Dan Sartain Answers!

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higherlimits
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Dan Sartain Answers!

Post by higherlimits »

Here is the first set of answers, I'll forward along any more questions at the end of the week:

could you please come to lynchburg, va and play athiest funeral at jerry falwell's church? Sounds terrifying.

what was your favorite show and why? Glasgow, Scotland. It's just always good there. Small packed out shows and the crowd gets a little bigger every time. I always leave there feeling like an atomic superman.

What would you be doing if you weren't playing music? Working on cars. I am contemplating finding an automotive school to attend now. It's just as rewarding to me as art has ever been, which I'm conflicted about. I'm not the best at mechanics, which only makes me want to do it more. It's weird, music was my hobby, now it's my job. I'm not complaining, but I do look at it as a job now. Which leaves me with this car thing for a hobby. So...if I got good enough at fixing up cars and someone offered me a job, I'd probably take it. I'd probably make more rock and roll records that way too!

If Neil Young were on a train with a cross-dresser, would that be the makings of a potentially great album or the greatest?....if he were to name it in honor of that bizarre trip, of course. GREATEST

How does it feel to know that my 11 year son (or frankly, an 11 year old in general) is a huge fan and has begun TRYING to collect a Dan Sartain vinyl library? That's pretty great, but vinyl is for old people. You can just steal all my music on the Internet now anyway :)

If you were a guitar, what guitar would you be? Fender Mustang. And by that I mean I want Fender to give me a free guitar.

What is the most important thing in life? Two chicks at one time, man.

What is worse to be: a dick, a pussy or an asshole? Pussy.

Did you feel the Third Man Records single helped your career - and what do you think of Jack White's "Blue Series" singles in general? It helped. I got this interview out of it! Seriously though, new faces are showing up at my shows, which is undoubtedly good news for me. I just hope some of those faces will tell other faces to get in on it. Word of mouth is the best publicity still. I look forward to meeting all of you so I can shake your faces in person.

Do you enjoy reading? If so, do you have a favourite book? What do you like about this book? I read a great deal. The Psychic Soviet by Ian Svenonius is a great book. It cleared up a few questions I had about the last 150 years. I also want to read Stephen Hawking's a brief history of time. Although, I think I may be more interested in Stephen Hawking himself than his quantum theories. Apparently Stephen Hawking is quite the ladies man from what I understand. I'd rather read a book about that.

What are you currently reading? Fangoria.

Also what's your favourite piece of art? What would you go out and buy to put up on your house walls ( if anything)? Or would you draw paint something yourself? Good question. I just bought my first painting from an artist named Kelly Keith. Her work is fantastic. I'm getting her to do the art for my next record. I also love Rick Froberg's visuals. He's another friend I commission work from for album art. Look up both those people. You won't regret it. Neither of those people have done a piece of art that I did not like.

I do paint/draw myself, but I'm not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. I did the art for Join Dan Sartain. It looked good but I haven't really tried visual arts since. I feel really ignorant and uncomfortable around some paintings. It's weird. I wish I had a greater understanding of the medium. I guess I'm the type that "doesn't know art but I know what I like". Non artist opinions are sometimes more valuable. Same with music. I often ask friends who don't play music for opinions about songs or recordings. Artist can tend to over think and forget that the listener is who the song is intended to be for.

What do you think about the different releases of your single that TMR did? They released it 5 different times (Black, Tri-color, Glow in the dark, Bizarro, Texas Sized), did you see any money from those? If people are still buying records, good. If they are buying my records, GREAT! I have so much money I can't even keep track of it all!

What are your thoughts on collecting? I've heard that you're not someone who really collects vinyl. I have tons of records. I just don't seek out records. If that makes sense. I just seek out the music no matter the format. Mp3, CD, LP,Cassette, 8 Track, I don't care. It all plays, and it's what is on the records that matters to me. However I do collect "stuff" so I understand the passion for the hobby. I just know if I opened that can of worms it would be a never ending quagmire on my space, time, wallet, and patients. I have enough never ending quagmires on my hands now! haha!

What's your favorite record of all time? Pretties for you by the Alice Cooper group.

If you had any advice to someone trying to get their name out there what would it be? Make something you as a listener would want to hear. Start with the songs. Haircuts and cloths only matter to people who don't really listen to music. The songs are even more important than the instrument(s) you play them on. If you play out and it's not all you expected don't let it frustrate you. Let it fuel you to try and do better. If you play music live, you must know that if you do it long enough, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. This is true for everyone. You break a string, miss a note, amp dies, assholes heckle you. Shit happens. Don't loose sleep over it. Music needs talented people. As a fan of music I hope that the best album of all time has not been made yet. I'm sure there are others that feel this way and want to hear new good music. What makes you think you aren't the one to make that happen?

The best advise that was given to me about playing music was this.....without the player an insturment is just an object. It won't play itself. You have to take it in your hands and command it. Don't let it play you. It would be nothing without you.

If you could record a song with anyone who would it be and why? So many to mention. There are artist I like, then there are artist who I think I could work with. For instance, I like Grace Jones (to an extent) but I'd have no idea how to record a song with her. I'd try, but I don't really think I could add anything. I also like Slayer and have no fucking idea what I'd do in the studio with them. However, inorder for it to be benifitial to anyone it would have to be something I feel I could actually add something to.

But to answer your question, I'd really like to record Chris Isaak. His first album was great, and he kept doing good singles after that. But his more recent albums have had electronic drums which don't work for his sound. His production is really sleek in a bad way now. I belive he can still write good, creepy, songs with tons of reverb and twang. If givin an oportunity, I think I could make a great record with him.


I heard from a friend that you once hid under the sink in his hotel room to hide from who you thought were the police, what's the craziest thing you've ever done on tour? True story. I once dumped my ex-wife's body down a well on tour.

When you toured with the White Stripes did you hang out with them at all or did you pretty much hang out with your band and see Jack and Meg back stage? What was it like being on tour with them? Tons of driving is the main thing I remember. I kept wanting to bum a cigarette off Meg. I had never been to Canada and I had no idea that the cigarettes cost so much and tasted so different. Meg had cartons of American Camels on tour but I never got up the nerve to ask for one. On that note, SMOKE CIGARETTES KIDS!

What's with the tie-dyed shirts on the White Stripes tour? HAHA! :) I made those from hair dye. They didn't last. When we got sweaty the black turned to a kind of shitty brown around the armpit region. We got some button up shirts after that. I really liked those shirts for about a week. Tie Dye has a bad rep but I still kinda like it.
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mojoryan
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Re: Dan Sartain Answers!

Post by mojoryan »

Dan's the man. Not "The Man", but the Man!
"I might not be perfect but I'm me to the bone"~ Seasick Steve
...words to live by.
"This steepen guy grinds my gears."~stl_ben
imo, it's all a result of the modern record collectors association with commodity fetishism~dcmak5
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shteev
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Re: Dan Sartain Answers!

Post by shteev »

radically tubular dude! thanks whiteswirl for yet another great opportunity to ask questions and thanks to Mr. Sartain for answering them. it would be terrifying if he came to lynchburg but it would also be cool as hell.
I could be wronga,,,I could be rright.
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love_islander
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Re: Dan Sartain Answers!

Post by love_islander »

What is the most important thing in life? Two chicks at one time, man.
I knew it! Now to convince two women of this...
jamma76
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Re: Dan Sartain Answers!

Post by jamma76 »

Superb,cant wait to see Dan the Atomic Superman in Glasgow ,second time and its gonna be Fabulous.
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