Dan Sartain - London, UK - Winter 2007
By: Keri Kennedy
It isn't often one is greeted by a skinny, wide eyed young man with a giant-koala-hugging-a-tree type hug. I felt like a long lost relative as Dan Sartain ran across the 100 Club to say hello in his own, special way. This first energetic display of affection isn't an indication of how Dan really feels at the moment. He's just about to play the biggest headline show of his short career: he's pretty nervous, and tired after six nights of gigs and an early flight down from Glasgow. This tour has seen Dan play the UK with some fellow Birmingham, Alabama residents and scene buddies, rather than his usual solo self. The Plate Six, a four-piece grunge, almost stoner rock act a few years Dan's senior are supporting (also appearing as his backing band), and the one-woman band Two Tears (think The Breeders meets PJ Harvey) have opened each night. I asked him how it's been this time round, touring with some friends, rather than on his own.
"It's been pretty stressful today, I got up 4am to go to the airport and I didn't get out of the gig 'til 2am. Those Plate Six guys are really normal, they have jobs and have something to go home for - this is the first tour like this they've ever done... they're stoked, and I'm stoked about them being here, but I don't think they understand. They're not weirdos, not like me, I'm a weirdo, not like Kerry (Two Tears), she's a f**king weirdo, she's a like minded person, the type of person I get along with a lot. We get stoned and come up with ideas but don't get shit done, but hey, we're on tour together now, so we got something done.
So you're off to Europe for the rest of February?
"Yeah, I'm looking forward to it, I wanna be there now. I'm really worried about this show tonight, I'm tuckered out, tuckered man."
Last time we met (Camden Barfly, afternoon show October 2006) you'd been stuck on the motorway, had no sleep and looked ready to drop, though you blew everyone away as soon as you got onstage, maybe that'll happen tonight?
"My voice isn't really holding up, but we'll see."
Dan doesn't seem his old self, changing the subject I refer to an American history book: 'Philadelphia's Cultural Landscape: The Sartain Family Legacy'. This happens to share the same name as Dan's first LP, released on Skybucket, a collection of lo-fi recordings including early versions of 'Besame Mucho' and 'Love Is Crimson'. I wondered if he was part of this family.
"We're all related somehow or another, I Googled myself, found that book and thought it was really neat - Sartain Family Legacy - so I figured I'd steal that name, I really liked that. I met some black Sartains once, we're all related somehow, I met a UPS man and it said Sartain on his shirt, I was like, f**k yeah!"
Brad, the drummer from Plate Six and Dan's current sticksman, wanders around the room and goes off to soundcheck. I ask what happened to Rajaan, the drummer and friend of Dan's flown over for the recording of 'Join Dan Sartain'.
"He got married, you know, if it comes down to the band or going steady, you can be a wuss and go for the life back home or take your shot that you got. I chose the latter, f**k that, my wife's gotta understand that's what I gotta do. This time she's coming over to Amsterdam and Hamburg so she's gonna think I just totally go to these prostitute towns all the time [laughs]."
So you have to be on your best behaviour then?
"Well I gotta watch out for her, she doesn't get out as much as I do I guess, when she gets out it's, like, special, and it's definitely going to be special having her over here 'cause it's the first time it's happened."
How long have you been married?
"Since July, July 4th, Independence day last year, no better way to celebrate your independence by getting married, huh? We'd known each other a couple of years; we just upped and did it. She broke my heart basically not too long ago, pretty much broke it really bad and I was like, ok, I've only had my heart broke like this once before and I still think about it and that was ten years ago and it doesn't take much thinking about it to re-open the wounds. You feel like, ouch, that hurt, that sucked, and I knew that feeling and thought I don't want this in ten years, this is my only chance to mend it, so I was like, come with me we're getting married! Let's go. It was the only way to mend it and I know these feelings are going to last more than ten years."
Is she ok with you being away so much?
"Not always, she's been more down with it lately, more down with it 'cause I made a living out of it this year, I'm not working in no Dominos no more!"
Dan's new single, 'Flight Of The Finch', a calypso infused track, is backed with 'Besame Mucho', a song in very much the same style, more lounge band than rockabilly, but could this be a new direction?
"They were from the same session with the same musicians, I figured it'd be kinda cool to have like, a concept, a theme, so we put the two similar sounding ones on there."
So now we know Dan's not going down the lounge band route, I ask if he's still eager to collaborate with Alice Cooper, whom he's been a fan of since a child, even covering Cooper's 1977 track, 'Second Coming'.
"I think he's one good fight left in him, if he got together with his old band. But his guitar player is dead, their really good guitar player. If I had my way, I'd get the old band, get Alice, and pretend the 80s didn't happen."
Dan's getting twitchy, performing pull-ups on the doorframe. Is he getting excited about the show again, and why, is it because it's his biggest show or the fact it's the 100 Club?
"I'm nervous about it, yeah, if it was like a thousand people I'd be too nervous to play, what is it here, 200 capacity? What part of town are we in now?"
"We're near Topshop, you know where that is?" Kerry adds.
He seems a little agitated; I explain he's close to the Metro and Astoria, both venues he's played. In the latter Dan supported The Kooks last year, but did he enjoy supporting them?
"Not really, (laughs), you know what? I usually don't drink before I play, my first drink of the night is the one I bring on stage, but we (Rajaan and Dan) were drinking a good quarter to a half a bottle of Jameson before we went out because we knew they (the crowd) were going to hate us. So me and my friend got drunk and looked at each other the whole time and didn't look at the audience at all and played our stuff and listened to them not clap. Though that one (the Astoria) was one of the good ones."
A little more relaxed, Dan picks up Moss Man, the He-Man character I brought for him. Dan has a well known love for Transformers and He-Man characters and once said he might get people into one of his gigs for free if they brought him a figure. Dan's quite childlike and speaks again.
"Moss Man, you can't smoke him! What is the last guy you gave me? Was it Cyclops, my friend Jake gets me a He-Man every time (I see him). I don't have a He-Man, or a Prince Adam. Who was Prince Adam again? Oh, he turned into He-Man, you know he was secretly gay though. Prince Adam was in the closet and like 'NOW I HAVE THE POWER TO COME OUT OF THE CLOSET!' Ha ha ha! And then his sword gets bigger."
He's laughing hysterically and looks so much better, he calms down and tells me he his plans.
"I should be coming back in May, though I need to concentrate on the States. I'm coming over here and getting spoiled and need to get more of a base at home. It's nice to go back home and feel like you've got more than when you left. (On playing in New York) I go and play and it gets better all the time, but it's weird, the biggest city in the world and it's so hard to get people to go to any shows, there's so many other shows going on."
Back to tonight's show, which has been sold out for some time, Dan looks and sounds more confident as he leaves abruptly for soundcheck. As I exit the 100 Club, Dan looks completely at home on stage, nerves gone (or well hidden). It's hard not to feel sorry for the guy who's missing his wife and lacking sleep, but there's something that you can't quite put your finger on with Dan that reassures me there's some fire in him yet.
Artists in this article: Dan Sartain