Danny Olliver, the Regina-born travelling troubadour, now calls Victoria, BC home. That is, when he isn’t on whirlwind tours across Canada and Europe.
Now that he finds himself based in the Garden City, we are pleased to have him as The Zone @ 91-3’s April Band of the Month.
Before the world came to a crashing halt, Tyson Elder and Danny Olliver sat down in a crowded coffee shop to chat touring, country music, and Danny’s dream of getting a boot sponsorship.
Tyson Elder: Thanks for sitting down with me, Danny. It was a real blast working with you and webmeister Bud on your Band of the Month photos.
Danny Olliver: Thanks! It was a lot of fun.
TE: You tour quite a bit, right? You’re heading to Europe to tour pretty soon.
Danny: Yeah, my last string of dates has been with a band called The Dead South. I’ve been on the road supporting them.
TE: The Dead South are awesome. I wish I got to see them last time they were in Victoria.
Danny: I’ve known those guys forever. It’s kind of hilarious but I went to high school with three of them. I used to play shows with them back when I had my old band in Regina. They were starting out and now they’ve garnered a certain amount of success that’s real impressive. They’ve worked really hard for that. It’s really cool to see your friends come up like that.
TE: Have you mainly just toured with The Dead South on these European dates?
Danny: No. I’ve done three of my own solo tours in mainly Germany. I’ve found the UK market a little tricky to break into.
TE: I’ve known a few folks who have had fairly successful solo tours in Germany.
Danny: Germany is pretty warm and receptive to Canadian music. It’s awesome.
TE: Do you get to do much sightseeing on those European tours or is it like touring in Canada? Lots of driving but the stops are a lot closer.
Danny: Exactly! That’s the thing with touring in Canada. It’s a lot of driving. I’ve done two big long Canadian tours and on the third one I did I took our this guy named Colter Wall.
TE: I love Colter Wall.
Danny: I took Colter out on his first tour ever. It was two and a half months with fifty-something dates all across Canada. From Cape Breton to the West Coast. It was nuts and thankfully we all got along really well. That’s a lot of time in a van together. I booked a show in Cape Breton and thought it would be great to book some shows I wanted to play during the Calgary Stampede. We drove for 58 hours in three days from Nova Scotia to Calgary to play those shows. It was crazy.
TE: Did you duck down into the States to make better time coming back to Calgary?
Danny: We sure did. Driving through Northern Ontario is a nightmare. It’s not a cool thing. There is no cell service for a lot of it and there are moose everywhere. I tend to not dip down to the States often but I have been turned away for just trying to pass through to save time. Right after that tour Colter blew up.
TE: Colter Wall is so good. There’s a lot of great country acts coming out of Canada right now.
Danny: Like REAL Country. Not pop country. That’s a whole different conversation.
TE: My favourite artist of the last year has been Orville Peck. He’s hands down one of the most interesting acts to follow right now.
Danny: I’m assuming you went to his show here in town in the fall?
TE: I sure did. I also went to his first Vancouver gig at Wise Hall earlier in the year too.
Danny: There is this vibe that’s been slipping into the country acts of today. It harkens back to bands like Little Feat and old country bands that were keeping it funky and weird.
TE: I think a lot of it comes from people who were in punk or alt-rock bands that are bringing that attitude into country. It feels like a new take on Outlaw Country. Acts like Frank Turner who came from hardcore band, Million Dead or Dallas Green from Alexisonfire that have turned into singer-songwriters with a country twang. A lot of this new “outlaw country” reminds me of the music that was on around the house growing up. It was the type of music my parents would listen to from time to time. There was a lot of Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson in my house.
Danny: Exactly. I think in certain circles there is a lot disdain for the Nashville Machine. Sturgill Simpson is a big example of that. “Why are you doing this? Shit sucks. Why can’t we just play music?” It doesn’t have to be formulaic; it doesn’t have to be so cookie cutter. Being outside the box gives art a place to thrive. There is something to be said for a good pop song, but sometimes it needs to more. I love a good pop song.
TE: You don’t have to tell me. I’ve not-so-secretly loved Kylie Minogue for a very long time.
Danny: Dude! Heck ya, Kylie Minogue is great.
TE: It doesn’t matter what genre it is, there is always great music out there to be found. You just have to look for it.
Danny: Totally.
TE: Speaking of popular music… you are going to be played on The Zone @ 91-3 as April’s Band of the Month. Congratulations!
Danny: Thank you!
TE: What song is being featured this month? Can you tell me a little about it?
Danny: We’re doing “Let Me Know.” It’s a redo of a song off my first album of the same title. Obviously [laughs]. I felt like there was more to explore with the song as far as musicality and instrumentation. I want to hear more ideas in it. It’s got more of a groove in it than just the solo version of it.
TE: Did you bring in new players to redo the song, and have them throw their interpretations in, too?
Danny: I worked with this guy named Russell Broom on my most recent album, and that’s the version you’ll hear. He’s got a lot of great ideas when it comes to arrangement, and his guitar playing is outrageous. He brought a guy named Lyle Molsen in to do the drums and he had a lot of great ideas as far as auxiliary percussion. With their help, it really changed how the song is heard. It was pretty cool to see it unfold and it was natural which was nice.
TE: That’s fantastic. You hear about a lot of songs being rerecorded where songs are being perpetually tweaked. It’s nice to hear that it was collaborative and found a natural groove.
Danny: It’s important to adapt and it’s important to broaden the spectrum of things you can be influenced by.
TE: On the topic of unfinished songs, let’s talk about your song “Untitled.” I saw you play it at Lucky Bar recently and it was fucking fantastic.
Danny: That song changes all the time. What you heard on the recorded version is quite different from what you’ll hear live.
TE: The song was so unexpected. My friend and I spent the whole drive home after show chatting about your performance and specifically that song.
Danny: It’s been a long time coming. Before I wrote or sang I played guitar. Playing guitar has always been my medicine for pretty much everything. That particular song started as rudiments to get my right hand playing the way I wanted to. I forget who said it but someone said, “if you want to learn, the best way to fingerpick. First, learn exactly how to do it… then forget it.” [Laughs]. That’s how that piece started. There are a lot of different ideas that aren’t very conducive to the Travis Picking method or variations of it. I just threw a bunch of methods together and turned it into a movement.
TE: Just to watch you perform the song live is something else. I found it to be the perfect way to cap off your set it really drew everyone’s focus in on you.
Danny: Thank you.
The Zone @ 91-3 will be featuring Danny Olliver’s single Let Me Know for the entire month of April. You can find that song as well as two others available for download on his Band of the Month page. Rocktographers is proud to be a supporting sponsor of The Zone’s Band of the Month program.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Danny Olliver’s appearance at Vinyl Envy has been cancelled, as well as all of his other upcoming gigs. Stay tuned to The Zone @ 91-3 for updates about future performances.