Its 5pm in Syracuse (New York) and Dave Hause is taking a break from soundchecking to chat to us about his up coming Australian tour supporting The Gaslight Anthem. I can hear his teeth chattering as he talks, so he points out that Its snowing all around him and he is trying to adjust to the cooler weather as he has just spent a week in LA’s warmer weather. He says it’s a little jarring, but he is only there for one day so its ok.
You’ve been involved in music for nearly 15 years, what would you say are some personal highlights for you?
They vary. Ive been able to meet and play with a lot of my musical heroes, and just the ability to travel all over the world to places that I never thought I would get to see, those are all highlights. I recently was able to tour the Howard Stern show (giggles). It sounds crazy but I am a huge fan of that show and one of the brothers of the organizers set it up so that I could go with my best friend who is also a big fan, that was a highlight sort of related to music.
A lot of the highlights for me is just being able to write a song and then being a place that’s really far from where I am from and have people sing it back to me, that would probably be the biggest highlight you can find. It’s still a trip.
Also making this new record I’ve just made is an incredible highlight. I did it with some amazing players and did it in a fantastic studio.
They are almost too numerous to count, I mean just being able to play and make music for a living is highlight enough. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
I’ve listened to Resolutions quite a bit before this interview and I have to say it grew on me really quickly. How long did the writing process take and how did some of the songs come about?
It actually didn’t take that long. The new one I just finished recoding took longer to write and finish. Resolutions just kind of fell together, it was a bunch of different kinds of songs and little ideas I had laying around and once I started to put them all together it became kind of clear that they had some commonality and I had a record on my hands. All up it probably took about 6 months to put it all together. Just the recording of it took a lot longer because I was on tour and coming in and out of the studio. My friend Pete who produced Resolutions also had a pretty busy schedule so it took longer to record and to get it out to the world than it did to write it.
I like that each song tells a story or has an important message behind it. 'C’mon Kids' is obviously a stand out song for that reason, but what would be one of your stand out favourites and why?
It’s kind of like picking your favourite child but I think the stand out for me would have to be ‘Years From Now’. Its an open letter to my nieces and nephews that I don’t get to see very often. I just went through the East Coast on the Revival Tour here and got to see them for like a minute and im just sort of missing them, so that’s the one that’s sticking out for me right now.
But it changes every now and then depending on where youre at and whats going on, but yeah I’d say ‘Years From Now’.
You’ve been involved in music for nearly 15 years, what would you say are some personal highlights for you?
They vary. Ive been able to meet and play with a lot of my musical heroes, and just the ability to travel all over the world to places that I never thought I would get to see, those are all highlights. I recently was able to tour the Howard Stern show (giggles). It sounds crazy but I am a huge fan of that show and one of the brothers of the organizers set it up so that I could go with my best friend who is also a big fan, that was a highlight sort of related to music.
A lot of the highlights for me is just being able to write a song and then being a place that’s really far from where I am from and have people sing it back to me, that would probably be the biggest highlight you can find. It’s still a trip.
Also making this new record I’ve just made is an incredible highlight. I did it with some amazing players and did it in a fantastic studio.
They are almost too numerous to count, I mean just being able to play and make music for a living is highlight enough. Everything else is just icing on the cake.
I’ve listened to Resolutions quite a bit before this interview and I have to say it grew on me really quickly. How long did the writing process take and how did some of the songs come about?
It actually didn’t take that long. The new one I just finished recoding took longer to write and finish. Resolutions just kind of fell together, it was a bunch of different kinds of songs and little ideas I had laying around and once I started to put them all together it became kind of clear that they had some commonality and I had a record on my hands. All up it probably took about 6 months to put it all together. Just the recording of it took a lot longer because I was on tour and coming in and out of the studio. My friend Pete who produced Resolutions also had a pretty busy schedule so it took longer to record and to get it out to the world than it did to write it.
I like that each song tells a story or has an important message behind it. 'C’mon Kids' is obviously a stand out song for that reason, but what would be one of your stand out favourites and why?
It’s kind of like picking your favourite child but I think the stand out for me would have to be ‘Years From Now’. Its an open letter to my nieces and nephews that I don’t get to see very often. I just went through the East Coast on the Revival Tour here and got to see them for like a minute and im just sort of missing them, so that’s the one that’s sticking out for me right now.
But it changes every now and then depending on where youre at and whats going on, but yeah I’d say ‘Years From Now’.
'Pray For Tucson' hit a nerve for me, do you mind telling me what the story was behind that?
No I don’t mind at all. There were two separate tours that influenced that one. The Loved Ones were out on tour opening for The Hold Steady and we lost a wheel on our bus going about 75mph, narrowly escaping a huge accident, so we were sort of nerve wracked. Then a couple of months later we were out with Flogging Molly and driving down the I10 on our way to Tucson and we saw this giant pile of cars and a body on the road and it was just this scary, jarring kind of moment where we were just goofing around in the van and then saw this crazy accident. There was a billboard a couple of miles later that said “Pray for Tucson", it was probably just sone religious thing and it just ended up being the genesis of the song and ultimately used.
I was raised really religious and there are all these people that still pray that I am ok out here on the road. I don believe in that thing so much but I figure when youre going 75mph and a wheel pops off and somebody is praying for you back home it can't be an entirely bad thing. So that was how that came about..
That's quite a story!!
I noticed you and Brian Fallon actually go way back, tell me about that…
Brian and I have done a ton of things together, when The Loved Ones were headlining our 'Build and Burn Tour' we brought Gaslight as a support act. They then put out the 59th Sound a little later and got a huge amount of success and they took the loved ones back out on tour, then we did some solo stuff together, we did a Revival Tour together. Gaslight took me to Europe last year as well. We are just good friends and song writing heroes back and forth, as well as share a lot of our common good friends.
Australia was just sort of another excuse to get together, hang out and play songs together.
What’s the best part of touring for you, besides having the crowds sing your songs back to you?
A lot of it is just getting to pull into a town that you have friends in that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to see, your various friends in Chicago, or LA or London or Melbourne and getting to hang out, getting to have some dinner and drinks and getting to reconnect for a little bit. Toronto was last night so I saw a collection of old friends, that’s probably my favourite part besides the actual playing of the show.
What would be the worst part
The anxiety that it creates. Its not always the safest environment in terms of travelling all the time, theres lots of stuff and people to worry about. So if you’re prone to anxiety in the first place it can be a little nerve wracking, but these are good problems to have as well.
Things like share toilets and showers, venue conditions and stuff are things that people who don’t do this when they come out for a week or a couple of days that’s the things that drive them crazy. But Ive been on tour in some capacity whether its as a roady, playing in the loved ones or doing it solo, Ive been doing it for so long now that those are the things that don’t even matter. Its just part of the gig and part of what you have to do.
No I don’t mind at all. There were two separate tours that influenced that one. The Loved Ones were out on tour opening for The Hold Steady and we lost a wheel on our bus going about 75mph, narrowly escaping a huge accident, so we were sort of nerve wracked. Then a couple of months later we were out with Flogging Molly and driving down the I10 on our way to Tucson and we saw this giant pile of cars and a body on the road and it was just this scary, jarring kind of moment where we were just goofing around in the van and then saw this crazy accident. There was a billboard a couple of miles later that said “Pray for Tucson", it was probably just sone religious thing and it just ended up being the genesis of the song and ultimately used.
I was raised really religious and there are all these people that still pray that I am ok out here on the road. I don believe in that thing so much but I figure when youre going 75mph and a wheel pops off and somebody is praying for you back home it can't be an entirely bad thing. So that was how that came about..
That's quite a story!!
I noticed you and Brian Fallon actually go way back, tell me about that…
Brian and I have done a ton of things together, when The Loved Ones were headlining our 'Build and Burn Tour' we brought Gaslight as a support act. They then put out the 59th Sound a little later and got a huge amount of success and they took the loved ones back out on tour, then we did some solo stuff together, we did a Revival Tour together. Gaslight took me to Europe last year as well. We are just good friends and song writing heroes back and forth, as well as share a lot of our common good friends.
Australia was just sort of another excuse to get together, hang out and play songs together.
What’s the best part of touring for you, besides having the crowds sing your songs back to you?
A lot of it is just getting to pull into a town that you have friends in that you wouldn’t ordinarily get to see, your various friends in Chicago, or LA or London or Melbourne and getting to hang out, getting to have some dinner and drinks and getting to reconnect for a little bit. Toronto was last night so I saw a collection of old friends, that’s probably my favourite part besides the actual playing of the show.
What would be the worst part
The anxiety that it creates. Its not always the safest environment in terms of travelling all the time, theres lots of stuff and people to worry about. So if you’re prone to anxiety in the first place it can be a little nerve wracking, but these are good problems to have as well.
Things like share toilets and showers, venue conditions and stuff are things that people who don’t do this when they come out for a week or a couple of days that’s the things that drive them crazy. But Ive been on tour in some capacity whether its as a roady, playing in the loved ones or doing it solo, Ive been doing it for so long now that those are the things that don’t even matter. Its just part of the gig and part of what you have to do.
Will you be looking to do a headline tour down under any time soon?
I’d love to, yeah! What will probably happen is – essentially I’m still touring Australia on Resolutions but there is another record coming out in the fall, so I probably wont headline until the record comes out. But it’s a place I would love to be! I’ve had the pleasure of being there twice, this is the 3rd time I’ll have been able to be there, and I would love to headline I think it would be great, but not until 2014 probably.
Based on your experiences here, what do you think Aussie crowds are like compared to the rest of the world?
The crowds are great!! The thing that Ive found is people LOVE to have a good time in Asutralia! There’s not that reserved kind of ‘too cool for school’ thing that I’ve noticed. The shows that Ive played, it felt like everyone was really excited for the shows and wanted to really cut loose, which is the kind of audience I love.
It’s similar to a European audience in that respect. Everyone’s ready to party in Australia. My kind of people.
Is there anything youre looking forward to doing Down Under?
There is a great tattoo shop in Melbourne called Tattoo Magic that Im trying to get tattooed at. I wanna see a little bit of the beach too if possible!
I am just looking forward to being back out with Gaslight, and playing to their crowd.
Nothing specific. I am just excited to have a record out and be able to get back there properly and play some really big shows, its gonna be fun!
Can you tell me a little bit about this new album you have coming out?
I made it in LA, its not quite a concept record but its got a huge central theme. It’s what seeds and comes from the mentality of wanting to rip through everything in front of you, its really sort of an inherit American quality. Its that thread of American thirst and how it affects people on an emotional level, and our culture. A lot of it is for the worst, the topics have to do with that. It is personal too, its something that Ive got in me too.
Im really excited about it, its definitely the best piece of music Ive made and I cant tell you the title or anything but its definitely gonna blow peoples heads off!
Well, thankyou so much for taking the time to talk to me, its been an absolute pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you here!
Excellent, thanks Melissa, I’ll see you in a couple of months and maybe I’ll play some songs off the new record!
Dave Hause is supporting The Gaslight Anthem and will play at HQ on the 17th. Tickets are available here
Interview by Melissa Donato
I’d love to, yeah! What will probably happen is – essentially I’m still touring Australia on Resolutions but there is another record coming out in the fall, so I probably wont headline until the record comes out. But it’s a place I would love to be! I’ve had the pleasure of being there twice, this is the 3rd time I’ll have been able to be there, and I would love to headline I think it would be great, but not until 2014 probably.
Based on your experiences here, what do you think Aussie crowds are like compared to the rest of the world?
The crowds are great!! The thing that Ive found is people LOVE to have a good time in Asutralia! There’s not that reserved kind of ‘too cool for school’ thing that I’ve noticed. The shows that Ive played, it felt like everyone was really excited for the shows and wanted to really cut loose, which is the kind of audience I love.
It’s similar to a European audience in that respect. Everyone’s ready to party in Australia. My kind of people.
Is there anything youre looking forward to doing Down Under?
There is a great tattoo shop in Melbourne called Tattoo Magic that Im trying to get tattooed at. I wanna see a little bit of the beach too if possible!
I am just looking forward to being back out with Gaslight, and playing to their crowd.
Nothing specific. I am just excited to have a record out and be able to get back there properly and play some really big shows, its gonna be fun!
Can you tell me a little bit about this new album you have coming out?
I made it in LA, its not quite a concept record but its got a huge central theme. It’s what seeds and comes from the mentality of wanting to rip through everything in front of you, its really sort of an inherit American quality. Its that thread of American thirst and how it affects people on an emotional level, and our culture. A lot of it is for the worst, the topics have to do with that. It is personal too, its something that Ive got in me too.
Im really excited about it, its definitely the best piece of music Ive made and I cant tell you the title or anything but its definitely gonna blow peoples heads off!
Well, thankyou so much for taking the time to talk to me, its been an absolute pleasure, and I look forward to seeing you here!
Excellent, thanks Melissa, I’ll see you in a couple of months and maybe I’ll play some songs off the new record!
Dave Hause is supporting The Gaslight Anthem and will play at HQ on the 17th. Tickets are available here
Interview by Melissa Donato
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