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"After making 'The Window', the title track for
the record, I had to pick from a few pictures for the cover. I wanted
a close up of me since I had never done that. The main reason I picked
the one I did was this: The picture has my right eye closed and my left
eye open. That suggests that the right brain is open and left brain
is closed. So, it's introspective, non-verbal and internal as opposed
to public and external. Here's another definition of the right brain:
The right brain however, processes from whole to parts, holistically.
It starts with the answer. It sees the big picture first, not the details.
I think that's 'The Window' in general."
Quote from David Elias, October, 2004
David Elias is a "songwriter's songwriter" and nothing pleases
him more. The people he most admires, such as Townes Van Zandt and Guy
Clark, are in that category. They may not be household names but other
songwriters are influenced by them, which he feels is the ultimate compliment
for any songwriter. It is what keeps him going and the reason he makes
his music public through recording and on the Internet. It is the reason
for "spending endless money and going into debt." Songwriters
are more critical than other listeners are. They are more intense about
songs. "That's what really gets me going."
What makes David a songwriter that other songwriters admire? Perhaps
it is the way he creates. David's songwriting process is organic. He allows
his songs to spring up from fertile soil and plucks them when they are
ripe. David seldom takes more than 20 or 30 minutes to write a song. He
has several songs working in his head at any given time, and when one
is ready, "it just pops out." Most of his songs never make it
to paper or performance from the soundtrack in his head. "First,
it's a rhythmic thing...is it there? Do the words make it? If it's not
working after 10 minutes, I give up and forget about it. I almost never
go back and finish it."
David's performances are organic as well. He plays his music live with
widely diverse players. He performs solo acoustic sets but also takes
the stage with backing bands drawn together for that evening's performance
from some of the best musicians in the San Francisco Bay area. There may
be three players on stage to perform acoustically or a full band with rhythm section
and two other electric guitar players, a fiddler/mandolin player, a keyboard
player, and flute/sax. This is not what you would typically think of
as a folk band. David points out that while people think of him as a folk
musician due to the nature of his recordings to date, it is not an entirely
accurate description. When a full band is on stage performing as David
Elias and the Great Unknown, the music is often more rock than folk and
David describes those performances as "wild". He credits the
musicians he works with as being as much a part of the creative process
in his music as he is. When a new player comes in to the lineup for an
evening, the song takes on a new and different life. David loves this
growth of new life in his music and so do the musicians he works with.
He feels that there is a great synergy and communication that flows in
the music because while they all know the songs, they perform largely
unrehearsed.
I talked to David specifically about the title track of his latest CD,
"The Window". David recommended to me that I listen to his music
with the lights off. The first night, I fell asleep because I was lulled
and de-stressed by his soothing, whispery, unaffected vocals. The next
night I managed to stay awake, and I described to David my experience
while listening to "The Window" and its intro. That particular piece of
music filled me with images, memories and a feeling of connectedness to
something beyond me. David then told me that the recording process of
that song felt to him as though there had been an almost "psychic"
connection between the musicians. They sat in a semi-circle in visual
contact with each other and started playing. The song "just started
happening" with a kinetic energy and non-verbal communication between
the participants. By the time they had finished, they were all quite emotional.
The entire recording of the CD was finished in four days. Each of the
musicians involved (Sally Van Meter, Matt Flinner, Ross Martin, Erin Thorin,
Marc Dalio, and John Magnie) had listened to a 20-selection acoustic recording
of the songs prepared by David. They rehearsed some, but not all, of the
songs the first day and then completed the recording of the thirteen songs
that appear on the CD over the next three days. While the CD created a
footnote in the history of the music industry by being the first hybrid,
multichannel SACD recorded by an Independent Unsigned Artist, the true
story here is not about the technical details of the recording so important
to audiophiles, but the beauty of the music created by these exceptional
musicians. The quality of the songwriting and performance and the magic
created by the semi-circle comes through on any CD player.
"The Window" is David's sixth released CD. His next release,
also recorded in DSD for SACD production, which David believes is the
future of recording, will be completed later this year. The official release
date for the CD will not occur until 2005. This recording is also the
acoustic folk that David's recordings are known for. David strives to
capture a live spontaneous feel in all of his recordings. I eagerly await the release of David's next CD and the planting
of those song seeds into my own experience.
David's music is available at CD
Baby. You can also find information on SACD and David's live performance
schedule at davidelias.com.
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