DM: It did.  That is why I wanted to set it in that time period. We set it in the “30’s.” That was kind of the era we wanted to be in with this project. Now, the music doesn’t always sound like it’s from that time but that’s when the story takes place, during a time when a shotgun wedding would have happened with an actual shotgun. It was that idea that got me thinkin’. The first sound I wanted to reference on the project was Johnny Cash. It was those old simple “train” songs as you call them, I just wanted to go back to telling stories. I hadn’t heard enough of that, you know, recently in modern stuff. It [Modern Country Music] doesn’t tell enough stories. It’s more about being “poppy” and trying to come up with some new beat.

TNB: Like “Red Solo Cup.”

DM: Yeah. Exactly, a lot of this Pop Country is not doing anything. They are losing the “roots” you know.  So, the thing is there are some people doing it [real storytelling] but in my mind I wasn’t hearing enough of it. So, Cash was the first thing that was on my mind and that’s the first few tracks. The first track that I wrote was “Shotgun.”  It was based on that “train” beat.

TNB: The snare.

DM: Yeah, that shuffle with the Bass.

TNB: The only time outside of a Cash type thing that you hear that was probably on Sweet’s “Ballroom Blitz.”

DM: [laugh] Exactly, that was the thing. So, that was the first song that I ever tried to put together. I was writing kind of wherever I could write. I would just try to demo songs out then one day..

TNB: You came here three years ago and you had no “Tennessee” in you.

DM: No.

TNB: It was good Rock and Roll very reminiscent of some Hard Rock bands from the “70’s.” Did you ever in your wildest dreams think you would have a connection with Tennessee?

DM: No. Not at all. At that point, three years ago we were doing that Rock thing. We had that record out with Fragile. It was just at that point that we took a break from that. It was not a hiatus or anything. All the bands use the hiatus thing, “We are on a hiatus” but, we just thought it was a natural break. You play for and try to push the thing as far as it can go and it comes to a stop and this time we had a longer break than usual. So, I was getting kind of restless and just sitting around and I decided it was time to try this thing outand demo some songs At first, I was just doing it for fun, to see if it would go anywhere. As it developed I decided it might be time to show it to some people. I showed it to the boys [from Fragile] to see what we could put together and that’s when it started. They all jumped on. I was lucky enough that they wanted to try this thing out with me. That’s how it happened. I pitched them five demos and then we got the band together and put a show together in our hometown at a local placed called Munson Bridge Winery, a nice outdoor show. As we developed the sound it became a theme and the record was going to be a concept record.

TNB: What is interesting about that is there are not a lot of Country concept records.

DM: Right.

TNB: I’m trying to think and it’s really hard to think of one.

DM: Yeah, not right off the top of my head. I know concept records are not the most popular thing right now. Complete records are not very popular right now. Everybody wants a single and done.

TNB: But the whole thing is this project is very cohesive.

DM: Right, I knew it had to be that way.  So, whether it was the popular thing to do or not, it doesn’t matter. It’s what is going to happen. It’s what the story is meant to be. So, I started writing in an “Arc,” which is not real easy because you have to fill in all the pieces of the music but not make it sound like it is just telling the one story. I wanted each song individually to be its own thing. So, I tried to do the best I could. It was really difficult but a great challenge. I was really excited about it and then it started coming together and I would just pick out a title from somewhere. I would pick out a title like we need a song about this and I would just write the song based on the song title. Once I got inside the story, you know, just inside the character, this wave of creativity just hit me and I couldn’t stop writing songs. I still can’t.

TNB: Do you feel like it is a path now?

DM: It is. I think so.  We haven’t stopped or quit the other band [Fragile] we are in, I just feel like we are all pretty committed to try this thing out because it just kind of blends everything together that we have always wanted to do and adds the storytelling element and the thread of the story that we are telling and it is pretty exciting to play. Also, adding some of these “roots” elements is exciting to us.

TNB: I still hear Rock influences, a little bit of Robert Plant…

DM: Oh yeah.

TNB: A little bit of reggae in there.

DM: Always Plant, another thing that was a big influence on me was the Robert Plant and Allison Krauss project Raising Sand.

TNB: How did you decide to do the duets?

DM: That was something right away that I figured out right after the story came to me. It was like when we’re doing live shows we gotta be able to play it out that way so I knew we would need a female singer and Jenika was the first choice.

TNB: Now you have Robert Plant & Allison Krauss going on.

DM: Yeah, it was that early on during writing that that record [Raising Sand] was hitting me at the right time. All of that album is so good, you know and the way they blended that; he’s a rock and roll man and they blended his vocals with hers and that sweet bluegrass voice of hers is unbelievable and then of course, T Bone Burnett [producer, Raising Sand] is a mind blower on that. He set the foundation for all of that.

TNB: He has done that for a lot of Artists. I didn’t know if you knew that he is the Music Director for the Nashville TV series.

DM: I do. I have kind of followed him ever since. I mean I kind of knew about him before Raising Sand.

TNB: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou.

DM: Yes, that was another one that was on my radar but that Raising Sand was a big thing at that point and I started hearing the way the duet thing would work. It was perfect, that’s it.

TNB: It also had electric and the acoustic thing blended up.

DM: Exactly, it’s got all of it and that was what I was after and that was the perfect timing. I heard that record backwards [Raising Sand track listing]. My buddy imported that way by accident, which changes the whole record.  I’ve heard it both ways but I like it better backwards opening with “Your Long Journey.” I’m not sure if it would have had the same impact if I’d had heard it in the right order.

TNB: Did you listen to the Band Of Joy album at all?

DM: I did. Another one I really liked.

TNB: Buddy Miller was the bandleader. Darrell Scott, who is a phenomenal songwriter, is like the Utility player.

DM:  Carl, our lead guitar player is a huge fan of Buddy Miller.

TNB: Buddy Miller can do anything from Gospel to Rock.

DM: He’s one of those guys. So, I was listening to that and watching what was going on. It was with those kinds of things in mind that I started setting the tone of what I wanted this thing to sound like, definitely the duet vocals, the blend, the man and woman duet thing. You know, whatever was right. A lot of this record is going to have that.

TNB: Did you work with Chauncey [brother, guitarist] on the songwriting or instrumentation? Who did you work with?

DM: I did  the songwriting on these tracks. I would put the demos together the best I could structurally and then send them to everyone. For instrumentation, I would go through Chauncey and Chris.

TNB: You got your brother on the mandolin.

DM: That is when I started adding those guys. I said this is what I am after.

TNB: Do you think it’s interesting that your keyboardist / violinist, Christopher Marion, is living down here now?

DM: Yes, and so is his sister. Our drummer Adam Box that we have had since 2010, is from here as well. As quick as I could, I brought the demos to these guys and we basically had the trio with my brother who is always the guy I write with and Chris the Fiddle man.

TNB: That is the core of the songwriting right there.

DM: That is the core. It is the orchestration. In the rock and roll project [Fragile] it’s the three of us. The project happened to be something that I was cooking up on the side. So, songwriting  was done by me on this. But, as far as instrumentation and production goes, those are the guys you want.  It’s hard to say enough about Chris and Chauncey, they are incredible players.

TNB: They [Jenika and Chris] are from up there, right?

DM: They are from up North and they just moved here. Those were the two I immediately wanted for the project. In fact, all the people in the band are people I knew I wanted. It’s basically all the guys from Fragile with the addition of three more. I wanted Jenika to sing, no doubt about it, because she did some stuff with us in Fragile. When we were playing, she would come up on stage and we would cover that song, “As Long As I Can See The Light” and she would just blow everybody away, you know.  We all kind of grew up together. I’m a bit older than they are but I grew up knowing Chris, Jenika, Ryan and Matt. Carl is part of my family. He married my wife’s cousin, you know what I mean? So, it’s just all a family thing.

TNB:  You have great vocal range and are able to do a lot of things but what I notice that is different from Fragile is the challenge of the melodies, having enough distinction between songs. Do you feel the same way?

DM: Oh, definitely. It was a welcome challenge to create those melodies like you are talking about. It was very important, because sometimes you are relying on the same kind of chord structure and they can come across as simpler sounds underneath. You’ve got to come up with a melody over the top of that thing to make it interesting.

TNB: How do you feel your songwriting process evolved through this project? Has it helped you improve your songwriting process?

DM: Yeah, big time. I got into more storytelling. Fragile was kind of the same way. There was some storytelling going on but not to this depth and type.

TNB: There was more of an esoteric poetry approach with Fragile.

BH: Yeah.

TNB: In other words, you would sit down with Fragile and think about what you were writing instead of this style, where you are actually telling an American story.

DM: That’s better than I can say it. Fragile was actually more abstract. That’s exactly right and this is meant to be things that you can relate to. Things you know immediately. You don’t have to hunt and fish around for what it means. It’s right there for you and that’s what I liked about it because it changes the whole way you write so it wasn’t only a challenge but it frees’ you up to just anything. So now, going forward, I think it’s definitely becomes easier. It’s like this: I got this musical section. I need a verse over it and click it just happens.

TNB: I  could see that the way you are doing songwriting  now that it is going to be easier to say” I’m thinking about this story,” and on you go. It is just a natural process, like; next year is another album of Rosewater.

DM: I’m thinking ahead already. In my mind, it kind of opened the floodgates. I am about an album and a half ahead. I have an EP planned.  A side story. This story could go and go. So, in my mind it just keeps going on.  So, I have an EP planned and a second record that I am already working on: A full length thing. I know full length things are not popular, but who knows about that. Who can explain how to release music or how to make it in music?

TNB: It’s like if it’s collectible vinyl it’s put out on Record Store Day, who knows. Things like that.

DM: We are going to release this on vinyl. It will have the download thing with it but vinyl was what this was meant for so maybe we are going back where this probably isn’t the best thing to do in modern music.

TNB: Who cares?

DM: Exactly, this is what it is suppose to be. We don’t want people to lose the roots where are all this stuff came from and that’s what this project is about. You know, we put together a little family band and making the music that I think is really important; the history of music. The stuff that set up all the stuff that is happening now and we can’t just all forget that stuff. So that is what is important now.

TNB: Obviously  you are from Wisconsin and the band has some Minneapolis roots and you have all of that support up there and you have this thing going on with Tennessee now for about three  years and now you have a couple of band  members down here …

DM: I know.

TNB: When are you guys moving down here?

DM: Little by little, man! Piece by piece, it seems like people just get drawn to Nashville. Our bassist, Matt Osowski is drawn here. He’s like “I don’t know, every time we come down here, it’s like, what are we doin’? Why don’t we just stay?” I don’t know. It’s very possible because this is a great town. We always have a great time when we are here. Amazing things happen when we are here. The people you run into. The people you meet.

TNB: I could really see you guys really fitting in down here with what you are doing now.

DM: Yeah.

TNB: It would work very well.

DM: We are going to try to be down here as much as we can. This is where we wanted to kind of send this thing.

TNB: I was talking to your Mom and I told her you need to get a Condo down here.

DM: [laughs] You talked to Mama?

TNB: Yeah, you need to move down here for at least a year.

DM: Yeah, no, I agree. I think to make this thing work we are going to really have to, we are going to push it and we are going to need to be down here a lot. That is definitely our target. This is the place for this sound to be at.

Brad Hardisty, Nashville, TN     thenashvillebridgeathotmaildotcom