Listener | “Struggle and Success”
Written By: Jeremy Seick

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rom the second I heard Dan Smith grace the new Chariot track “David De La Hoz,” with his very unique brand of lyrical delivery, I was hooked. I also soon found out I was very much behind as Dan has been making his “Talk Music” along side Christin Nelson for quite sometime now, under the name Listener. So if you are sitting there reading this and just now found out about this duo then don’t feel too bad. However, now you have no more excuses. Touring for almost a decade now doing hundreds and hundreds (almost 900 to be exact) of house shows and the like Dan Smith is the definition of hard work. But if you ever get a chance to speak with Smith you will quickly find that his drive to continue spills over from his passion for what he does. We are very excited to bring you the first of hopefully many more Hopecore.com interviews with Dan Smith of Listener.

So even though it is not until recently that I have heard of you, you are obviously not new to this. Give me the history of Listener. Your first album is listed as “Hip Hop/Rap” on iTunes, which is obviously not what you are now, but then there is a gap in releases till 2009… How did this talk music get started and what are some of the major events that brought you to where you are now?

Dan Smith: In Jr. High and High School I liked and made Hip Hop music. That project was called…Listener. So, I’ve kept the name and we just called what we do Listener too. There was an album I put out in 2003 on a record label out of LA called Whispermoon. It was what I was doing at the time. I had just started performing and didn’t know too much about what I wanted to do in music. Shortly after touring a lot with that with Deepspace5 I decided to not tour that genre or make that genre of music anymore. It just wasn’t interesting to me…at least the rules of it and the ego and it wasn’t moving…or I wasn’t being challenged. Anyways, I’ve always written that style of words….basically poetry and a lot of words together, and so I started out on a Tour of Homes and just opened it up to anyone who knew my music to host a show at their house….maybe do a potluck dinner and have other bands play and just see what happens, and it was pretty awesome. It really stretched me to make the music that I was the most honest about and from my heart for everyone, not just a certain genre of people who liked only a certain style of music. So, the gap in time is pretty much us touring and playing a lot of shows and doing it independently, and having a blast creating the music and words we feel the most.

“When I first started really touring this music and wanting to do something different than what I was doing I wanted to make a separation in what it was called too. So fans and people coming to the show would know they were getting in to something different.”This “Talk Music” genre is very unique. What inspired you to create such music?

DS: Writing an almost poetry style of words is what I’m the most comfortable writing as far as song writing goes. I’ve really only done it that way. When I first started really touring this music and wanting to do something different than what I was doing I wanted to make a separation in what it was called too. So fans and people coming to the show would know they were getting in to something different. There were a couple other bands doing it who showed me it could be done, and I just went with it. Sometimes I’d just say poems, or play tracks and work out the songs live, or with a band of my friends too. In the “transition” times from Rap to Talk Music we still had a lot of promoters and friends who threw rap shows, and I wanted them to put “Talk Music” on the posters so people would know it was something different.

Do you find that the style is a hard sell to most people because it may be something they’ve never really experienced? What has the crowd reaction been like?

DS: For the most part the folks we’ve gotten in front of seem to really like what we are doing. Mostly it’s just a crowd of people standing there watching us with their mouths open, sometimes it gets a little rowdier if they’ve seen us before or know the music and words. I like playing for new people and friends too. It’s all fun for me. Because it’s a lot of genres and non-specifics put together to make the talk music we make we have been able to pretty much play anywhere, and we’re comfortable playing almost any type of show…..from very quiet house show poetry type stuff to full on heavy bands.

Along with this style of music comes some strong statements and pointed lyrics. What life events inspire you to write the lyrics that you do?

DS: I like to write down the things that come to mind and the truths that I come across as they happen. I always try and do that, always documenting these things that move my heart, and shape my mind on this world and myself and how we all fit together. I’ve written a lot of songs, and done it a lot of ways….but I feel the most honest when I don’t just sit myself down and try to force a song out of my mind. So, pretty much I just keep a running tabulation of things and when it’s time to make news songs or a group of lyrics are ready I’ll start to wrangle all that stuff together. I’ve seen some life, I’ve toured all over the country and europe and japan and seen some things and lived life. I don’t have it figured out, but there is real beauty in the struggle of it all.

Tell us a bit about your late June 2010 release of Wooden Heart…

DS: We released it independently in the summer of 2010 at the cornerstone music festival. It’s the culmination of a couple years of making the words and music, and about 5 years of touring and figuring out what in the world kind of record we need to make. It’s the most honest I’ve ever tried to be on a record and the music is the best I’ve ever been a part of. Christin Nelson makes all the music for Listener, and we sit together and hash it all out…..like what sounds and music need to go with what words and feeling and ideas. It’s the best we’ve done yet, so that’s a good thing for the latest album we’ve put out. Before that it was Return to Struggleville, and that’s the 2nd best thing we’ve done.

You recently did guest vocals on the new Chariot, Long Live, album. How did that relationship come about?

DS: I met most of the guys from the band at a festival in Illinois called Cornerstone. I saw them play their set one night and the day after met Jon Terrey and David Kennedy. We talked for a bit and that day or the day after Josh Scogin came to one of our sets there. I thought that was pretty cool. I was kind of nervous to meet them all because their set was my favorite at the festival and well you just sort of don’t know what to expect from people, and hope they are nice, and want to have a normal conversation with them and not just say they were awesome. I hadn’t heard much about their band though….Chris told me about them and saw them in 2009 and convinced me I should take a watch and listen, and I’m glad he did. Very alive, very good electric art and music. So yeah, we played a set at the Arkansas stage and Josh introduced himself and we hung out later and talked just a smidge about doing something on their new record, and we just stayed in touch while we were on our respective tours and recording schedules…..a couple weeks after cornerstone we ended up opening for Josh on his solo tour….and really the guys in the band are some of the nicest folks I’ve met. They’ve been really great, and I’ve recently moved to Atlanta so it’s great to have some friends there to hang with when I’m home.

“The next day I was in front of Matt Goldman and the guys in one of the fanciest studios I’ve been in saying words I just wrote on a plane ride, and I wasn’t nervous but I just wasn’t confident in the way I was saying them….If I don’t believe it how can someone else?”Did they tell you what the song was about and then let you come up with lyrics or how did that work?

DS: So, Josh and the guys I guess decided to have me come out and do words on the record, and when Josh told me what the song was about it was pretty much a day or two before I was to fly out from tour to Atlanta to record….and we were at another festival in South Dakota and hanging out with friends and playing our sets and pretty busy. In a text or email he just told me to write about “staying the path”, and sent a demo version of the music and where to write my part to fit it in….so that’s what I did. I tried to listen to it in my bunk that night, and did a few things, and then wrote the rest of it on the plane ride to Atlanta. The next day I was in front of Matt Goldman and the guys in one of the fanciest studios I’ve been in saying words I just wrote on a plane ride, and I wasn’t nervous but I just wasn’t confident in the way I was saying them….If I don’t believe it how can someone else? So, I did a take and they liked it, but I rewrote some things and did some quick memorization and waited until the next day after we rehearsed several times for the video to do a final take. I thought it was pretty cool that Josh was okay with mistakes and first takes, and really so am I….but I knew I could do better than what I did….so, hopefully they like it and their fans and people that hear it.

I see so much wisdom and truth flowing from your music. And I doubt that a day goes by when your not wrestling with a new truth or issue in the world. What has been weighing on your heart lately?

DS: Thanks Jeremy. There are days that go by when I don’t write things or have to be looking deep inside of anywhere, but I do try and be honest with myself when those things happen for sure. Lately I’ve been thinking about hard work, and what that looks like with struggle and success and how to take that all in with the right view point. Too much success and not enough hard work can spoil a persons heart and mind I think. There’s a Henry Ford quote that I like for a few reasons and it says “if you chop your own wood it will warm you twice” and I like that because I like to chop wood, but I like the idea of figuring out and doing something for the sake of struggling through it and learning the thing you are supposed to learn from life, but then also being able to be warmed a second time by that accomplishment or truth that you learned in so many ways. There’s a lot of things I think about…mostly day dreaming when I’m driving, but I just kind of play through the people I meet and the conversations I have and look through my own life and try and think about the lessons God wants for me to worry with.

You are heading out on tour right now through the end of the year. Where are some places you will be stopping? Are there any highlights that you are looking forward to?

DS: We are on a tour right now. We toured for 6 months straight this year….from March to October, and we were with so many good friends and family…and we took a month off and decided to finish the rest of the US on the west coast until close to Christmas here. I’m looking forward to being in Southern California and then up in the northwest….well, really all of it. There’s not too many places that I don’t like going to or playing a show at. I really like playing Portland and Spokane and Denver. We have good friends there, and it’s always good to see them. We have 20 or so shows to go until the end of the year. I will play my 900th show on this tour in Seattle which is pretty neat…..not the 900th show on this specific tour, but my 900th show in life.

Where can readers find those tour dates and/or get some Listener music?

DS: You can go to our website www.iamlistener.com it has it all.

Any final thoughts that you want to share with the readers?

DS: Do the best you can do and be honest with yourself about that…..drink lots of water, and wash your hands. That’s all I can think of for right now.