Brett Dennen Interview

It’s a chilly spring night in laid-back Santa Barbara, and Brett Dennen is coming out of his tour van parked behind the Soho Club. The poetic singer is sitting with me nearby — time to talk about his incredible and natural talent, his hopes, and his dreams. In a word, this is what the young artist is about: pushing away the darkness of life to give some light to the people in need. And for sure we know how we need healing, comfort, and something to hold onto. “So Much More” is one of these lights in the ocean of mediocrity out there in the music world. Brett is one of these genuine, unselfish and totally devoted individuals. He is playing for his fans before himself. He cares, and it shows — behind the frames of his glasses, in the deepness of his soul. Sure he is still searching and figuring it all out, and so we join him in his quest–his beautiful quest to heal the world, one little city like Santa Barbara at a time.

Emmanuel Itier: You’re playing tonight in Santa Barbara. What is your expectation tonight? Do you put yourself into an expecting mood or not, when you’re playing live?

Brett Dennen: Every town is different. Every crowd from every town has been different. I mean, we play, for the most part, the same songs, even though we play them differently. In every town, the audience reacts differently. In Santa Barbara, people like to dance and move, so we pump it up a little bit. They like to talk and get into it. We aim to please everybody–we want to make you dance. We want to hit you with some sentimental feel-good messages, and we try also to be funny, so tonight is going to be a very fun and energetic night.

EI: You just used the word “message”. If any, what is your main message? What the song that defines, mainly, what you’re about?

BD: I’m trying to give and to be a message of hope for people–hope in hard times. I think if there is any song that sums up what I’m trying to do, it’s the title track to this new record, called “There is so Much More”. It’s about one person in a big world, and he struggles. It’s about the many struggles in the rest of the world. It’s looking both at the life of one person, but also the grand scheme of life and beyond that–histroy, the universe…this is what I’m trying to do.

EI: You say you want to give hope, and to do that you need to get hope yourself. So what inspires you? How do you get motivated to do what you’re doing?

BD: I hear music and I see music. I talk to my friends and my family. I have so many people who support me, and that’s what gives me hope.

EI: You’re pretty new in the music industry. How do you see that industry going, especially with the explosion of the Internet? Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

BD: It’s easier to get out there with the Internet, but there is only a certain amount of people accessing music that way, because the vast majority of the country and the world get their information through more mainstream forms of media. I’m on it a little bit, but I’m not that much on major radio stations all the time, so people would have to look for certain things to find me.

EI: So what should we expect about you? What is the anticipation of yourself?

BD: I think I want to be someone that people look to have an interesting take about the way things are. I want people to look at me and wonder, “I wonder what Brett thinks about this; what would he write about this or that?” I want people to say, “Brett writes songs that I feel deep down in my heart. He is one of these people that can touch me that way, and I support him.”

EI: What would the next album be about, and how do you foresee that one?

BD: It’s going to be about the same thing, but the songs and the production will be better. It will be more holding onto the style I’m looking for. The craftsmanship of the songwriting will be better–no wasted words, no wasted notes. It will be more focused.

For more information about Brett Dennen and Dual Tone Artists:

www.brettdennen.com
www.dualtone.com
www.myspace.com/brettdennen