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Delaney Davidson - 100% Johnson

Author: Richard Thorne

If Delaney Davidson were an actor he would surely be in demand to play those unpredictable babyface, could-be-psycho kind of roles – witness his macabre magician image on the cover of his engagingly-titled third solo album ‘Self Decapitation’ (released on Switzerland’s Voodoo Rhythm Records). But he is a musician, and a traveller, a regular ‘one man, renegade ghost orchestra’ as it states, in suitably gothic script, on his MySpace profile. And for now that’s about as close as we can get to the man, as illustrated by his emailed response to the suggestion of an
NZM article.

“Sounds great. Right now I am in Las Vegas, touring the USA til Sept. Then I am in UK til 13th Sept, Germany til 22nd, then Eastern Europe, Italy, Switzerland, Australia and arrive New Zealand on the 16th Nov…”

Davidson lives out of his suitcase, spending nine months a year on the road, returning occasionally to his former home of Wellington, and using Switzerland as a European tour base. On-stage Delaney Davidson’s look is not unlike that of a lucked out early ‘60s US salesman; short hair brushed back, white shirt and colourful tie distracting from the well worn hat, black shoes and plain, tired suit. His face too, reflects the weariness of the road, a weariness perhaps real, but just as likely channelled from the hobos and travellers of America’s past who somehow haunt his songs, providing musical inspiration and subject matter. His persona is deliberately stern and wound up, unravelling as he delivers his swampy, dark blues/rock/folk tales – ‘murder ballads in a tuxedo’, ‘the character assassination of a rambling man’ as enthused fans have noted.

‘Self Decapitation’ was recorded mostly in Italy, along with Germany, New Zealand and USA, making it, as one reviewer has observed, just as hard to pin down to any one place as style. One thing’s for sure though, it’s definitely 100% Johnson.

What’s behind the choice of album title?
‘Self Decapitation’ is the name of the show the album art picture is the poster for. I didn’t know it was called this. I chose the artwork from a calendar my father gave me and suggested it to Maert Imfanger of Ultrabazaar, the designer I asked to work on it. He threw together a rough
copy and sent it to me. This text was part of poster in the cover he designed. Maert said, "Here it is... or something like this, of course I will remove the writing". As soon as I saw the design he made, I knew it was the name of the album. At first it was gonna be called ‘Rambling Death and 100% Johnson’.

Some others are credited but you obviously created a lot of the tracks yourself. What instruments
do you play on it?

As well as guitar and singing I play the trombone, keys, some drums, harmonica, banjo and lap steel. Nothing weird like the last album [‘Ghost Songs’] with all its saws and boxes. In terms of favourites the world of keyboards has taken a rise on my priority list. Such a range of sounds
and textures, from the Korg electric pianos to the old theatre sound of a Hammond, or the simple piano or harmonium.

Who were the other musicians primarily involved?

Reverend Beatman (thanks to Voodoo Rhythm) plays some guitar, and Dan Woggle (thanks to the Woggles) plays some drums, while his sidekick the Garage Kid shakes some maracas. Melaniejane (thanks to melaniejane) played the cello in Little Heart. Eric Mcfadden plays the unbelieveable Django guitar in Lackie’s Men as well as co-writing it. Fanfare Kalashnikov plays the Balkan Brass on I Slept Late. (Thanks to the extreme generosity of Vic Ruggiero, who was recording with them and offered me a "go on them". He was also playing piano on the version we learned but sadly it didn’t make it into the recording session.) Working with them was like letting a tiger out of a box... you knew you had a certain amount of time to get them to do what you wanted before your goose was cooked, and they either turned on you, or got bored and left. It took them an hour to learn the song and write the part, and an hour to record it.

Are all the songs relatively new to you? For instance Dirty Dozen – is that perhaps an old staple from your songbook? Do you play many covers?

For ‘Self Decapitation’ I had a huge selection of songs to choose from and several versions of each. The songs are new and old. Some written in the studio, some dredged up to finally record them and release them into the world. Some co-written at the Steelbridge Songfest, a week long
songwriting festival organised by Pat Macdonald (he wrote that song ‘The futures so bright i gotta wear shades...’) in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin.

I have some covers for sure. Dirty Dozen is an amalgamation of Jelly Roll Morton and Anti Nowhere League. Back in Hell is a Reverend Beatman Song. I personally really enjoy hearing or playing a different version of a song I already know. I think playing covers is great. I used to play covers of songs my friends had written, to try and spread them further (two mouths are better than one). So I will record old songs and I will perform them too. I think interpretation of a song is an art, take Harry Belafonte for example. He really creates a world from a song.

How do you capture and create your songs?

I generally tend to write things down. In my diary, or in a song book, on a bit of paper, an envelope, a postcard... I love to have a cassette recorder with me as well. Anything to get it before it disappears. I know now from experience I will never remember all the ideas I have,
maybe a few but not all of them. Write them while they are fresh. Same with songs too. Times change, so do moods, and to me songwriting is about capturing moods and times. It’s nearly impossible to come back and recreate the feelings, re-summon them moods... they just don’t
work like that. Fresh is best. Same with foods.

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