just doing it through a facial expression or a gesture in a body. I’ve drawn sketches on pretty much all of my acoustic guitars too, like this one with an elephant on it. I have also been into poi-ing and fire-dancing.
Really?
Basically what happened was this girl came over to my house the other day, she said she knows how to do poi or fire-dancing and I said, “Oh, you know, I like that. So do you have your things with you?” She said she didn’t but I was trying to impress her so I made a fake set of them out of two tennis balls and string. So she started showing me how to do it and then she left. So now me and my housemates, we’re all trying to learn how to do it. I’ve pretty much cracked myself with the balls and in the face like ten times, and now you called, so here we are.
